Frost: A fae romance (Frost and Nectar Book 1)

I slid lower into the hot water, inhaling the scent of herbs that the fae used to perfume their baths. Steam curled from the bathwater into the cool castle air.

When I closed my eyes, my mind flashed with images of blood—of Etain’s lifeless body. Of Sydoc’s.

I sank beneath the surface, rinsing off the blood that had dried on the side of my face. I stayed under the warm water as long as I could, hoping to clear my thoughts. My lungs started to burn, and I pushed against the side of the tub, rising again. Gasping for breath, I smoothed my hair back.

Blood swirled in the water around me.

Where had it come from, that ease with which I’d survived, even when blinded in the arena? And that voice in my mind, the one declaring I was born to rule?

My thoughts flicked back to that silver charm and how it had burned me. Here, in Faerie, there were puzzle pieces I couldn’t quite put together. My understanding of everything felt disjointed, out of place. A picture that didn’t quite make sense.

Torin was hiding secrets from me. He hadn’t told me the whole truth about why he was so dead set against finding a real queen, or why he needed me.

As the bathwater started to cool, I rose from the tub. Pulling a towel off the counter, I quickly dried my hair and dressed in a pair of leather pants and a deep gray shirt, the material soft as cashmere. Soon, I’d be dressed in a gown of some kind for the Tournament Declaration, when Torin would announce me as his chosen wife.

I crossed into Shalini’s room.

As usual, she was sitting cross-legged on the bed with a book in her lap, and she nodded at a box next to her. “Someone dropped this off for you. Sent by the king himself.” She frowned at me. “So, what happens when you’re queen?”

“I sit on the throne for a few months, and I make spring return. I hope people will be bringing me books and food because it sounds a bit boring.”

I lifted the top off the box. Inside was a note on top of a green gown, the color of spring.

Please throw this in the fire after you read it.

You will be our next queen.

I saw what you did today. Most wouldn’t have noticed, but I did. You allowed Eliza to strike you so she could leave the tournament with her head held high. I commend your sense of mercy.

But I must remind you, Ava, that I will keep my distance. And you must not come too close to me ever again.

–Torin

“What does it say?” asked Shalini.

Ice pierced my heart, but I kept staring at the note. “A reminder that I’m not supposed to go near the king.”

Torin had told me what this would be like from the beginning, but I’d never imagined us actually married, in some kind of relationship with each other. That was never what either of us were looking for. We weren’t the romantic types. Not anymore.

So why did this hurt so much?

Through the door, I heard the sound of muffled voices—a man and a woman arguing. Frowning, I went to the door and heard the distinct sound of Moria’s voice insisting that she needed to see me.

My first thought, of course, was that she’d come to kill me. Apparently, that was Aeron’s first thought, too, because I heard him barking at Moria to stay back.

“I’ve already resigned!” she shouted. “I dropped out. I have no intention of harming anyone.”

I picked up my rapier and slowly opened the door. Moria’s face snapped to mine, drawn and exhausted. “I need to speak to you.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Moria.”

She gritted her teeth. “Fine. Then we’ll talk through the door.” She slid her eyes to the left, where I thought Aeron was standing. “I just want us to speak alone.”

To my shock, she hadn’t cleaned herself up. She still wore her leather clothes, and her hair and face were caked with dried blood. Her skin looked blotchy beneath the grime, like she’d been crying. I’d never expected to see her looking like such a mess.

“Why would you resign from the tournament before Torin has announced his choice?” I asked in a whisper, shielding myself with the door.

“Because I know I’m not going to win.”

Doubt flickered through me. Had our deal been revealed? “What do you mean?”

She pressed a palm against the door. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a premonition, Ava. But I just had one. And my premonitions are never wrong.”

Now those were familiar words.

My mouth had gone dry. “And what was your premonition?”

The corner of her lip curled in a cruel smile. “You will die at Torin’s hands.”

My breath shallowed. “Of course you’d want me to think that.”

Tears shone in her eyes, then started to run down her cheeks, carving little rivers through the dirt and blood. “It doesn’t matter what I say now or what I want you to think. It will happen, either way. My sister Milisandia didn’t believe me, either. But I told her that Torin would kill her, and he did. I saw it all in my vision, how he’d freeze her to death in the Temple of Ostara.”

My heartbeat was hammering. This was the sister from the diary. “Where is she now?”

Her tears were flowing freely, her lower lip trembling. “Torin thinks he covered it up, that we all believe Milisandia went missing. That perhaps she ran off to live like a beast among the monsters. But I know the truth. Torin is death,” she hissed. “I had the premonition, Ava. I saw what would happen, that he’d swallow his dark secrets. And I dug up her body in the temple. I knew where to find it. The king killed her because he will kill anything beautiful. It’s what he does. He’s no better than an Erlking, and his touch is death.”

I clutched the door tightly. “Then why were you in this tournament to begin with?”

“I wanted to be as close to him as possible. Because if I were queen, I’d remind him every day for the rest of his life of exactly what he was. That he was death. And I would have done anything to make it happen. But now that I’ve seen the future, I know my plans didn’t work out like I hoped.”

