Carved in Ice and Glass: A Snow White Fairy Tale Romance

7. The Princess

We decided to bury the dark fae. We didn’t want anyone else stumbling upon it—or worse, another dark fae to appear, drawn by the smell of blood.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to do about the bloodstains on our clothes. I used my waterskin to clean the unseelie blood off my skin, but the hunter was covered in it. And it mingled with his own blood, which stained his clothes and hands crimson. He tried to stifle the bleeding, but he was losing too much.

I whistled for Mauro, and he arrived within seconds.

“Shivering bones, you survived,” he breathed. His dark eyes fixed on Theron. “Oh no…”

“He’s been poisoned,” I said, wiping sweat from my brow. My hand came back slick with inky blood. “How far are we from the nearest village?”

“I’m fine,” the hunter growled. “We need to find a river or stream to clean the rest of this blood. Otherwise we’ll attract other fae beasts.”

“He’s right.” Mauro pawed nervously at the ground. “If we head for town, we’ll only draw the creatures there.”

“But everything is frozen this time of year,” I argued. “We won’t find any bodies of water nearby.”

“How did you kill it?” Theron’s gaze was pinned on me, his coal-black eyes full of accusation.

I glared at him. “Can we discuss this later? You’re dying.”

“If you have magic that can help us?—”

“I don’t have any magic that can cure you!” I said. “And that’s our most pressing concern. So will you shut up and let me think?” The last thing I wanted to do was attract attention to my powers of invisibility. I dug through my pack and thrust a sparkwood apple toward the hunter. “Eat this.”

He waved it away. “No.”

“Eat it. You need your strength.”

“I need a healer, not a damn apple!” he snapped.

Groaning, I shoved the apple back into my bag. Stubborn ass.

“The pixies,” Theron said, his breath winded. “They have healing powers. There are colonies of them that live in the mountains.”

“Pixies are unpredictable little bastards,” Mauro grumbled. “They don’t emerge unless they want to, and they rarely associate with the fae.”

“Maybe not seelie fae, but they do associate with fae creatures,” Theron said, raising his eyebrows.

Mauro snorted. “You want me to approach the pixies?”

“No. I want him to.” Theron jerked his head to the side.

I followed the direction of his gesture and frowned. “You want… the trees to find the pixies?” Perhaps the poison was messing with his head.

Theron rolled his eyes. “You can come out now.”

“Damn.” Frisk the arctic fox materialized, his snowy form bobbing toward us. “I’d been so careful. How did you spot me?”

“Frisk?” I shrieked. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“What’s it look like? I’m following to make sure you don’t get yourselves killed.”

“Oh, really?” I crossed my arms. “And where were you when the dark fae attacked?”

Frisk licked his paws idly. “I was kicking snow in its face.”

“You were not,” I said with a laugh.

“All right, fine, I was hiding. But he’s right, I can track down the pixies for you. If anyone can do it, it’s someone who can be invisible. Am I right?”

My lips thinned as I caught his meaning. He wanted me to go with him. “Right.”

“We’ll have to be careful,” Theron said. “Pixies are ruthless and brutal. They value strength and trickery, and they’ll likely see us as weak. So it’s best we don’t appear threatening.”

“And if we do appear threatening?” I challenged.

“Then you’d better hope you’re the stronger opponent.” Theron leveled a hard gaze at me. “Because if you fail, they’ll devour you.”

I held his stare, refusing to cower despite the way his words chilled me to the bone.

“We head for the mountains then,” Theron grunted, moving toward Mauro.

“Don’t you dare get blood on my fur,” Mauro snapped.

“Mauro,” I chided. “He’s dying.”

“Will you quit saying that?” Theron barked. “I’m fine.”

Mauro huffed and knelt in the snow so Theron could climb on his back. “This is only because you fought to keep Snow alive.”

“He just didn’t want to break our bargain,” I grumbled, but at the look of agony on Theron’s face, something within me softened. Mauro was right—Theron had protected me. When I’d screamed as the creature drew closer, its rotten stench overwhelming me, Theron had assaulted it with a recklessness that had gotten him stabbed, skewered by the beast’s claws. If the dark fae hadn’t been preoccupied with him, I wouldn’t have been able to deal the killing blow. I wasn’t sure what exactly he’d done to stun the creature like that—it had gone completely still, allowing me to make my move. Whatever he’d done had saved my life.

And he had been prepared to face the creature alone while Mauro and I rode to safety.

Sure, the fae bargain might have claimed his life if he’d let me get hurt. But I wasn’t so sure. Theron had a haunted look in his dark eyes, something that told me he’d seen enough death in his life.

Perhaps he didn’t want to add mine to the list.

“Hop on, princess,” Theron said in a bored voice.

I eyed Mauro’s back uncertainly. I didn’t like the idea of riding behind Theron, but it was safest if my arms were around him, keeping him astride Mauro in case he passed out.

With a sigh, I swung my leg up and straddled the stag, tucking myself against Theron’s back with my arms around him. He smelled of sweat, mingled with the dark fae blood and that annoyingly charming scent of woodsy mountains.

“Don’t try anything,” Theron said over his shoulder.

I snorted. “Or what? You’ll bleed on me?”

“Injured or not, I can still best you.”

“We’ll see.”

“Oh shut up, both of you,” Mauro said, rising to his feet. Theron grunted from the shift, and I tightened my grip around him to keep him steady. “I’m surprised you’ve kept quiet about their bickering, Frisk. Usually you love a good banter.”

“Oh, I do love it, but I appreciate being a bystander,” Frisk said, his voice full of amusement. “These two will rip each other’s heads off before long. Can’t find better entertainment than that.”

I ignored them both and dug my heels into Mauro’s fur. “As fast as you can, Mauro. I don’t want to have to bury another body today.”

