3. Jack
Chapter three
Jack
G abriel laughs as we walk away, leaving the girl standing alone in the snow.
“I have to admit that wasn’t what I thought you meant when you sensed a disturbance outside the city.”
Disturbance had been the easiest way to describe it at the time. Now I know that what I really meant was warmth . It was warmth I had felt from so far away, warmth that had drawn me out of my study with nothing but a dagger and Gabriel at my side to defend myself.
Turns out there was nothing for me to defend from at all. Just a girl from the mortal realm who needs to return to it.
Immediately. Preferably before I spare even one more thought for her.
“Not what I expected, either,” I mutter, fighting to keep the frost that grows on my fingertips from spreading any further.
A woman from another realm entirely. A woman who, if luck had been on my side even a bit, I never would have crossed paths with at all. But somehow, she’s here. Somehow, my mate has shown up in my kingdom.
Not your mate , I remind myself. Not unless we accept each other .
Which we won’t. She’ll be gone before I know it, a problem that will quickly fade. Something I’ll never have to worry about again.
Gabriel turns to look over his shoulder, then laughs. “Your mate is running toward us.”
“Foolish girl.”
“Or incredibly brave. As she would have to be, for the fates to bond her to you.”
I scowl.
Behind us, the woman shouts, “Just hold on a minute! Fuck’s sake.” She grumbles the last part quietly enough that, were it not for the breezing wind that does my bidding, I likely wouldn’t have heard.
“Long time since someone talked to you like that, yeah? Especially a girl.”
How right Gabriel is. Most people do what I say and do it with a smile. Then they ask for some measly favor in return. Women commonly offer me their bodies for a night or two, hoping it will lead them to a crown.
But I do not plan on sharing my crown, my throne, and certainly not my kingdom. Especially with someone prophesied to be the ruin of all those things .
“I can’t say I missed it,” I lie, slowing to a stop before turning around, watching as the brown-haired woman runs toward us, cheeks flushed. Because of course I miss being spoken to like I’m a person, and not a god. I even miss arguing.
I have a feeling this woman knows how to argue.
“Go back to the castle.” I turn to Gabriel. “You’re no longer needed.”
“Jack, I don’t think—”
“—And I don’t care. Leave us.”
He hesitates for a long moment, jaw set with anger, but then goes, like the good little subordinate he is. Gabriel is the only one still willing to question me, though it’s still my will he bends to, my orders he heeds. I can tell it grates on his nerves. He would be less qualified for the job if it didn’t.
Though there are other reasons I keep him so close, it’s what has persuaded me to make him my right hand. His willingness to second guess me. And while I am more right than I am wrong, he is still a safety measure that helps me ensure I make the best decisions for my kingdom.
I watch as she approaches with heavy-footed steps through the snow. Her chest rises and falls with the weight of her panting breaths. She says, “I don’t know how I got here.”
“Then I suppose you’ll have to figure it out, won’t you?”
She glares at me. “You can be an ass, Jack Frost , and leave me out here to freeze to death, or you can help me get the hell out of your ice kingdom so I can go home just like you asked me to.”
“You’re asking for help.”
“No.” Her eyes flicker with aggravation. “I’m giving you an ultimatum: either you pull your head out of your ass and get me out of here, or I’ll curl up on your doorstep and slowly freeze to death.”
“That’s not how it works here. The cold won’t kill you.”
“Fine, then. I’ll just become your problem for the rest of my life.”
Given that even mortals don’t age past maturity here, that would be a very long time.
And I can’t have that. Not considering the… bond she and I have.
The faster I get her home, the faster I can stop thinking about her. My teeth are clenched tightly together as I eye her up and down, as if the answer might be written on her body somewhere.
My eyes scan her form, finding nothing but loose pants covering up long legs, shapeless white footwear that offends my very senses, and an oversized coat with her fists jammed deep in the pockets. A peek of fabric peeks out from under the coat—the same dull shade as those baggy pants she’s wearing.
