27. Kienna
Everything was cold, icy, but as he had promised, it didn’t hurt her. A part of her felt like she should be hurting. She should be dead. It was so cold, like she stood in the middle of a blizzard with no protection, no shelter, no cloak, nothing, and yet somehow she was still alive.
It was over in moments. Mere moments and she went from the quiet bedroom with Revi to impossibly cold before it cleared and she was standing in the middle of a camp.
No, not a camp. An outpost. Cries rang around her as her vision tried to catch up, and then...
“Kienna?” Her father’s warm, deep tone.
Kienna opened her eyes and there he was, standing before her. Not ill. Not at death’s door but dressed as he always was, in his military uniform, weapon at his side.
“Kienna?” he repeated. “Is it really you?”
“I’m not some trick of fae magic, if that’s what you mean,” she said quietly, her mind still processing the last few moments.
The next thing she knew, she was wrapped in his arms. “Kienna,” he said into her hair, crushing her to his chest. “Oh, my sweet girl, my little flower.”
Tears began tracking unbidden down Kienna’s cheeks. He was here. He was all right. “I thought you were ill. I thought you were at home in bed and about to die and—” Her words broke off, and she buried her head farther into his chest.
“I haven’t been home since I left you at the Winter Court. I begged Queen Riona to let me man this outpost. I couldn’t bear to be so far from you, knowing I had left you there, alone.”
“I thought you were going to die,” she repeated. It was all she could think of.
He pulled back, frowning at her, searching her face. “I wasn’t the one in the clutches of the fae. Why would you think that?”
Because Enlo had told her that. Hadn’t he? With an awful sort of clarity, she remembered the conversation.
No, he hadn’t told her. She’d assumed. He’d shown her a picture of her father, much like the winter wonderland vision she’d experienced, and she had assumed the rest. He’d told her that her father’s fate was tied to the Court’s. But that could mean anything.
She was the one who had assumed her father was dying.
Don’t trust your eyes.
She wanted to cry. Or laugh hysterically. She knew to be wary of their words, but words weren’t the only way to deceive. Revi had warned her of that in her very first dream. How could she have forgotten?
Revi. Her prince. He’d confirmed it with his last comment before she vanished. She’d strongly suspected, but knowing for certain her dream prince and the Winter Prince were one and the same shifted everything in her.
She should have trusted him more fully. She should have been bolder, asked him about the curse and Enlo outright instead of hedging the topic. Instead, she had believed Enlo—a stranger, a man she had found, a man who had let her believe he was her prince.
Her last conversation with him, when he had come to her dream instead of Revi, played through her mind with a horrifying clarity. He wanted to take Revi’s place, to break his magic, break the curse and rule the Winter Court. He couldn’t break the curse without Kienna. He had said that much plainly, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to do something against Revi.
And Revi had just given her magic to come here. He’d told her not to use the magic to return. Did he not expect her to come back at all? And the way he’d said goodbye, as if it were so very final.
What had he just done for her? What if he was too weak to fend off the other man’s schemes, and it was her fault?
“Kienna?” Her father watched her with a furrowed brow. She stepped back from him and smiled, though it felt tight. Any relief she’d felt that he was whole and hale had vanished in the wake of her thoughts.
“I’m glad you’re well,” she said. “I truly am. I’m so relieved.”
“Is your bargain broken? It must be for you to return early. Did it break because the Winter Prince did something to you?”
“No,” she said quickly. “It’s not. I have to return. I have to go back immediately.” He opened his mouth to argue, and she placed a hand on his arm. “Please, Papa. Take me back to the Winter Court.”