Page 75 of Frozen Hearts and Death Magic

There was a dark shadow in his eyes and he clenched his fists. “It was her fault. Her fault. She shouldn’t have done that, shouldn’t. Her fault.”

“Did you like her?”

He paced around the room. “What difference does it make?” The words were being spat in anger, even if he wasn’t shouting. “If I had refused, if I had tried to protect her, do you think she would have made it out alive?” He faced Leah, his face contorted in anger. “Do you think you’ll miss her more than me? Do you think you have any right to condemn me? Do you?”

“No.” Her voice was almost a whisper. She wondered if he could eventually be an ally, since he didn’t seem happy that Serine was dead. But still, he’d been so cold about it. “I’m sorry,” she added, just because he looked as if about to snap at any moment and she wanted to appease him.

He shook his head. “It was unfortunate.” There was sadness in his eyes, though.

“Are you upset? At your grandmother?”

He glared at her. “Of course not. It was Serine’s fault. All Serine’s. If only…” He sighed. “My grandmother might seem… difficult. But it’s for our own good. You’ll see. Just make sure you don’t step out of line, and she’ll be like a mother to you. I’m sure you’ll start to like her.”

Leah decided that he was definitely not right in the head. Since she didn’t want to argue with crazy, she made an effort to fake a smile. “I hope so.”

“Yes.” He nodded. “Me too. You’ll be part of our family.”

A chill ran down her spine. And then another chill, as she remembered what she was about to do.

“Here.” She handed him the note, her hand slightly trembling. “My parents asked me to write to them once I arrived.”

He raised an eyebrow, took the note, then unfolded it, read it, then folded it again. “I’m sure you’ll soon be able to talk to them through the distance mirrors.”

“I know.” By soon he meant whenever they believed she was submissive enough or something. “But for now, I don’t want my parents to worry. If any communication is sent to Frostlake, perhaps you could send this as well?”

He nodded, then put the note in his pocket. “Fair. I’ll have it sent as soon as I can.”

She exhaled, relieved that he was going to take care of it. Her father would notice her message, she was sure he would. He had never meant for things to be this way.

Venard was staring at her. “So, do you want to eat or not?”

“What are the rules?”

He thought for a moment. “Look down, don’t speak to anyone unless spoken to, don’t contradict anyone.” She had asked it partly in jest, but he was serious about it. He then smiled. “You’ll be fine. I’m sure they’ll all love you despite our rough start.”

“Venard. A girl was murdered in front of me. I would call it worse than rough.”

“It could have been rougher.” His tone was friendly, but she didn’t miss the implicit threat in his words.

But it was true that he wasn’t as bad as the rest, and she didn’t want to change that. “Thank you. For sparing me.” Those words sounded awful. Thanking someone for having a minimum amount of decency was bizarre, but if she wanted to survive this place, she had to dance to their song, and shouldn’t cross her only partial ally here.

“I’m your friend, Leah. I’ll always protect you when I can.”

She nodded, knowing that he would also kill her if his family told him to do it. “I hope you’ll always be able to.”

He shook his head and offered her his arm. “There’s nothing for you to worry about.”

His arm reminded her of the dream, the arms around Serine, then Serine’s corpse. She shuddered, but took it, and they left the room. One thing she realized was that he had probably been planning to keep the girl as a lover. Leah didn’t even care. Worrying about that sounded so petty in comparison to fearing being beaten into submission, fearing being killed. Perhaps that was why they did it: to make her scared and compliant. Her only solace was that she would leave this place soon, then none of this would matter.

But they wouldn’t kill her. At least not yet. She had the key to a kingdom. And yet, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t hurt her.

Blindfolded the night before, she hadn’t seen this part of the castle. A short hall led her to an atrium with an interior balcony. They were high up. Her first thought was that a fall from that height would be deadly. Venard led her to an iron box, closed a grated door, and then they started to move down.

“What’s this?”

“An elevator. Don’t worry, it has cables holding it. But it needs an ironbringer to move it.”

“Why not just use the stairs?”

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