Page 63 of Frozen Hearts and Death Magic

He shrugged. “That’s an ambiguous question. What’s a scheme? Making you happy? Making you marry me? The answer’s yes, but I don’t think it’s in the sense you’re thinking. There. Your five questions are over. Now you can ask whatever you want, but I can refuse to answer. I’ll do the same to you, even if it’s unfair, as you can lie.”

“It’s not as easy as you think, River, and when you know people well, you know when they are lying.”

He rolled his eyes. “A skill I obviously don’t have.”

“Pay attention and you’ll learn it. If you’re trying to get information from humans, you’ll need to know when they are lying. Now, what do you want to know about me?”

He stared at her. “How did you get your fire?”

It was funny that he was curious about that. “I don’t know. It was a few days after you disappeared. I mean, after I rescued you. I felt this new magic pulsing inside me, and it wanted to get out, and then the next thing I knew I had fire on the palms of my hands.”

River observed her attentively. “But nobody else in your family has it?”

“Not that I know of. I think it’s from my father’s deathbringing.”

“No.” His voice was certain. “Death magic is… cold. I mean, that’s not the right description, but fire just doesn’t go with it. Maybe…” He looked up, thinking. “Ironbringers can manipulate metal temperatures…”

“They can? I mean, we can?”

He nodded. “Yes. In Ironhold they use it to help with the smelting. So maybe…” He tilted his head. “I don’t know.”

“Could I have gotten it from you?”

He smiled. “I ignited your fire, Naia?”

“You know what I’m talking about.” She felt heat rising to her face.

He was still chuckling, looking so good. “I do, I do. But I don’t have any fire. That kind of fire, at least.”

She rolled her eyes. “So funny.”

“Your fire’s a mystery, Naia.”

“It’s not. My father’s a deathbringer, my mother’s an ironbringer. It’s one of those two types of magic.”

River bit his lip. “Unless one of them had some kind of dormant magic, maybe if one of their grandparents, great-grandparents or something had it.”

“Maybe.” She stared at him. “You know a lot about human magic, don’t you?”

He shrugged. “Gotta study your enemy.”

“We’re enemies now?”

“Humans. They were. We had a war, remember? And I don’t mean you.”

Naia looked down, thinking, then decided to ask one of the questions that had been bothering her the most. “How did you get to my house that day? And why?”

He took a deep breath. “I was lost in the hollow.”

She was surprised he’d answered her so easily, but the thought of getting lost there was also horrifying. “That place we traveled through?”

He nodded. “It wasn’t… fun. Or pleasant. But it didn’t feel that long being there. Weeks or months, maybe. Time passes differently there. But then I saw a light, and I did everything I could to get to that light. Next thing I knew I was in your bedroom.”

Naia recalled the dreadful feeling of crossing the hollow and couldn’t imagine someone there for weeks. “Aren’t you afraid? Of getting lost again?”

“No, not anymore. I… Let’s say I found my path again.”

“What happened when we kissed?”

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