5. Violet
Chapter five
Violet
G abriel sits on the couch, long legs stretched out before him and crossed at the ankles, studying me as I fight the urge to squirm from where I sit at the foot of the bed.
His expression is polite, his pale fingers laced and resting on his lower stomach. Nothing about him is directly off putting, or concerning, or anything like that.
But there is something in his eyes that sets me on edge. Not that I think he’s here to murder me or anything, to take care of a problem before it—I—become one. But him being here feels more like a test than it does like an introduction. A test to see what I can do for him, or maybe Jack, or maybe their kingdom. I don’t know .
I just know that I’d really rather he leave, but I’m too curious about what he’s doing here in the first place to ask him to go.
You know what they say about curiosity and cats , I remind myself. Yet it isn’t a plea for him to go away that leaves my lips.
“I’m guessing you’re here to do more than just stare at me.” The words come out even. Smooth. Not at all like his general presence has unnerved me.
He smiles. “Indeed. The staring is merely a bonus.”
My lips flatten and the words are out before I can really think them through, or think about the fact that I’m alone with a strange man in a strange world, and I would not be missed. I would not be found.
“The staring is about to make me suffocate you with my pillow.” I don’t bother taking them back, even as immediate regret courses through me.
Which turns out fine enough, because Gabriel just laughs, clearly not taking me seriously.
His voice is light with amusement. “Jack told me you had a mouth on you. I thought he was being dramatic. He’s not used to people doing anything more than bowing and saying whatever they must to please him.”
“He was being dramatic. I didn’t say anything offensive.” At least I don’t think I did. I don’t remember most of what I said to him earlier today—probably because I was too busy trying to function past the shock of learning that I had somehow fallen into an entirely different realm, and that I was standing face to face with the famed Jack Frost. Who was, apparently, an asshole.
“No need to worry, darling Violet,” Gabriel says, his voice soft as silk, light as a feather. “I’m not offended on his behalf. I am, however, entertained on my own. As Jack’s advisor, I have spent a good part of my life listening to people say whatever they feel will gain his favor. I am cheered by your lack of doing the same, despite every reason you may have to do the opposite.”
“So, you’re here to pay me compliments. Interesting contradiction to the insults of your…”
Gabriel chuckles. “I believe your people call them kings. Here, Jack is known as a Lord.” He pauses, waiting for me to speak again, but continues when all I do is stare at him blankly. “And no, I’m not here just to compliment you. Those are a bonus.” He winks.
“Okay,” I say slowly, raising an eyebrow. My mouth is running full speed now, my filter left at the proverbial door. “So, if you’re not here to kiss my ass, could we move on to whatever it is you are here for?”
A bell-like laugh rings from him. “You’re delightful, truly.” He pauses, and when he speaks again, his voice is far less jovial and a hell of a lot more serious. “If you are not one for small talk, Violet Jones, then I will simply say it: I need your help.”
I freeze, body stiff as a board for a long moment. “No, you don’t.” My tone is wary, but strong. Like I’m all at once disbelieving and trying to hypnotize them out of Gabriel’s memory.
“I assure you I do,” he replies, leaning forward, arms braced against his thighs now. “You said you are a nurse. You know how to fix things that are irreparable. I think you would be valuable here. Just as you are clearly a smart woman, if that mouth is any sign.”
He smiles at his own little joke and continues on. “Listen, Violet: we need your help. Our entire realm does, really. It has been… uncharacteristically warm lately. On a minor scale, yes, but soon people will begin to notice. They will feel terror. And where there is terror, there are uprisings. We cannot have that.”
He pauses for a moment before continuing. “Jack and I have been searching for the cause of this… change in temperature, but to no avail.”
“Yes, it’s global warming,” I deadpan. “We’re fighting the same thing.”
Gabriel’s lips flatten. “It is not man-made evil we struggle against, Violet Jones. We take care of our things even if your kind does not. No, what we’re working against is a far greater pain in the ass—Magic. Likely old magic, since it’s taken us so long to figure it out. Jack tolerates me searching alongside him at the best of times and throws me out at the worst of them. I am not the kind of help he’s willing to accept. But you… I think you might be.”