She looks down at herself. “I’m a nurse. Trust me, this isn’t an outfit I like to be seen in anywhere outside of the hospital.” Then she pulls one hand out of her coat pocket and holds it out to me. “I’m Violet Jones.”
I look at her hand with a frown before turning away. “Come on, the sooner you leave, the better.”
Behind me, she scoffs. “No wonder nobody ever talks about what a charming man Jack Frost is.”
“Most who meet me wind up with pneumonia. A deathly case of it. ”
I can’t see it, but somehow I know that Violet Jones rolls her eyes. “Just as I said. Charming .”
I sigh and glance back and forth between her and my castle, which I desperately regret leaving this morning. I should have ignored the warmth. I should have known that there is nothing good about something so meltingly soft for someone as ice cold as me.
Because this, her , could not possibly be good. Her being here at all, however it managed to happen, puts my entire kingdom in danger. She is a disease, a contagious one, if the prophecy is to be believed. The same prophecy that foretold of a mortal woman whose warmth would melt not just my frozen heart, but the very foundations of my realm.
I can feel it already—the way her presence makes the ice beneath my feet soften, how the perpetual frost coating my castle’s walls drips in steady rivulets since she arrived. Each smile she flashes, each defiant word she hurls my way, brings another degree of devastating heat.
And the prophecies have never lied before.
They warned that love would be my undoing, that allowing myself to feel anything but cold indifference would spell doom for everything I’ve spent centuries protecting. My subjects. My kingdom. The delicate balance of winter itself.
But if I can get Violet Jones out of my realm before her warmth sets in, perhaps the damage she causes will be containable. Fixable. Something I can hope to reverse.
Though I’m not even sure where to begin when it comes to sending her back home. It’s not the same as sending myself between realms—I am nothing more than a lifelike hologram when I visit the moral realm. Real and not all at once, thanks to my magic. But Violet Jones does not have magic. She is merely human. Getting her home will require an entirely different sort of magic.
But it’s not impossible. If it were, she never would have found herself here in the first place. It’s just going to take time. Time I may not have, but will somehow need to find.
Everything else has suddenly become secondary. The only thing that matters until she’s gone is figuring out how I’m going to make that happen.
Violet shivers, but says, “It’s so beautiful here.”
“I take pride in my kingdom.”
She murmurs something beneath her breath, then says louder, “Clearly.”
I turn to cast a look at her over my shoulder. “What was that?”
“I said ‘clearly’.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Before that.”
“Oh, nothing.” She laughs lightly. “Just that this is what I get for wanting a little adventure.”
Violet looks up at the sky as if it has anything to do with this. “I meant Hawaii, not an entirely different fucking planet.” She narrows her gaze, then adds, “One with two moons. Beautiful sky, though. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Too much pollution where I live, you know?”
“Yes,” I say, nodding. “You mortals are disgusting things.”
She presses a hand to her chest and pouts her lips. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve said all day.”
“It’s been thirty minutes since I met you.”
“Maybe, but I’d bet it’ll still hold true. ”
A good guess on her part, but not one I’m willing to admit to.
“No need to keep talking,” I say instead. “When we get to the palace, I’ll have a servant take you to your room. You can rest and warm up and I’ll figure out how to get you home.”
“So you’re going to lock me in a room until you kick me out of your realm?”
“No.”
“No?”
“No. Go wherever you’d like, so long as it’s away from me.”
“Well. I’m feeling more and more welcome already.”
“Then it seems I’m setting the wrong tone.” I don’t bother looking at her as I turn down the cobbled path. The icy gates to my castle sense my magic and begin to open for me in anticipation.
Violet grumbles under her breath. “It was a joke.”
“Semantics,” I reply briskly. Then I turn to face Violet. “So long as we’re clear on you keeping well away from me, Violet Jones, I don’t particularly care what you do.”
“Fine,” she snaps.
“Fine.”
And that is that.