This Frozen Heart (Seasons of Legend #2)

Prologue

Gerta

Gaelia, during the nineteenth year of Emperor Augustu’s reign . . .

“ O nce upon a time, many eons ago, the Snow Queen was known by a different name that was forgotten by all our ancestors.”

I snuggle closer to Smalls, but not because I’m cold— the main room of Granny’s orphanage is warm from all the other children packed inside. For once, warmth is not why I draw close to the boy who has become a big brother to me— in size not age.

No, I am driven closer to Smalls because the new boy is sitting cross-legged on the floor on my other side, and I don’t want to catch his strangeness. For one thing, the new boy is sewing a button back on his shirt instead of listening to Granny’s story.

Despite the boy’s rudeness, Granny continues with the story. “She was called a princess, but she was not kin to the King who rules today.”

Smalls raises his hand. “My Da used to say that our King is a puppet king, so is the Snow Queen a person princess instead?”

Granny purses her lips, making three more wrinkles appear on her weathered face. “Both these royal families were ‘people’ families with powerful Heritage Magic running through their veins. But instead of using their power to help each other, they struggled against one another instead. Gaelia has never known true unity.”

The strange new boy lifts his head. “What were they doing?”

I narrow my eyes. “If you were listening, you would know.”

“I was listening. I just missed a word.” He turns to me, looking as thin as a gyst. Maybe he is a gyst, and that’s why the older kids call him strange.

“Then listen better, dummkopf .” The insult tastes foreign to my tongue, and I almost feel like a traitor to my people for using an outsider’s insult.

However, it hits its mark, and the boy’s eyes widen. “You’re not supposed to use that word. Granny said so. It’s against the rules.”

“I don’t care.”

“I do.”

“Who cares that you do? No one.”

He frowns at me. “Granny will.”

“Who’s going to tell?”

The boy lifts his chin and his hand. “I will.”

“Don’t you dare—”

Granny lifts her raspy voice a little higher. “Listen up, children. You need to understand why the Snow Queen lives alone on her mountain except for the new family she has made for herself from those who owe her a debt, those who have failed to answer her riddle, and the naughty children she’s spirited away.”

I stiffen at the reminder of why I must always behave.

The dummkopf slowly lowers his hand.

And Granny smooths out her apron. “You see, she longs for a family of her own.”

“What happened to hers?” Smalls asks. “Did they die like mine?”

Granny leans forward, making sure she looks at each corner of the room where a kid is listening. “The Snow Queen was betrothed to her enemy, the ancestor to our king, to bring peace to their people. On the night before the wedding, both clans came together to feast and celebrate. But it was all a trap .”

The dummkopf is listening now, because he says, “Her true love betrayed her?”

“Not her true love,” I hiss. “There’s no such thing, and true loves don’t betray you, anyway.”

Frowning at me, the dummkopf stabs a needle through his jacket as forcefully as if he were imagining me.

“When the Snow Queen saw what became of her family, her heart broke into many shards,” Granny adds. “To survive, she carved out what remained of it and turned those shards into a weapon. But even without a heart, she misses her family. Because even though no one recalls her name, she still remembers the names of those she lost.”

Smalls nods. “Me, too.”

I squeeze his arm to remind him we’re family now. We’re all each other has left.

“Now the Snow Queen wanders the wilderness, seeking lost souls. Then she freezes their hearts with her shards and takes them to live with her in her ice palace on top of the highest mountain in all Gaelia, where they become the worst versions of themselves, every good feeling locked beneath the ice.”

The dummkopf raises his hand again, and for a moment I think he’s still going to tattle. But then he asks, “What happens if the Snow Queen gets you and you don’t want to be gotten?”

Granny smiles, and I shiver to see her two missing front teeth. “The only cure for a frozen heart is the one thing the Snow Queen will never understand— true love’s kiss.”