32. Kienna
Kienna rode hard through the forests and mountains to reach the Winter Court.
She ignored her father’s urges to slow for the sake of the horses. She’d allowed brief respites, but only as long as it took for her horse’s sides to stop heaving before she pushed him back into speed.
There was a horrible, aching, hollow feeling in her, and she was terrified of what it meant. The cold burned her eyes, and the whip of wind against her skin rubbed it raw, but still she did not stop.
After far too long, though it had only been a day or two of travel, they arrived.
Kienna almost didn’t recognize it at first. There had been a different feeling in the air, a delicious cold zing, ever since the forest grew thick with evergreens half a day back.
But she had been waiting for evergreens dying under the heat of summer—and then suddenly they reached a wall. A familiar wall, for she had spent weeks staring at the other side of it.
Except that this wall was capped in snow, icicles hanging on any outcropping. Everything glistened in the brief winter sun that had peeked out, bright but weak compared to the summer sun she had grown accustomed to while living here.
They paused at the gates. One sat off its hinge at a crooked angle, as if broken down from the outside, and Kienna’s breath left her as everything inside squeezed in alarm.
The sight set Papa and his men on high alert. She could hear the murmurs and the whisper of steel as it left the scabbards.
She turned and put a hand up. “You can’t go in. It would break the bargain.”
“I will not let my daughter walk knowingly into danger. Your prince may not harm you, but whatever did that”—Papa gestured with his sword toward the broken gate— “certainly will.”
“Papa,” she started to argue, but his gaze was steel.
“If this forfeits my life, then so be it.” He raised his voice. “I go through. Know that any man who goes with me might be walking into death, and no one is dishonored if they choose to stay behind.” He stared her down as he nudged his horse through the open gate.
Kienna squeezed her legs into the side of her own horse, followed by the slow clop, clop, clop of the rest of the men after a few moments.
She gasped as she took in the sheer beauty of the space before her. It was almost exactly like the winter wonderland her prince had shown her in her dream. Snow covered everything in a jeweled blanket. There were a few odd mounds that she didn’t remember strewn across the ground, but as one of her father’s men dismounted and dislodged some snow from the side of one of the mounds, she shuddered and looked away.
“I think we found the threat,” she said quietly, counting them. A dozen. A dozen mounds lay scattered across the grounds.
A dozen of those monstrous beasts that her prince had saved her from once before.
Worry returned in full force. A dozen of them. Revi had taken on three to protect her and Enlo, but could he take on a dozen?
She had to find him. She pushed her horse forward to the bottom of the stairs leading up into the castle and jumped down, taking the steps two at a time.
Snow crunched under her feet. She couldn’t help but marvel at that fact. Whatever curse had befallen the Winter Court, clearly it was gone. But at what cost? Was Revi even here anymore to greet her? Had she returned too late? She shoved open the front door; the slam of it echoed down the castle halls.
“Hello?” she cried. “Is anyone here? Zoya? Revi? Hello?” She was halfway across the room when Zoya appeared, her hair disheveled, her breath huffing.
Her eyes widened at the sight of Kienna. “My lady, you’ve come back.”
“Where’s Rev—the prince?” Kienna asked.
Zoya’s face tightened in a way Kienna hated.
“The frostroses.” Zoya stopped at Kienna’s side. Kienna squeezed Zoya’s hands in her own. “It’s good to see you, my lady, but you’d best hurry. Who knows how long before—“ She cut herself off, her eyes tightening further. “To the frostroses, my lady. Hurry.”
Kienna squeezed Zoya’s hands one more time. “My father and some of his men are outside. Please see them inside to warm by a fire and send someone to care for their horses.”
Zoya gave a sharp nod, then Kienna drew her hands away, turned, and ran back outside. She ignored Papa’s questions as she followed a snow-covered but familiar path from the castle doors. She heard Zoya’s calm, sweet tones behind her as she approached Kienna’s father, but then the sound was lost amid her own hard breathing and the crunch of snow under her boots.
She rounded the edge of the castle, then passed the bushes guarding Revi’s garden from view of the castle from this angle. There. The frostrose bush looked nothing like she’d last seen it; even the glistening snow that covered it could not completely hide how mangled and destitute the bush looked.
And on the ground just beside it lay her prince.
His long silver hair, his large broad shoulders. His skin was white as snow, half covered in bandages. His eyes were closed. He looked too still. He looked… dead.
A cry broke from her. She pushed herself faster. She barely registered the man kneeling at his side.
“You returned.” Enlo’s voice came out ragged.
“What’s wrong with him?” She dropped to her knees and cupped his face in her hands.
“A lot,” Enlo said tightly. “He has very little magic. The venomous wounds inflicted by the attack a few days ago have been treated, but he grows weaker by the day. I keep pushing magic into him. But it won’t last forever. He’s...” Enlo swallowed, his gaze dropping to Revi’s face. “He’s dying.”
“No,” Kienna whispered. “No, Revi. You cannot die. I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner. I’m sorry I trusted this stupid man next to you instead of you. I’m sorry I left. I’m sorry I wasted your magic for no reason. But I’m here now and you can’t die.“ His cheeks were cold beneath her fingers; a tear dripped down the tip of her nose and landed on his cheekbone.
“You can’t die,” she repeated. “Because I love you. I came back, and I want to spend my entire life with you. Whether you’re a beast or whether you are my dream prince. I don’t care. Just stay with me. Please.”
Enlo sucked in a breath, looking between Kienna and Revi.
“Say that again,” he said. “Tell him you love him. Use his name. Make your vow again.”
She dragged her distracted gaze up to Enlo. “My vow?”
“You need to bind yourself to him. Maybe—“ His voice broke. “Maybe it will be enough to save him.”
She looked up at him, eyes wide. The cold bit at her cheeks along the lines where tears tracked down. “I’m only human. My words don’t have magic. It won’t do anything.”
“But it might. If you finish the link between you two, you might be able to save him. Vow your life to him, become his wife. Use his name. Use your name, your true name.”
Kienna looked back down at Revi. She’d do it in a heartbeat. But what if he didn’t want this?
It didn’t matter. Even if he resented her for making such a bond between them, she’d do it. He could hate her; he could send her away. He would be alive to do so, and that was all she cared about. She needed him to live.
She swallowed. “I’ll do it, but—I don’t know what to say.”
Enlo didn’t smile, but there was a grim hope that settled over his features. “Repeat after me. Em, then your name, then ‘a pocheska sukerste tu Reviam.“ He spoke the phrase slowly, pausing after each word to let Kienna repeat him.
“Em Kienna Boden ‘a pocheska sukerste tu Reviam.”
“Now kiss him.”
Kienna’s entire body trembled as she leaned closer to Revi. It might have been cold. It might have been nerves. It might have been shaky hope strangled by terror that this wouldn’t work.
She closed the space between them and gently pressed her lips against Revi’s. They were freezing but soft. She let her eyes shut as something icy zinged between her and Revi where their lips connected them, where her hands rested against his chest.
It shocked up and down her spine, through her limbs, into her heart. She gasped against him, jerking back a few inches.
He inhaled a ragged breath. His bright blue eyes fluttered open and landed on her.