25. Jack
Chapter twenty-five
Jack
T he month after our wedding, I stand at the grand windows of my chambers— our chambers now. Violet’s warmth still lingers on my skin, her scent of vanilla and frost flowers permeating the air. Something has shifted in my realm. It has been a slow but steady shift.
Sunlight streams through the ice crystal windows, casting rainbow prisms across the floor. The eternal darkness that plagued my kingdom for years has lifted. How did I never notice how oppressive that darkness was?
“The ice walls are melting.” Violet’s arms wrap around my waist from behind, her chin resting against my shoulder.
I cover her hands with mine. “No, not melting like before. Transforming. ”
Where once stood impenetrable barriers of solid ice, delicate frost patterns now dance across transparent crystal walls. The fortress I built to keep others out has become a palace that welcomes the light.
“Your people seem different, too.” She moves to stand beside me, watching the winter fae below in the courtyard.
She’s right. My subjects no longer hurry through their tasks with heads bowed. They pause to chat, to laugh.
A group of younger fae are even creating ice sculptures together, their magic combining in ways I’ve never witnessed before.
“It’s you.” I turn to face her, tracing the silvery mate mark on her arm. “Remember, soul healing magic doesn’t just work on individuals? It works on realms too.”
Violet’s power pulses beneath my touch, warm and inviting. “We did this together. Your winter magic needed my warmth, just like I needed your strength.”
A messenger appears at our door, frost swirling around their feet.
“My Lord, My Lady. The human delegates have arrived through the new passage.”
The passage . Another change that appeared with our union—stable pathways between realms that don’t require exhausting magical transport.
“Ready to be our bridge, little mate?”
Violet’s eyes sparkle with determination. “Born ready. Though if you keep calling me ‘little mate’ in front of the human delegates, I’ll have to remind you just how not little I can be. ”
Magic surges between us at her words, causing frost patterns to spiral across the floor. Even my power responds differently to her now. It’s playful where it once was rigid, warm where it once was bitterly cold.
The eternal winter hasn’t ended—this is still the Winter Kingdom after all. But now it’s a winter of crisp morning frost and gentle snowfall, of midnight auroras and crystalline beauty. A winter that invites rather than repels.
Just like its king.