The Princess
“Oh my. How scandalous.”
The soft voice jolted me from sleep. I blinked, bleary-eyed, squinting against the morning light that suddenly seemed far too bright. How had I slept through the rising sun?
I yawned, trying to stretch my arms in the bed… only to realize I wasn’t in a bed at all.
Holy shit. In a rush, everything slammed into the forefront of my mind. The blizzard. The makeshift shelter. Cuddling naked with Theron.
Theron.
Blood and ice.
My body was draped completely over his. I had one leg wrapped around his waist and was half straddling him. He was still asleep, one muscled arm wrapped tightly around me with my face buried in his firm chest.
Completely naked. We were both completely naked.
And shivering bones, he was hard. So very hard. Just as hard as I’d felt him last night.
My face was on fire. I had to move. Had to get out before he woke up…
The voice from earlier snickered, and I glanced up, my heart racing.
Frisk and Kendra were peering at us through the shelter of branches Theron had made. Kendra looked shocked, but her wide blue eyes remained fixed on the pair of us tangled together as if she couldn’t possibly look away.
Frisk looked smug. And I had a feeling he would be torturing me about this for years to come.
“Damn it all, Frisk, look away!” I hissed, flapping my free hand at him frantically. “I’m not even dressed, you disgusting thing!”
Frisk huffed, clearly offended by this. “What? It’s not like you look away when I’m not wearing anything.”
Theron grunted, his eyes flying open. His sleepy gaze shifted to me, and something warm stirred in the depths of his dark eyes.
Then, he uttered a strangled curse and wriggled away from me.
“Shit, shit, shit.”
Frisk snickered again. Kendra laughed so hard she wheezed a blast of icy air.
“Go find Mauro!” I barked at them. I just wanted my friends away from here. At least until I could get some clothes on. And put a healthy distance between myself and the hunter.
“He’s here.” Kendra tilted her wing to the left. “He didn’t want to get too close.”
“Well, at least one of you has some decency,” I grumbled, shoving my way out of the warm crevice… and then immediately regretting it. The wintry air encircled my bare skin, making my flesh pebble and a shiver ripple over me.
Holy hell, it was cold. Teeth chattering, I fumbled for the first recognizable piece of clothing I could find. My arms were shaking. My whole body was numb with cold.
It took several minutes for me to dress, thanks to my numb fingers. It only made me feel a fraction of relief to know that Theron was also struggling. His cheeks and nose were red, and his hands shook even worse than mine.
Once I was clothed, I turned and found Kendra and Frisk grinning. All relief fled from me, and I scowled at them. “Hope you enjoyed the show.”
“We did, thank you,” Frisk said, unabashed.
“We just wanted to make sure you were still alive in there,” Kendra said softly, half hiding her face under her wing.
I rubbed the back of my neck, face still hot as I recalled how intertwined my body had been with Theron’s. Swallowing hard, I glanced at my friends. Kendra’s eyes shone with genuine worry.
I sighed, my anger ebbing slightly. “I understand. Thanks for being concerned. Did you two make it through the storm all right?”
“Oh, yes,” Frisk said. “And we didn’t have to cuddle to do it.”
“Shut it,” I snapped, my stomach fluttering.
“I mean, we were rather close in that burrow,” Kendra said slyly.
I chuckled, glad the dragon was on my side. “And Mauro?”
“I was able to bed down in a thicket,” came Mauro’s deep voice from a few feet away.
A wad of fabric hit my face. With a yelp, I reached up to remove it, realizing it was my cloak.
Theron had thrown it at me. His brow was furrowed, and the usual frown was on his face. He wouldn’t look me in the eye.
I couldn’t necessarily blame him.
“I’ll find us some breakfast,” he said gruffly.
“Already done.” Frisk tilted his head back. I followed his gaze and found two dead hares. One of them was frozen, frost coating its entire hide.
At my perplexed expression, Kendra said shyly, “I helped.”
I gaped at her, then pointed to the frozen hare. “You did that? Damn, Kendra! That’s a powerful blast.”
She giggled, then buried her face behind her wing again.
“Fine,” Theron said tersely, turning away from us. “I’ll go look for firewood.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Mauro mumbled.
“He’s annoyed by how attractive he finds me,” I said loudly, enjoying the way Theron’s shoulders tensed at my words. It helped to use humor to deflect my own embarrassment about the whole situation.
Frisk and Kendra laughed again.
The hunter stomped away from us, and I was all too eager to watch him leave. I couldn’t keep my eyes from drifting to his backside.
No, Eira, stop it! I chided myself. Last night was a mistake that would not be repeated. And I wasn’t allowed to look at him that way.
As the hunter disappeared, a new thought entered my mind. With him out of sight, perhaps I could finally delve into my pack and check Calista’s mirror. It had been far too long since I’d looked.
I cleared my throat, glancing at Frisk, Mauro, and Kendra. “I’ll… check for wood on the east side.” I jerked my thumb in the direction opposite of where Theron had gone.
Thankfully, no one objected or asked any questions. I turned and headed toward the other side of the mountain, drumming my fingers along my leather trousers as I walked.
Just a few more steps.
I had to physically refrain from quickening my speed. I didn’t want to arouse suspicion. And knowing Frisk, who could easily follow me without detection, he would want to know what I was hiding.
