Chapter 11
“Well, shit,” I mumbled, leaning against my polar bear with my ass on the ground. “Now what?”
Nanok huffed, pushing me forward only for me to flop against his side again. “What? You saw the whole thing. I pulled out all the stops, and she still ran away.”
Nanok lowered his head near my cheek and snorted, the air from his nose wafting and misting my cheek.
Frowning at him, I wiped it away. “Really?”
A sparking chime sounded in my mind, and I groaned.
“Of all the times—” Snarling, I swiped my hand in the air, creating a one-way window with a view of my realm. “Yes, Diedre?”
Her face appeared in a ripple, skin as pale as snow, eyes like rubies.
Her hair hung in stringy grey tendrils, black tar leaking from her eyes down her cheeks and disappearing before it rolled from her chin.
She adjusted her onyx crown, her pointy dagger-like fingernails catching the light of a sconce overhead.
“You actually answered. Color me surprised,” she mused, her voice thick with the old English accent she loved to use.
Sighing, I hitched my knees and rested my forearms on them. “You left me no choice in that regard.”
Diedre tapped a nail against her midnight lips and cackled. “Oh, that’s right. How silly of me.”
“Does this waste of my time have a point?”
Diedre was the Snow Queen of another region of my realm.
I’d never made any move to overthrow her and take her lands, and for centuries, it had been a peaceful co-existence.
This was until she gained word that I still had no Queen of my own—that I still hadn’t found my mate.
She cursed me because of it—an actual hex.
“Word in the clouds, Jakzair, is that you found her.” Diedre’s gaze turned predatory, her nails clacking together.
Sitting up straight, I glared at her, Nanok growling and baring his teeth behind me, sensing my sudden aggression. “You will not stop me. You can’t.”
“True, I can’t whisk myself to where you are, but I do have other ways, darling. Besides, all she needs to do is reject you.” Diedre chuckled, deep and sinister, her body swiveling in impending delight.
Rejection. The idea of it had a proverbial knife twisting in my gut. It was a distinct possibility, but I couldn’t fathom it. Didn’t want to imagine it.
“She won’t,” I clipped, tightening my jaw.
Diedre cackled at that, motioning to someone out of view. “That has always been your greatest asset and largest flaw. Such confidence.”
Frustration chilled my veins to frozen spikes, and I punched the ground. “You have your kingdom, Diedre. I’ve never threatened to take it. What use do you have of mine?”
Diedre received a silver goblet and kissed the air in thanks to whoever had brought it to her.
“One, yours is far larger, and two—” Her demeanor changed in an instant, an angered glare distorting her already grotesque features.
“—you’re allowed passage to other realms every solstice.
Do you have any idea what I wouldn’t give to see the Ice Spires, or the Alps? ”
Rolling my eyes because I’d seen them both, I sighed. “They’re overrated.”
Diedre took a long sip from her drink, curling her elongated and thin fingers around the cup. “All the more reason I cannot wait to witness you fail, Jack Frost.”
“Get used to where you are because that’s not happening.”
It couldn’t happen. There was a spark between Sylvie and me, and I could tell from her reactions that my touch made her melt as much as hers did for me. How could she deny feeling that way forever?
“We shall see. Maybe you should scare her away with that brutish animal you keep company with.” Diedre chuckled into her goblet. “Ta-ta for now, lover boy.” Her hand swiped upward, making the magical tether disappear.
Nanok growled and swatted his massive paws where Diedre had just been, not at all happy with her insult toward him.
Huh. Sylvie obviously liked animals if she kept that stag around. I didn’t often—no, I never introduced anyone to Nanok, but if I wished to have her at my side for all eternity, that meant with him too.
“Actually, it might not be such a bad idea, old friend.” Rising, I dusted myself off and scratched my polar bear’s head. “I need you to be on your cutest, cuddliest behavior, hm?”
Nanok’s face fell blank, and he grunted.
“Oh, stop it. Like you don’t enjoy belly scratches.” Motioning for him to follow, I made for the woods, my nose poised for Sylvie’s scent.
