Page 92 of The Frost Touched Queen

“Kat—”

“Tell me!” she shouts with such passion and conviction, it takes me aback.

“You really don’t know?” I whisper, astonished that maybe she’s genuinely clueless to it all.

She shakes her head.

“I really don’t, but I want to. So please, don’t leave me in the dark and tell me what happened.”

“Come here,” I command, pulling her to my chest and tilting her chin up. I stare into her eyes, trying desperately to see the deception in them, but when I come out empty-handed, I realize that Kat has been lied to all this time. Kept in the dark to what was happening in her kingdom, all because Orville so wished her to be.

He really was a cunt.

I place a kiss on her temple and weave my fingers with hers, pulling her to sit on the grass in front of my parents’ statue. Once I have her on my lap, I pepper butterfly kisses on the red marks on her slender throat. “I should be flogged for this and then put in a dungeon, without food or sunlight for the rest of my years.”

She cups my face to hers and presses a chaste kiss to my lips.

“Do you think me so fragile, my king? Need I remind you what I’m made of? Your steel cannot hurt me, Levi. Even if it did leave its mark.”

“Doesn’t decrease my shame, nor sorrow, any less. I’ll never be able to make this right.”

“You will, Levi. Help me understand what happened to make you so blinded by hate that you put your hands on me in such a way. Explain why that same hate was what brought you to charge north with the intention of stealing my crown, for I believe the two are one and the same.”

I offer her a defeated nod and then I tell her. I tell her everything.

“There was only ever one disease that cursed the kingdom of Aikyam. And that was your father.”

Chapter 24

Katrina

“There was only ever one disease that cursed the kingdom of Aikyam. And that was your father.”

Immediately, my defenses go up at the mention of my father.

“My father was the greatest ruler to ever reign over Aikyam,” I protest, confused as to why Levi believes such a lie.

“No, Kat. He wasn’t. He was the villain that terrorized us as well as his people. He was the monster that kept the east, south, and west in bondage for decades.”

With my hands on his chest, I try to shift off his lap, but Levi only tightens his hold.

“You want the truth or not, Kat? Because what I’m about to tell you isn’t pretty. It will change the way you think, feel, and remember him. But on my honor, everything that I’m about to tell you is the gods’ truth.”

I stare into his eyes and see such conviction, such certainty in his belief, that I force myself to relax on his lap.

“Tell me. Tell me what you believe to be true.”

“It’s not a belief, Kat. It’s a fact. Your father was the worst thing that could have ever happened to Aikyam.”

“How?”

His expression turns pensive, as if trying to find the right words to make me understand.

“When we visited my city earlier today, did anything stand out to you?”

“Aside from your people looking down at me in distaste?” I counter coldly.

“They were only being that way because they don’t trust you or your motive.”

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