For once, Kai doesn’t instantly obey her direct order. He hesitates.
“The food she made will be cold enough for you to eat when she returns,” says the Queen.
That won’t be happening. I’ll give him mine and see if that affects her spell over him. When his footfalls fade, the Queen tents her long fingers and contemplates me. I’m hungry, so when she says nothing, I start eating my own, now-cold, stew.
“You are a fascinating girl, Gwen,” she says. I shrug. “I didn’t think you’d come after him.”
“Princess Christabel told me you chose Kai because you knew I would fight for him. Taking him was merely a test of my love.”
She tilts her head and sighs. “Ah, Christabel. Princess of Light, Aurora’s heir, Protector of the Silverbirch Forest, and all-around thorn in my side. She chases away my wolves and melts my ogres. And so, I stole her beloved knight.”
The Queen rises fluidly and goes to one of the statues placed around the perimeter of the room. She cups one’s face almost affectionately.
But I realize upon closer inspection that they’re not statues. They are people. Men. Each one of them frozen in time and place.
“Sir Edvin didn’t want Christabel to come searching for him. The brave, stupid man threw himself into my mirror lake and froze himself so that I could not use him to tempt her into a trap.” She whirls away from the unlucky knight, her midnight-blue skirt flaring out. “Ah, love. It is such a useful emotion in humans.”
“Fae don’t feel love?”
“Only the fools do.” Dark emotion slashes across her delicate features, there and gone.
“Then why seduce all these men?”
“They aren’t all men. Look around you, child. There are princesses and queens, even lowly servants like yourself. People from all walks of life come to me, chasing the illusion of love.”
“This is all a game to you.” I feel sick. Killing Kai’s father and brothers was nothing to this twisted woman. Part of a game, to maneuver him into a position of power. She cared nothing for their lives.
Yet it’s clear that she is fascinated by us. The warmth of our hearts might burn her frozen soul, but she is entranced by our emotions nonetheless.
She runs her fingertip down the chest of a burly statue. “I have to entertain myself somehow. Do you think you’ll visit Kai tonight?”
A surge of hatred catches me off-guard. My ears burn. That’s not her business. I don’t like that she knows. Clearly, this palace hears everything that happens within its walls.
“You really do love him, don’t you?” she says with seemingly genuine pity.
Hot, bitter tears burn my eyes. A shuddery breath wracks me. I nod. “What can you possibly offer Kai that I cannot give him?”
But I already know. She can give him forever. I can give him nothing but a few minutes of physical release.
“I do not require warmth. Or love. Only companionship.” She gestures airily to the frozen figures that dot her mirror lake. “They last such a short time. I do enjoy them while they can still speak. Eventually, the ice claims them.”
“They aren’t immortal, then.”
“They yet live. Frozen in time and place, but alive.”
She glides across the glassy ice and cups one man’s cheek tenderly. He was handsome—is, I suppose, if what she says is true about her prisoners being alive—but there’s a haunted aspect to his dulled eyes as if he had remembered someone he lost the instant before he was encased in ice. His skin was once a deep shade of umber with plump lips and neat braids that end at his shoulders. “Your Kai will make a handsome addition to my collection.”
“What can I do to make you let him go?” A sniffle betrays me. I came so far to save him.
“I am a sporting woman.” The Queen taps her chin, pondering. “If Kai succeeds in spelling the word I have assigned him with shards of ice, I will release him.”
“What about the others?”
She quirks one eyebrow. “You like high-stakes gambling, I see. I will release them all if you can guess the word I gave Kai. He will not tell you what it is.” Her bright-red lips stretch into a smile. “I demand an equal risk from you, Gwen. If you fail to guess the word, you must join my collection of ice statues, too.”
My throat constricts. I regret parting with Nana on such poor terms. But I don’t regret chasing after Kai. He needs me, even if he doesn’t remember it. I have no way home, and therefore nothing to lose. Either way, my life is forfeit.
Why not take the chance?