Nanok perked up at this, his fluffy tail swaying and his ears folding back against his head.
Sylvie’s scent was unmistakable with its sweet aroma and fruity undertones.
She was in her cottage, Fintan standing with his head through one of the open windows.
Nanok walked calmly by my side, and as we neared the opposite window, I held my hand out behind me, signaling for him to hold back.
The bear grunted but acquiesced. Peering from the window’s side just like I had that first day at the bakery, I stole a glimpse at my angelic faerie in her element.
She buzzed around her quaint kitchen, flour smattering her cheeks, and the most blissful buttery smells wafted from the stone hearth oven.
Grinning at the window left ajar, I rested my forearms on the pane, my chin atop them. “Funny, I figured you’d prefer the space of your bakery for this.” I knew I wouldn’t scare her because she’d have sensed me the moment I stood outside her home. And I knew this because we were mates.
Sylvie paused halfway to the oven with a tray of star-shaped dough pieces lined on a tray and didn’t look at me at first. “What do you want, Jack?”
“A chance. I’ve told you this, Sylvie. I understand why you’re scared. I, too, have spent centuries alone.”
Nanok nudged at my arm, and I pushed on his head for him to stay out of sight.
“You don’t understand if you think the fear comes from being attached to someone after being alone.” The light dimmed from Sylvie’s eyes before she marched to the oven, shoved the tray into it, and slammed the door shut.
“So, you have been alone? There hasn’t been anyone recently?” I scratched the tip of my ear, skirting around the real question I wanted to ask.
Tell me the names of every male who has ever laid a hand on you so I can freeze them from the inside out and toss them over a cliff.
“Really, Jack? Fishing for bed post numbers?” A tiny, microscopic smile edged on my faerie’s lips, and it was enough to catapult me into action.
Chuckling, I drummed my hands on the wood and opened the window farther. “Is that what you call it?”
Sylvie made a hard swallow and turned to face the counter, leaning her palms on it.
“Sylvie?” A peculiar concern tore at my gut. The sensation inconveniently traveled its way up to my frozen heart, cracking it. “We can explore this if you’re willing to open up to me.”
Sylvie’s wings spread wide before fanning slowly—in and out like a soothing trance.
“It’s just—” Her words cut short, eyes bulging from her skull.
She stared at the window above the kitchen counter, where a giant white bear head poked its nosy black snout through the crack in the fucking window.
“Oh my—is that a—” She backed away, trembling and tripping over a chair.
“Nanok,” I barked. “I told you to stay.” Sprinting to the front of the house, Nanok backed away and slumped on his butt, his back legs kicking out to the sides.
The cottage’s door creaked open, and Sylvie’s head appeared. “Is that a polar bear, Jack?”
Sylvie’s stag curiously trotted to Nanok, his antlers poised ready so that the bear wouldn’t get ideas that he was his next meal.
“Yes, this is Nanok. And he doesn’t have stag on his dinner menu. Isn’t that right, boy?” I furrowed my brow at my furry white friend.
Nanok yawned, baring his ridiculously huge teeth that looked far more intimidating than he was to those who threatened him.
Sylvie gave a brightened smile. The sight of it made my chest swell. I put that there.
Nanok shoved his head into my back as if he could hear my thoughts.
Fine. Nanok put it there, but he was my polar bear.
“You’re very handsome, Nanok,” Sylvie cooed, stroking a hesitant hand over Nanok’s back. “This is Fintan,” she added, referring to the stag.
Fintan snorted and scraped his hoof on the ground like he didn’t trust us yet. That would make two of them, I reckoned.
Sylvie used her nails to scratch behind Nanok’s ear, which sent his back paw into a vibrating frenzy. “Is that the spot?” She grinned again, her striking violet eyes sparking to life from the glistening white snow surrounding us.
Petting Nanok with her, I edged closer. “Sylvie, why are you afraid?” When she immediately went on the defensive, I held a palm up. “I’m not asking to pressure you, I’m simply trying to understand.”
Nanok’s eyes practically rolled into the back of his head, and he curled into a ball before lying on his back and sprawling for her to reach his stomach.
