Page 97 of The Frost Touched Queen

It’s that familiar look in his green eyes that has me struggling for breath, needing something to tether me to the ground or risk me flying off into the cloudless sky.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” he explains, his own voice deep and husky.

“What did you mean then?” I lick my lips, the small ache of my cut palm not even registering with how wildly my heart is beating with the way he’s looking at me. “Levi? What did you mean?”

“That you’re making it hard for me not to fall in love with you again.”

My eyes go wide at his confession.

“Again?” I croak out.

“You must have known,” he whispers, drawing circles on the swell of my breasts while his gaze pierces mine. “We were just kids, but even then, I knew. I knew no one else would have my heart. Only you. Forever you. My Winter Queen.”

“I… I… didn’t know.”

“You do now. So what are you going to do about it, my queen?” He raises one eyebrow with a playful smirk.

What am I going to do?

The only thing that I can do.

The only thing that feelsright.

I kiss him.

Chapter 25

Katrina

Seated at the head of the great hall in Arkøya’s castle, I pick up my drink and sip on the wine, hoping its alcohol will cool my nerves. Levi sits next to me, talking to one of his high lords that approached our table. He was one of the very few people who were brave enough to venture coming so close to us. I doubt his fear had anything to do with his lord and king and more to do with the woman seated at his side.

This grand affair is supposed to be my introduction to the east—a feast for a queen.

But all I see are enemies, ones that wouldn’t think twice about poisoning my cup and laughing as I dropped over dead.

Just the mere thought of such a thing has me placing my glass back on the table, my enjoyment of wine long forgotten.

But am I to blame them?

If everything Levi told me earlier this afternoon was true, then don’t these people have a right to distrust me? To hate me, even?

I would, if in their shoes.

Why, Father? Why do this? Why send little boys off to war? And why only the east, for no such law was passed in the west or south. And what other laws have you passed that have oppressed my kingdom so? What will I find when I go south in a month? Or when I travel west in the month after that? Will I be forever persecuted by your sins?

All these thoughts banging in my mind have me light-headed one minute and suffering from a migraine the next.

Was it grief, Father?

Was it your broken heart that made you demand the wives of those who swore to serve you?

Did it hurt that much for you to want… no,needto hurt whoever had a sliver of happiness and love in their lives?

One thing is for sure, I will not be that type of ruler.

I will not let my own heartache ever make a monster out of me.

Because if Levi’s accounts of the night his parents died are true, then that was what my father was. A monster.

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