“You won’t,” Theron growled.

I said nothing. Theron couldn’t lie… but if he believed he would live, it wasn’t a lie.

He could still die from this.

And then my whole plan would be ruined.

Mauro set off at a brisk speed, and Frisk became a white blur beside us as we took off through the woods.

* * *

I tried to keep Theron conscious by teasing him. I poked his arm every few minutes, earning a grumble or two, and mocked him for losing a battle with a dark fae, leaving a fair princess to save his sorry ass. At first, he responded with his own barbed insults, but after a while, he slumped backward against me and fell silent. If he was still conscious, it was only just barely.

We were running out of time.

“Is it just me or is this hunter even heavier when he’s passed out?” Mauro complained.

“Just focus on speed right now,” I said quietly. I would never admit it, but I was genuinely concerned Theron would die before we made it to the mountains. “Frisk?” I couldn’t see the fox, but I had a feeling he was nearby.

“I’m here, Snow.” His voice came from somewhere to my left.

“Why didn’t you tell me about the dark fae?” My bones were still quivering from the incident with the dark fae, and I couldn’t shake the empty look in those dead eyes or the foul stench of its magic.

“What do you mean?” Frisk asked, but there was an edge to his voice.

“You knew they were out here. And you didn’t warn me.” It wasn’t a question. Frisk and Mauro were fae creatures; if anyone knew about the dark fae, it would be them.

I didn’t know the dark fae lived in the woods, though.

Frisk was silent for several long moments. The subtle stiffness in Mauro’s back told me the stag was listening carefully.

“We fae creatures don’t like to associate ourselves with the unseelie fae,” Frisk said at last. “They make us look bad.”

“Us?” I repeated.

“Unseelie, by definition, means wild,” Frisk explained. “Dark fae are unseelie. And, technically, fae creatures fall into this category as well.”

“You’re telling me you’re unseelie?” My body jerked with surprise. It was absurd. Based on the stories I’d heard, the unseelie fae were dark, terrible creatures—not at all like Frisk and Mauro.

“Now you understand why we don’t like to announce it to the world,” Frisk said bitterly. “People dislike fae creatures enough as it is. But to label us as unseelie? That’s basically a death sentence for us.”

“The hunter may be an ass, but he is right to be wary of fae creatures,” Mauro said, panting from the effort of sprinting for so long. “Not all are as friendly as we are.”

“We never thought you’d encounter any of them, Snow,” Frisk said apologetically. “The forest in Knockspur is only populated with civilized beasts like Mauro and me. But in the wilds, you’ll encounter all sorts of monsters.”

I was shaken. Frisk and Mauro—my friends—were unseelie. Deep down, I knew they were the same creatures I’d known all these years. And yet the truth of their bloodline rattled me.

Unseelie.

Dark fae.

My life in the palace had sheltered me from the existence of fae creatures. I knew they were out there somewhere, but they were so far from my reality that I never concerned myself with them until I was banished from the palace. And once I’d met Frisk, Mauro, and all the other sentient fae beasts that lived in the woods of Knockspur, I assumed they were just another species of fae; something civilized, like the seelie.

Oh, how wrong I’d been.

“Snow,” Frisk said, “we are still your friends.”

“I know,” I said quickly. Too quickly. I did know that. And yet, they’d lied to me about their identity for years now. “But you deceived me. You kept this from me when I deserved to know.”

Frisk and Mauro said nothing. I ground my teeth together, trying to subdue my anger. They might not have lied to me, but they’d hidden the truth. And it stung.

“We were just trying to protect ourselves,” Frisk said at last. “You were the first seelie fae to truly befriend us, and we didn’t want you to think of us any differently.”

I had no response to that. Because if I had known they were unseelie, I would have fled from their presence. We never would have become friends.

“Besides, if you remained in Knockspur, you would never have encountered any other dark fae but us,” Frisk went on. “There was no need to tell you. You would never be in any danger.”

“But I would have left those woods eventually!” I argued. “It was always the plan for me to return to Taerin and take back the throne.”

“Yes, but it didn’t seem like…” Frisk trailed off uncertainly.

“Didn’t seem like what?” I prompted. When the fox didn’t say anything, I said, “Frisk!”

“It didn’t seem like that was what you truly wanted,” Frisk said, his tone chagrined.

His words stunned me. “What?”

“You seemed so content to live in the woods!” Frisk said hastily. “We thought—maybe even hoped—that you’d forget about this plan to take the throne and just live happily with us in the forest.”

I hissed a breath through my teeth, prepared to throttle Frisk. “That crown is my birthright.”

“We know. But Snow, you belong in the forest. That is your true home.”

“You know nothing about my true home. You lied to me for years, and now you claim to know what I want? What I need?” I huffed a hollow laugh and shook my head, too furious for words.

“We care about you, Snow,” Mauro said, his deep voice gruff and strained. “And the queen is powerful. We didn’t want to see you get killed.”

“I’m so glad you two have such confidence in me,” I snapped. “Do the others feel this way, too?”

“The humans?” Frisk asked. “No, they have complete faith in the success of this mission.”

“But the creatures, yes,” Mauro admitted. “They adore you, Snow.”

Something in my chest softened at those words. I knew Mauro included himself in that sentiment, though he would never say it aloud. How would I feel if one of them concocted a dangerous plan that would likely result in their deaths?

Besides, I’d been keeping secrets from them, too. I couldn’t stay angry at them for this.

“Don’t hide things from me again,” I said. “Even the ugly truths you want to keep to yourselves.”

“We won’t,” Frisk said at once.

“We’re sorry, Snow,” Mauro added.

“I know.” I stared ahead at the blur of snowy trees, my jaw tight.

I could never tell them the truth—that the reason I was so afraid of the unseelie was because I’d encountered one before.

And it had altered me forever.