“When you say you would have done anything…Moria. Are you the one who killed Alice?”

The corner of her mouth twitched. “Now, why would I admit to that?”

The glint in her eye told me I was right on the money.

“But listen, Ava. Maybe it doesn’t matter that I won’t be queen. I’ve seen that he will kill you, too, and I don’t need to remind him, do I? Because death will follow in his wake wherever he goes, and everyone will see. Everyone will know that the king who sits on the throne is rotten and corrupted down to his bones. Just an Erlking with a pretty face.”

“Why are you telling me this now?”

She wiped her hand across her tear-streaked cheeks, smearing them with more blood. “Because I really and truly don’t like you. Milisandia deserved to be queen, but you do not. You are a lascivious, filthy social climber. You are a whore who wants a crown, and you have never belonged here. And worse than that, I can sense there’s something really wrong with you. Something evil. You don’t belong in Seelie lands, Ava. So I want to make sure you don’t feel a moment’s sense of victory before you die painfully, the way Milisandia did. I want you to realize you are alone and unloved here. I want you to die in terror, knowing that one way or another, you lost to me, and I will piss on your grave.”

She turned on her heel and marched through the hall, her loud footfalls echoing off the stone. I closed the door and turned back to Shalini.

My entire body was shaking.

I pulled on the green gown, tuning out Shalini’s demands that I fill her in on every last word that she hadn’t been able to overhear.

But I needed to speak to only one person right now, and that man was the king of the Seelie.

I hurtled down the stairs. Aeron said I’d find Torin in the throne room, already preparing for his grand announcement.

This could be a ploy by Moria—a long con. Maybe she’d planted those journals. Maybe she was trying to force me to drop out. But I needed some answers.

And the thing that clawed at the recesses of my mind was that he’d taken me to the Temple of Ostara for a reason. A shadow of guilt had seemed to hang over him there.

Behind me, I heard Aeron’s footfalls as he followed me, pledging to keep me safe before the great announcement. Until I could wear a crown on my head and restore the kingdom to its former glory.

When I reached the throne room, a few people had arrived early and were standing around the edges of the hall. Torin sat in his throne, his face covered in shadow.

A long red carpet ran down the center of the stone hall, and as I moved closer to the king, my eyes flicked around the room. I wanted to speak to him alone, but I was supposed to stay away from him.

Did he know his touch was death?

And yet, for some reason, despite all his secrecy, despite what I’d read in the diary, I trusted him. Underneath it all, I was sure Torin was a good person.

My green gown trailed behind me as I walked, but I probably looked little better than Moria had, my hair still damp and my expression grim.

Torin rose from his throne as I approached, his eyes locked on me. I wouldn’t say that he looked excited to see me, exactly.

As I ascended the steps of the dais, he leaned in and whispered, “What are you doing, Ava?”

“I need to speak to you alone.”

He shook his head. “This isn’t the time. Unless you want to renege on our bargain?”

I took a deep breath. “Moria told me about her sister,” I whispered as quietly as possible. “Milisandia. She says you murdered her. Does that ring a bell, Torin?”

One look at the ravaged expression on his face, and I knew immediately that it was all true. My stomach sank.

“Why does she say your touch is death?” My voice was hardly a whisper.

But Torin didn’t answer me. He looked at me, his expression pleading.

Was this worth the fifty million?

Was it worth not being alone?

I wasn’t so sure anymore. I’d be returning home, poor, disgraced, and utterly alone, but at least I’d be alive. At least I wouldn’t be constantly looking over my shoulder, terrified that death was coming for me.

“I care for you far more than I should,” Torin murmured.

“And yet, you haven’t answered my questions.” Frustration rose in me, and I turned from him. As I did, he touched my arm.

I looked back at him. His expression was horrified, his cheeks pale. Shadows slid through his eyes, and my skin grew cold where his fingers grazed my bare skin.

He seemed frozen in place, staring in horror at his hand on my arm—and I couldn’t move a muscle, either. The air grew glacially cold, and I could feel the ice spreading in me.

Panic climbed up my throat as webs of frost spread over my arm, turning it white and blue. The arm of a frozen corpse…

Fear had its icy grip on my heart. Moria had been telling the truth.

“Stop it, Torin!” I shouted.

But as ice climbed over him, I didn’t think he could move. Hoarfrost swirled in strange patterns over his cheeks and forehead, and it spread out beneath his feet. His eyes were a deep indigo, nearly black, and filled with terror.

Behind him, ice climbed over the king’s throne. With a great crack that echoed over the hall, the ice splintered his throne like a glacier moving through a canyon.

“Ava,” he whispered. “The queen’s throne.”

My body felt like ice, and I tried to tear myself away from him, to run. Frost was climbing up my gown, icing my feet and legs.

Pain shot through my limbs, and I pulled away with all my strength, scrambling backward.

For a few terrifying seconds, I felt as if I were falling into an abyss, until I stumbled onto the hard stone throne.