“Because who wouldn’t trust the word of a woman from another planet over their advisor?”
“You are not just any woman. You are his mate. He is predisposed to trust you, even if he wishes he would not be.”
His mate . That word again. That sense of possession behind it. I still have no idea what the fuck it means here, why they say it like it’s some precious jewel. I do know that I won’t be asking Gabriel about it. I’d rather ask Cora—or maybe even Jack himself. He’s probably the best person to go to, if I want to know why he feels he gets to stake any sort of claim on me at all.
“More than that,” Gabriel continues, “But you are accustomed to warmth. You understand it better than any of us possibly could. I think your insight would be valuable, just as I think that the heat that radiates from you must mean something.”
“It means you’re all frozen solid and haven’t been near a warm body in decades.”
Gabriel chuckles. “You think we do not know warmth, but we do.” He shakes his head before I can pry further and speaks again. “I expect that your help will come at a cost. While I doubt currency will carry over when you leave us, I have something much more valuable to offer you—a bargain.”
“A bargain.” I repeat the word stoically. Wholly unimpressed.
“A deal, as you might say.”
“I know what the word means, asshat.”
An amused grin lights his lips. “Very well. I am prepared to offer you a way home. You help us cure this ever-warming realm of ours. You work with Jack to find a cure, and I will get you home the only other way I know how.”
“There’s already a way? Why can’t we just do that now?”
His eyes flash. “Because it is not without its consequences.” His tone is dark, serious, and chills me to my core. And then he shrugs a shoulder and says, “But those consequences could be worth it, if you were to save us from heat stroke.”
“I was nearly hypothermic when I first got here, and you’re worried about heat stroke?”
He laughs and stands, then holds his hand out to me. “Is it a bargain, Violet Jones?”
I think it through. If I do this, it won’t be the vacation I imagined. It’ll be more like spending hours at a time alone with the assholiest man I’ve ever met. It’ll be exhausting and boring, and I’ll probably want to throw myself off the nearest cliff at least forty times a day.
But I also raise my chances of going home. Because not only will Jack and I be scouring old texts with a possibility of finding a way out of here for me without needing Gabriel’s harder, scary-sounding method to do it, but I’ll also be looking for those answers he wants in case I do need to take the hard way out.
Not to mention learning more about the world I’m trapped in for the foreseeable future—I can hardly see how that would be a bad thing, except for the tiny little fact that I’ll be doing it while sitting beside Jack Frost.
Jack Frost, who calls me his mate, despises my very presence, who has encased my heart in ice, and seemingly tethered it to him, somehow.
I help them find their answers, and perhaps get some of my own. Not to mention getting to go home, where a trip to Hawaii will definitely be booked after spending time in the coldest fucking world out there.
The thought of warm sand between my toes and tropical drinks with those little umbrellas makes my mouth water. And if I don’t find those answers, I’m not out anything. I’m just... back at square one.
Though something deep in my gut tells me this bargain will change everything.
“A simple exchange.” He stands and extends his hand, his voice smooth as silk. “Help us solve this warming crisis, work alongside Jack to find answers, and I will ensure your safe passage home. The magic of such bargains requires... discretion. What passes between us—our discussions, our methods—remains between us alone. ”
I eye his extended hand, that nagging feeling in my gut growing stronger. “And if I can’t figure out how to help? What then?”
Gabriel’s smile doesn’t waver, but something flickers in his eyes. “Then we’re all simply back where we started. No harm done.”
The words sound reassuring enough, but something about them feels... incomplete. Still, what choice do I really have?
I meet Gabriel’s gaze and stand, then slide my hand against his. His skin burns hot against mine, in contrast to the icy bond that still links me to Jack. “It’s a bargain.”
The moment our hands touch, magic crackles between us like static electricity, and the temperature in the room plummets.
Whatever I’ve just agreed to, there’s no going back now.