Chapter 14
“This is where you’ve been living all this time?”
I can’t deny the Ice Palace is grand with its sparkling chandeliers and icy parquet floors. I also can’t deny the way I’m shivering. This place is freezing, yet Kai seems unaffected.
“How long have I been away?” he asks, staring straight ahead.
“More than two years.”
His chin dips, and he hms thoughtfully. “My mother is well?”
“Last I heard. I’ve been gone for just as long as you have, minus a day.
“You look different,” he says, studying me.
“So do you.”
He stops in the middle of a grand hallway, turning to face me like he’s sizing up an enemy. “Your scars are still hideous.”
“Your personality still sucks. I’d rather be ugly on the outside than on the inside.”
His lips part in shock.
“You are different.” His gaze trails down my body, not that he can see much with Christabel’s cloak clutched around me. “Much changed, but for one…thing.”
He moves closer, forcing me to back up a step. Another. Kai leans in close. I register his familiar woodsy scent, but faint, along with the way cold rolls off his skin. His nose brushes my ear.
“What are you doing?”
“Smelling you.” He pulls back, satisfied. “Still untouched. I suppose no man would have you with all those scars.”
I gape at him.
“Did you just sniff me to determine whether I’m a virgin?” I squeak in horror.
“Her Majesty has gifted me with enhanced senses.”
“But no actual sense,” I retort acidly. “Never mind manners.”
Kai strides away without waiting to see whether I’ll follow. Not knowing where else to go, I trot after him.
“Bold words from a scullery maid,” he tosses over his shoulder.
I catch those words like the sharp end of a knife.
He’s never looked down on me or Nana for our work.
He used to say that hard work was commendable.
But that was a different Kai. This is not my friend. I’ve come all this way for nothing.
“You know what’s shameful? Turning up your nose at a feast. Throwing away perfectly good food. I’ve known more hunger in a single day than you’ve experienced in your entire life, Prince.”
I shove him between the shoulder blades. It’s like pushing a boulder. He doesn’t stumble. He keeps walking and barely glances back. I want to believe there was amusement written on his face, but it was so brief that I probably imagined it.
“Plus, I can cook a meal when I get hungry. Can you, Kai?” We both know he can’t. He turns to glare daggers at me, but his expression melts into passivity as his gaze glides over my head.
“Are you volunteering to cook us supper, Gwendolyn?” a silky female voice says from behind me.
I whirl. I have no weapon. What would be the point?
She has more magic in her pinky finger than I possess in my whole body.
This entire castle is her weapon. All I have is a cloak that can fend off her miniature foot soldiers.
“Sure.” I feign nonchalance. Jealousy curls like wildfire smoke through my blood.
She’s exquisite with her sable hair, pale skin, and red lips.
The delicate crown crafted of snowflakes and icicles suits her sharp fae beauty.
I wouldn’t have held a candle to her loveliness even before she marred mine.
Knowing that she’s taken everything from me yet remains agelessly stunning feels wrong on every level. Nothing about this is fair.
I’ll save Kai just to thwart her, out of pure spite. He certainly hasn’t done anything to deserve my help. But he didn’t deserve to be taken captive by this witch queen, either.
“Unwanted guests must work for their supper,” she says. “Kai, darling, come. We shall entertain ourselves while Gwendolyn makes herself at home in the kitchen, where she belongs.”
Her speech is slightly accented and spoken in a cloying purr. I wonder if this is how all fae speak, or if her unusual cadence is from having lived so many centuries and learned our language long ago.
“I’ll show her the way,” Kai says woodenly, that passive expression still on his face.
He moves to the queen’s side. I’m loath to admit they make a stunning pair, but it’s true.
Her icy beauty with his sharp handsomeness.
I can easily imagine what people see when I stand beside him: a mismatched pair.
I’m sure people wonder why a man like him ever tolerated the company of a woman like me.
I can’t let these thoughts sink me. I must see this through.
Kai bends to press a chaste kiss against the queen’s pale cheek. For some reason, this gesture shocks me more than anything. A stone of dismay sinks in my stomach. My face burns and I jerk my gaze to the floor.
“This way.” Kai bumps me with his shoulder.
Payback for the way I pushed him earlier.
It reminds me of when we were children, constantly jostling in a pointless tit-for-tat.
My heart shatters into jagged pieces. Memories crowd into my mind.
Playing in the dirt. Sun on our faces. Balancing on fences or rails. Daring one another to jump.
We descend a flight of stairs into a less-grand portion of the castle. This section is made of stone, not ice, though with no fires in the hearth it’s just as freezing as the rest of the castle. My teeth chatter.
Kai remains unaffected.
“What do you want me t-to make?” I ask.
“Whatever you like. You’ll find anything you need in here.” He taps a long row of cabinets. “When it’s ready, pull this bell. I’ll show you to the dining hall.”
I unsling my pack and drop it on the heavy oak table with a thud.
Kai watches me put flint to steel and shower sparks on the wood in the fire pit until it catches.
Heat unfurls through the room. I remove Christabel’s cloak and replace it with an apron.
So quotidian, this kitchen. Nothing magical about it.
Odd, for a powerful fae witch not to have an entire staff.
Maybe she froze them all to death.
Kai’s watchful gaze burns into my back. The witch departed when I struck the first spark shower, but he stands there uselessly observing my every action.
“You’re still here,” I say over my shoulder when the tension hits a breaking point.
Kai catches my wrist and tugs me close. His skin is freezing.
I gasp at the contact, but he brings one hand to the base of my skull and backs me up several steps until my bottom bumps into the table.
He bends to kiss me, hard and harsh, like kissing a winter storm.
A candle of warmth flickers. I chase it.
He groans and angles his hips between my knees.
I let him.
“My troublesome girl,” he whispers, almost affectionately. I sink my teeth into his bottom lip.
“Don’t call me that.”
“You like it.”
I ball my fist and punch his shoulder, hating that it’s true. He kisses me harder. Unrelenting. Kai pushes up the hem of my shirt. His fingertips are like icicles. I flinch. “You’re so cold.”
“You’re not,” he declares. “The opposite. So hot I can hardly stand touching you.”
“No one is making you do this, Kai.”
“You are.” Another kiss. His thumb glides along the underside of my breast. I straighten, torn between wanting more of his touch and avoiding his coldness.
Yet a flame flickers in his one good eye, reflected without heat in the silver one.
“You shouldn’t have come here, little shadow.
Following me all this way, for all this time. ”
“I came because I care about you, Kai. We were friends.”
“This isn’t friendship,” he growls.
“No, it’s not.” I sink my teeth into his lower lip. His low moan and the shift of his hips against mine bring that hard ridge into contact with my aching core. I gasp against his mouth. “It hasn’t been friendship from my side in a long time.”
His lips curve into a satisfied smile.
“I was foolishly noble when we were young.” He strokes my cheek almost lovingly. “I should have savored you when I had the chance.”
“You’re still wasting the opportunity,” I remind him. His touch is ice on my skin. A shiver courses down my arms. Droplets bead along his temple.
He pushes me away. I stumble against the table. A small bowl topples and rolls over the edge, crashing onto the floor. Kai’s boots crunch the pottery underfoot, pulverizing the shards into a powder that will be a pain to clean up.
“If you mean that, come to my bed tonight, Gwen. Show me. Prove how badly you want me.”
“I left my grandmother behind and chased you across Montrace for over two years. Isn’t that proof enough?”
The echo of his low chuckle is my only answer.