To keep up pretenses, I ducked under the branches of a tree, testing some of the fallen debris for anything dry. I would need firewood when I came back—to prove I hadn’t been up to anything suspicious.
I counted to one hundred in my head, looking for wood all the while. I found a few good branches and cradled them in my arms before continuing my search.
After I counted to four hundred, I ducked behind a thick evergreen tree and dropped my branches, then hastily dug through the contents of my satchel.
I cast aside a few sparkwood apples, spare clothes and daggers, and finally found the rolled-up towel.
With shaking hands, I peeled the layers away to reveal my hidden treasures: the iron blade and the crystal hand mirror.
My breath caught in my throat at the sight of the mirror. It glinted innocently in the light of the rising sun, as if it were nothing more than an ornament. A piece of glass with an elegantly carved frame. An accessory for a princess.
But it was so much more than that.
Ensuring the iron blade didn’t touch my skin, I eased the mirror off the towel and held it up to my face. All I saw was my own pale reflection staring back at me, my eyes wide with fear and my cheeks and nose pink from the chill. My wavy black hair was strewn messily about my face.
It was the reflection I knew well. But it was the magic lingering under the surface that I was most concerned with.
My breath shook as I whispered, “Magic mirror, whose glass I see, reveal and reflect the truth unto me.”
The mirror quivered in my hand. Warmth spread from its handle, seeping into my palm and shooting up my arm. A white glow formed around the glass, shining so brightly I had to squint against it. My pulse raced as I waited.
The glow faded, and my reflection changed. Still the same woman, a scared and feral princess. But I had pointed fae ears. I now understood that this was how the mirror worked. It was revealing my true nature—as a half fae.
My skin was also no longer pale. It was covered in sickly green spots.
I swallowed down bile as I angled the mirror to inspect the rest of my body. Instead of showing my clothing, the mirror reflected the poison in my body.
It hadn’t overtaken me completely yet. The juice from the sparkwood apples was keeping it at bay. There was truth in the myth that fae magic repelled the sparkwood trees. The opposite was also true: Sparkwood trees repelled fae magic.
Including the magic that had poisoned me when Calista had struck me with her claws.
One at a time, I lifted my hands to inspect them. One arm was covered in spots, but the other was not. And patches of my left cheek were still clear.
But that was it. The rest of me had been claimed by the poison.
I didn’t have much time left. The apples weren’t doing enough.
Tears pricked my eyes. If my father were alive, he would be devastated. I thought of the pride in his eyes when he spoke about when I would become queen.
Now, that day might never come.
“Blood and ice,” whispered a voice.
I yelped, jumping nearly a foot in the air and tucking the mirror behind my back. Frisk emerged from the brush, his dark eyes wide as he stared at me. “Snow, what happened to you?”
My heart still racing a mile a minute, I sighed in resignation. I should have known Frisk would follow me anyway. Even if I hadn’t been hiding anything, he always liked to stay close.
“I’m dying,” I whispered.
Frisk’s head reared back. “Dying?”
“Shh!” I flapped my hand urgently, glancing around the wood to ensure the hunter wasn’t lurking nearby.
That was just what I needed, for the queen’s assassin to learn all my secrets.
“You were right, Frisk. There’s a reason I haven’t tried to get back to the castle.
It’s because even if I can seize the crown from Calista, I won’t be able to rule for long. ”
Frisk sank back on his hind legs, his dark eyes pinned on the forest floor. For a moment, he had nothing to say, and I didn’t want to fill the silence. There was too much to explain, and I couldn’t do it here. Not with Theron close enough to eavesdrop.
It had been risky for me to pull out the mirror. But I had to know. If I was about to die tonight, I needed to prepare myself. By my calculations, I still had a week at least.
But not much longer.
“The apples,” Frisk said suddenly, raising his gaze to meet mine. “That’s why you eat them. To try to cure you.”
“Yes. But it’s not working.”
“Why didn’t you ask the pixies?”
I shook my head. “It’s too far along. It’s been infecting my body for years, Frisk. A simple healing won’t work anymore. Nothing will stop it but my death or a reversal from the one who struck me.”
“And who struck you?”
I laid the mirror on the towel and carefully wrapped it up alongside the iron dagger. “Who do you think?”
“Calista.”
“Yes.” I couldn’t tell him the whole story—that she was Demon Fae, and her poisonous claws had infected me. Truth be told, it was a miracle I wasn’t dead already. That was why I stayed in Knockspur for so long. The farther away from her poison I was, the longer I lived.
“I don’t understand. If she poisoned you, and you’re dying, why does she still want you killed? Why did she send Theron?”
I said nothing. It was too dangerous to say any more. I was grateful Frisk wasn’t asking any questions about the mirror. Calista already wanted me dead for the secrets I knew. I couldn’t implicate anyone else in her deception. I couldn’t risk having her hunt my friends.
I straightened. “We need to get back before the hunter gets suspicious.”
“Too late,” said a voice.
My blood ran cold as a familiar figure stepped into view, arms crossed and expression lethal.
Theron.
Behind him was Mauro, his dark eyes curious as he appraised us. Kendra was perched on his antlers, her head cocked quizzically.
A satisfied smile spread across the hunter’s face. “What is it you’re hiding, princess?”