Chapter 8
The queen’s dancing master gave me a half-hour crash course on simple dance steps. I can follow the calls in a country reel as well as any other lowly maid, but that’s not the kind of dancing they do at royal banquets, apparently.
Kai, naturally, chooses one that’s wholly inappropriate. One that forces our bodies close together instead of standing at a remove. One that requires touching.
My breath hitches when he slides his arm around my waist and takes my palm.
“You want to play pretend? This is what is required of a fine lady, Gwen. How do you like it now?”
I like his touch more than I should. Not that I’ll be admitting it.
“For the last time, Kai, I am here at your mother’s insistence, not out of greed. I would rather be back in the kitchens washing that mountain of dishes than humiliated on the dance floor by you.”
He makes a quiet noise of derision. The sound is swallowed by the swelling music. I stumble immediately. He drags me closer, forcing me to follow his steps.
“Don’t lie, wicked girl. You wanted my crown from the beginning.”
His cold anger takes me aback. I trip over my own feet, and this time he locks my front to his. I push back, which only throws us both off-balance. “Kai. We met when I was six. I barely knew what a crown was, and I didn’t know you were a prince.”
If I could free one of my hands, I’d slap him.
As it is, I’m hanging on for dear life as he whirls me around the dance floor.
How do ladies dance these complicated steps in heels and long skirts made from delicate fabric?
Being a lady is more difficult than I thought. Good thing I never aspired to be one.
I only wanted to be with Kai. The fact that he was a prince was an impediment, not part of his appeal. I’ve never cared about status and it wounds me if he truly believes that.
“A six-year-old temptress,” he snarls.
I halt abruptly, throwing him off-balance, and yank my hand free, raising it as if to strike his face. He’d deserve it.
You cannot warm his cold heart with icy words and indifference.
Right. Remember the mission. The man speaking so cruelly isn’t Kai. Besides, a commoner striking a prince in public would be grounds for hanging, and that wouldn’t help Nana at all.
The entire room hangs in suspended silence. I touch his cheek gently. He flinches as if I’d slapped him.
“Are you saying you loved me, Kai?” I ask with all the wide-eyed innocence I can summon. “Even back then? Is that why you destroyed our rose garden? The one we made together?”
His features contort into a scowl. “Shut up, Gwen.”
“We’re done dancing.” I am not going to stay here and be insulted, then told to shut up. He may be a prince, but even the men who haul supplies to the kitchen don’t talk to me that way. I stride away in a billow of silk.
He grabs my hand. I’m keenly aware of our audience. All those pairs of eyes burn into me from all sides. Kai doesn’t appear to feel them. “We aren’t done dancing until I say we are.”
“I am done. You may do whatever you wish.” I motion to Lady Ashworth, who is out of her seat and halfway across the dance floor in a trice. Others follow her. After more than a year of Kai’s constant and wearisome cruelty, I suppose everyone was already prepared to ignore his outburst.
But one sharp glare from the queen tells me that leaving is not an option. Not for me, a captive guest who doesn’t belong here. Fine. I’ll stay, since I have no other choice, but I need a breather from Kai.
I can’t imagine how she’s been coping with him.
I park myself beside a table and accept a long, tall glass from a passing footman who takes pity on me. The fizziness prompts me to choke on my first sip. Wasn’t expecting that. I’ve never tried sparkling wine before. It’s not bad, once I get used to it.
I stand there awkwardly with my empty glass dangling from my fingertips. Loneliness settles over me like a ragged blanket. Familiar. Scratchy. So full of holes it no longer provides any warmth.
Watching the way Lady Ashworth clings to and simpers at Kai awakens dark envy within me.
She doesn’t trip over her own feet or get tangled in her own skirt.
She makes dancing look effortless. Jealousy grips my insides, followed by a twinge of gratification when Kai’s gaze keeps finding me.
He might be glaring, but he’s focused on me, and there is bitter triumph in the fact that she can’t wrench his attention away.
