It couldn’t end like this, could it? All because of one being’s desire for more power? Power sheshouldn’thave? Couldn’t have?
I leapt to my feet, flapping my wings to bring me closer to her face, glaring at her through the glass. “You won’t be queen, Diedre.”
“As much as I appreciate your confidence, faerie. Time says otherwise.” Diedre cackled and patted the globe before walking away.
No, no. This couldn’t be happening. I never meant for this to happen. If only I hadn’t been so stubborn and agreed beforehand, I wouldn’t even be here. It would’ve already been done—but could I really have blamed myself? It all happenedsofast.
Tears prickled my eyes, and I held my face in my hands.
A loud bang followed by the sound of splintering wood startled me to my feet.
“Diedre,” Jack’s voice roared, dragging out her name as if commanding her. “Where is she?”
Gasping and in a fit of panic, I beat my hands against the glass. “Jack, I’m here,” I shouted at the top of my lungs.
“Whatever do you mean, darling?” Diedre asked, standing in front of the globe and blocking it from view.
“Don’t fucking toy with me, witch. Whereisshe?” Jack loomed over her, and despite the haze of the glass, I could see his ice creature forming over his face.
“Jack,” I yelled again, kicking the glass over and over. From my vantage point, the sounds echoed off the glass so loudly that it made my ears ring. How could he not hear me?
“Back in her cottage contemplating her life choices, I’d imagine. Whyever did you think she’d be here of all places?” Diedre countered.
Jack growled and stalked around the room, shoving tables aside, pulling books from their shelves.
“You’re making a mess and I do not appreciate it,” Diedre spat, moving toward him to straighten things in his wake.
The globe was in clear view now, and I beat against it harder, screamed louder, flew in the middle of it, and did this over and over until I was so hoarse I couldn’t yell anymore. He never saw it. He never saw me. He had no idea I washere.
Diedre could slingher venomous words at me until she was red in the face, but it wouldn’t stop me from looking for her. For my mate. My winter faerie. Shewashere—that sweet scent of Sylvie’s hung heavy in the air.
“Whereisshe, witch?” Grabbing onto a bookshelf, I glared at Diedre, willing her to test my resolve.
Diedre scratched her long, pointy nails down the length of her neck, trying her best not to look bothered by what I was doing—what Iplannedto do. “Winter’s curse, Jakzair. Are you expecting to find her sandwiched between the wall and a bloody bookshelf?”
As much as I despised Diedre’s very existence, I couldn’t deny how powerful a sorceress she had become. It made Sylvie’s disappearance all the more concerning.
“Knowing how you operate, I wouldn’t overlook a fleck ofdust,” I roared before toppling over the shelving. Books flew in all directions, cracking spines and bending pages.
A twitch formed in Diedre’s cheek, and the hand at her neck balled into a trembling fist. “Face it, Winter King. You’ve already lost.” She’d spat the words, coating them with poison, and pointed to an hourglass dispensing white sand.
The creature wasn’t having it, forcing its way out, the icy barbs forming over my forearms, shoulders, and head. Storming toward Diedre, I formed an iced dagger and glowered at her. “I’ve only lost when the last graindrops.” I slammed her back against the far wall, pinning her there with the sharpened barbs on my arm and the dagger’s blade hovering near her neck. “I won’t ask again.”
Diedre cackled, scraping her skin against one of my barbs and making a thin line of crimson form there. “Your threats are pointless. We can’t kill each other, you know that. We would’ve done that a long, long time ago if wecould.”
“That’s fine,” I countered, pressing my fingertips to a painting hanging on the wall behind her. “Killing you would be far too much of a courtesy for what I intend to do until you tell me where. She.Is.” The canvas froze solid, and I slammed my fist through it, the pieces crumbling into shards.
Diedre’s eyes flared, her entire body starting to vibrate. “You infantile asshole. That artist is dead. It was one of the only memories I had of life before becoming queen.”
Material possessions had always been the easiest way to work under Diedre’s skin. Usually, I wouldn’t have resorted to such petty means, but time truly was running out.
“Boo fucking hoo.” Extending a hand, I shot icicles through several vases on a table in the corner. “I neverhada life before being king. So, I sure as freezing hells won’t let you rob me of the only chance I have at some semblance of normalcy.”
A subtle squeak sounded from Diedre’s throat as she watched the priceless vases crack, shatter, and explode from the table. Her gaze lingered in that direction for a breath toolong, however, before returning her attention to me. “Are you enjoying this?”
“It requires my still being in your company.” A wobbling glass orb on the same table as the vases caught my attention because I could have sworn I saw something flash inside it. “Otherwise, I’d be enjoying it far more.”
Diedre made another lightning-fast glance in that same direction and pushed her neck against my icy barb, this time, it fully pierced her skin. “Maybe you’re not tryinghardenough.”