With Nanok’s fur keeping her relaxed, Sylvie smiled warmly and sank to her knees to scratch over his ribs.
With a deep sigh, she panned her gaze to me.
“I’m different from others of my kind. There are no other winter faeries in existence, which is why I hadn’t known what to call myself for the longest time. ”
Nodding, I knelt beside her, tickling between Nanok’s toes because I knew he hated that. He couldn’t have all the fun. “And fae with wings are also rare.”
Faeries.
“Yes. My power scared my people. I lived in the mountains with them in Norway. They tolerated me through my adolescence, but when I accidentally caused an avalanche, nearly destroying half our village, they cast me out. It was an accident. My magic reacted to my emotions.” Sylvie turned her face away from me, concentrating on running her fingers through Nanok’s fur.
Fintan appeared at her side, nuzzling his head against her shoulder, feeling her discomfort.
“You’ve been holding back,” I gruffly whispered.
Curiosity for what she could really do brightened my very being.
Sylvie licked her lips and settled back on her haunches. “I’ve been doing it for so long, I’m not even sure what my powers are anymore. Something tells me that my connection with you—” Her gorgeous eyes lifted to mine again. “—it’d unleash it.”
“Why is that something to fear, Sylvie? That sounds, what did you call my power? Extraordinary?”
She furiously shook her head. “Because I hurt people, Jack. I accidentally killed some of them. I don’t want to risk that again.”
It all made perfect sense now.
Taking one of her hands between both of mine, I pulsed my magic through her skin. “You’d have me to help you navigate it. I wouldn’t let that happen.”
Sylvie’s shoulder had relaxed to my touch, her body going damn near boneless before she snatched her hand away. “There’s more.”
I stared at my palms, the act of her pulling away from me repeatedly stinging the more she did it.
“I haven’t fully been with a male, with anyone,” she confessed, the words coming out strained and jittery.
Fuck. I should not have been as elated to hear this, but here I was being just that.
How to navigate that without coming across as an absolute dick.
“So, you’re a uh—” The word “virgin” has rendered Jack Frost speechless.
Sylvie clapped her hands to her face. “Yes. I mean, I’ve done other things, but—”
And there went the possessive, jealous rage again.
“—the one time I tried he—he only got so far before—”
Curiosity had me leaning forward, waiting for her to finish. “What happened?”
“It got frostbite.” Sylvie pressed her palms harder against her cheeks. “I never dared to try again.”
The thought had me adjusting my pants. Served the asshole right, but also that poor bastard.
Delicately removing her hands from her face, I held them and flashed a grin with a bit of fang showing. “That wouldn’t happen to me, faerie. And I’d be willing to stake my cock on it.”
Sylvie pushed out a small laugh, and she rose, the sun peeking through the grey clouds above the trees framing her in a wintry halo.
She still held my hands, and I remained on my knees in front of her, staring up at those icy blue wings and imagining how a crown would look atop her snowy white hair.
Hair that I hadn’t noticed until now matched mine. It all made too much sense to deny.
“What a queen you’ll be,” I whispered.
Sylvie’s head moved, now in full view and no longer framed by the sun. Her hands yanked from mine, and her expression was anything but pleasant. “What? You make it sound like this is a done deal. Are you so sure of yourself that you think this is in the bag?”
Here I thought I knew females only to find out they’re an absolute enigma.
“I thought it was a compliment. Is it not? You’d be royalty, have a palace, a kingdom, power—”
Sylvie cut me off by pointing a stern finger behind me. “Please leave, Jack.”
Nanok harumphed and stood, lightly bumping his head against Sylvie’s arm.
“You’re a good boy, Nanok.” She ruffled Nanok’s neck.
Standing and rolling my shoulders, I paused long enough for Sylvie to flash me with a gaze I could only describe as confused, hurt, and still just a small glimmer of hope there.
“Alright. Have a good evening, faerie.”
Motioning for Nanok to follow, I turned on my heel to walk away as she asked. Winning her over would take more than promises of grandeur and a shared pet polar bear. It’d clearly take proof that her soul was solidly safe in my hands.