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 tiltshis 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.
Chapter 9
“I know you’re devastated,Gwendolyn, but you cannot simply storm off,” Nana says.
“Kai isn’t dead.” I feel like I’m losing my mind. Everyone insists that Kai drowned. If not for the high-heeled red shoes the queen forgot to take back, I might be convinced that I’d imagined the whole night.
But no. Kai danced with me. Kissed me. Touched me. I touched him in return. I didn’t imagine it happening, despite having imagined such things many times in my life.
The ruined red shoes taunt me from the top of the listing wardrobe where I flung them last night.
The Snow Queen knew I was getting close to breaking her spell over him. That must be why she came to take him away.
Nana takes my shoulders and gives me a little shake. “Accept it, Gwen. Kai is gone.”
“I know what I saw!” I jerk out of her grasp.
“What was that?” She huffs. “A snowstorm, in Montrace, the land of eternal summer? A woman with black hair in a red cloak kissing the prince before taking him away in a flying sleigh?”
“Yes!”
“Listen to yourself.” Her eyes search my face.
It does sound unreal. Impossible. I pinch my temples.