When the song ends, Kai rudely abandons her on the floor and stomps straight toward me. I deposit my champagne flute on the nearest surface and meet him halfway. Our paths collide on the edge of the dance floor.
“You, strumpet, are very distracting,” he snarls, like it’s my fault he can’t stop looking at me.
“I’m just standing here watching you dance.” I lift one shoulder and let it fall, feigning casual disregard. “Not doing anything strumpety.”
“You exist. That’s enough.” He slips one hand around the back of my skull and drags me closer. “I told you not to wear that shit on your face.”
I jerk away. His grip firms, holding me in place. “Complain to your mother. She was the one who insisted.”
“I don’t like it when you hide.” An almost-human response. The silver in his eye flashes.
“You don’t like to see my scars, either, Kai.
You bang on about how ugly they are. Offensive to your delicate sensibilities.
You cannot have it both ways, darling.” I cast him a syrupy smile and mimic his gesture, curling my fingers around the back of his neck at the base of his skull.
Tension coils tight in the scant space between us.
“Either I can conceal my flaws, or you must look at them.”
He growls low in his throat—a thrilling sound, one that resonates between my thighs. Impossible to imagine the sweet boy he was a year ago making that sound.
Kai drags me out onto the balcony and brings his mouth down on mine in a punishing kiss.
Warm air brushes silkily against my legs, and I realize belatedly that Kai has fisted my skirt and shoved it up. The backs of my thighs hit the stone balustrade. He shoves my knees apart, keeping me off-balance, taking revenge for the way I’ve parried his aggression all evening.
I moan against his mouth.
“You’re nobody’s prize but mine,” he says.
I should hate him, but on some level it’s gratifying to know he desires me.
A hard ridge digs into my belly where our bodies press together.
He tilts his hips, letting me feel him that way.
Pinning me against the stone. I keep one hand at the back of his neck as he devours my lips, and shakily snake my free hand down between our bodies.
There’s so much fabric in the skirt that I have to dig past it to get to him.
Kai’s low groan when I squeeze him there reverberates deliciously through me. I like being naughty with him. Maybe we’ll go off and bicker our way through life together. Ideally, somewhere without an audience. I’m not his wicked prize yet, but I’d like to be—just not here and now.
A cold gust of wind smacks my skin, tears at my hair and whips my skirt like a sheet hung on a line and caught in a sudden storm. One second I’m arching into his palm so he can better squeeze my breast. The next, my skirts fly up around my face like they’re trying to block me from touching him.
The temperature drops abruptly. Snowflakes drift down.
Electric terror sizzles over my skin. I am not afraid of much, but those ice knives have already attacked once and the idea of it happening again frightens me instinctively.
A violent shiver wracks me. The wind dies as Kai moves away from me, looking down into the garden, which is filled with snow.
“Kai?”
A woman in a bright-red cloak stands in the center beside a beautiful white and gold sleigh. She beckons him.
“Kai, don’t go to her,” I call out. Transfixed, he ignores me, moving quickly to the stairs and down into the garden.
“Kai. No!” I run, but snow swallows my shoes. Before I know it, I’m up to my ankles. I kick them off and flail barefoot through the snow, chasing him, heedless of the flakes buzzing all around me. Behind me, distantly, I hear shouts as the rest of the party-goers chase us.
The woman’s hood falls back, revealing glossy black hair, pale skin, and bright-red lips. A spiky crystal crown adorns her brow. Kai gazes reverently at her. She smiles at me.
Then she takes his face between her palms and kisses him lightly. Once on the forehead. Once on the lips.
No. She can’t be real.
The Snow Queen. The powerful fae witch who rules the North.
Kai follows her to the sleigh. Meekly, he gets on. I shout his name, but my voice is whipped away. The snow swirls around to form the shape of six pure white reindeer. They leap into the sky, taking Kai, the mysterious woman, and the sleigh with them.
Leaving me screaming on the ground below.