Page 29 of The Frost Touched Queen

“Take me home, Levi. I want to go home.”

Levi gives me a curt nod and sheaths his weapon. He then picks me up by the waist and flings me across his horse, pulling himself up by his bootstraps next to take his seat behind me, keeping his arm protectively secure around my waist.

“Are you just going to leave me here?” Teo asks, incredulous that his life should be spared.

I look down at him, love mixed with disappointment spewing inside of me.

“Yes, we are. Walk back, Teo. Consider it a mercy that you’ll be able to return with your head still attached to your shoulders,” I tell him, and then give Levi the go-ahead to take us home.

As the horse starts trotting through the snow through vast woods, my tears start once again falling down my cheeks. I hurry to wipe them away, but I know Levi hears them regardless.

“Levi,” I utter when I’m sure my voice is strong enough. “No one must know it was Teo who lured me into the forest tonight. You must promise me that my father will never find out.”

His body promptly turns to stone at my plea.

He knows what I’m trying to convey without making me come right out and say it.

My father doesn’t disapprove of me spending time with Levi, Teo, and Atlas, as he believes we are nothing more than close friends. If he so much as thought that brotherly affection was the last thing on my mind in regards to any of them, then he would lock me away, making sure to end our friendship once and for all.

If I’m to be wed one day, my father needs to guarantee that I remain virtuous. Unspoiled and untouched.

Even the kiss I shared with Levi a few minutes ago would be enough to ruin my reputation. And although Levi would never tell a soul, me running after Teo into the woods just to spend some alone time with him would set off alarm bells to my father. He would read the writing on the wall and see that Teo and I are not just merely good friends.

We’re so much more than that.

And to my father, that would be a problem.

Whoever my father picks as my future groom will have to benefit the Kingdom of Aikyam. There’s no question in my mind that when the time comes to find me a husband, his gaze will go to other kingdoms instead of our own.

“Teo deserves your father’s wrath,” Levi states as fact.

“That might be true, but Teo won’t be the only one on the receiving end of it. I’ll suffer too. Please, Levi. Be my savior in this and keep my secret.”

Levi grows silent for longer than I would have liked him to think on the matter, but thankfully he shows me mercy and nods, accepting my request. I let out an exhale of relief, thanking the gods that it was Levi who found me and not one of my father’s men.

My hands grasp over his hand that is planted protectively on my stomach.

“You are the best man I know, Levi. I mean that.”

He frowns.

“I’m not a man yet, Kat. But one day, I will be. And when that day comes, you will have to decide. Him or me.”

I gnaw at my bottom lip, not daring to answer that loaded question.

Because deep down, I know I’ll never have to. I’ll belong to someone else.

And as much as my heart grieves with that stark truth, it also offers some comfort.

If I don’t have to choose, then I won’t break anyone’s heart but my own.

I can live with that.

Chapter 10

Levi

I stay rooted to my spot, as if frozen by her intense gaze, my arms unable to let Katrina out of their grasp. Her silver eyes continue to expectantly stare up at me in the same way they did that night—on the night evil threatened to ruin and steal her away from me.

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