Page 166 of The Frost Touched Queen

But I can’t continue to pretend that your heart still belongs to me.

And I don’t need to hear the rumors that have reached Arkøya from the south either to know that.

Your silence in these past few weeks has told me as much.

I don’t resent you, my heart.

Never will you hear that of me.

You and Teodoro share a history, one that neither I nor Atlas were ever included in.

You loved him first, and while I wanted to be the one you loved last, I fear it’s not to be.

How naïve I was to have thought those ties between you both had been forgotten.

That was my gravest mistake. One that I intend to repair by not making another.

If he is the one that you choose to keep, then I won’t stand in your way, nor will I demand reparations for my broken heart.

I love you enough to only want your happiness, my queen.

I love you solely and completely, that if he is the man for you, then I won’t keep my vow of killing him and taking him away from you.

Aye, Kat.

For before you came back into my life, my dreams were of him only.

Of killing the man who had a hand in destroying the world I so loved.

As fate would have it, the gods would test my resolve of my vow.

Test to see how far I would go to make it so.

Apparently, causing you any kind of pain is enough for me to become an oath breaker.

That is my choice and mine alone.

However, if your heart still has doubts, I would rather you know the truth from my lips before you make any final decisions.

The man that has captured your undivided attention, is not who he seems to be.

He’s a villain.

One that uses his charm to seduce and blind the people that care about him from the truth.

I should know.

I loved him too once.

He had been my brother.

In all ways but blood, I loved and trusted him like a brother.

Even when sometimes we didn’t see eye to eye, he was still my family.

He stopped being that when he stole my real family away from me.

Because if it wasn’t for Teo and his father, my parents would still be alive to this day.

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