“But earlier–”
“She was watching you like a hawk,” he interrupts. “She studied every muscle in your face while you were in that dreadful meeting, and again when you came in here. The loyal Icebound seem attached to her. As spirits, they are more attuned to me than the living.”
“How long were you in the meeting uninvited?” I ask. We didn’t talk about anything important like I wanted to, but if we had, it could have been a security problem.
He smirks. “The entire time. You can’t see me when I’m in the shadows, but I watch you. I wanted to observe what the Snow Queen was up to.”
I scoff. “You heard her. She’s planning a ball.”
Ban nods, tilting his head before he studies the map. “A ball is a little unorthodox at a time like this. The Mad Queen is ready to rampage across most of Mystica, and your mother is planning a ball. Does she think Icicle Pass will keep the Frostlands safe forever?”
Slowly, I study Ban’s profile. His eyes remain on the map, and mine stay on him.King Killeris on the tip of my tongue, but I bite back the words. Unlike everyone whom I’ve had the displeasure of speaking with in the past few days, he doesn’t make me work for knowledge. He offers it freely.
It’s more than I’m getting out of Mother.
Fisting my hands, I decide on neutrality for today. For right now. He easily dodged my icicles by going into the shadows, so if I keep throwing ice around the room, I’m just going to ruin the memory of my father. I doubt Ban’s going to go out of his way to preserve what’s left of the King.
“And who, pray tell, is the Mad Queen?”
He turns and raises a brow. “She was the Queen of Hearts for a time, before the King of Diamonds died and she decided to rampage across Mystica. These borders on the map? They are wrong. Nothing stops the Flowerborne, or, so it seems, Camelot.”
King of Diamonds… like King Jasper?“Flowerborne?” I hedge, keeping thoughts of the King to myself. I think I met him once in the past; with everything that’s happened over the last few days, I might be confusing facts.
“Its probably not something to concern yourself with,” he says, shaking his head. “The plants can’t survive in temperatures this cold, and they wouldn’t make it up Icicle Pass. The rest of Mystica isn’t so lucky.”
I hate,hate, that I want to keep talking to this man. “So my mother is just… what? Pretending everything is okay?”
“I wouldn’t say the Frostlands have gone out of their way to be involved in matters across the land since you fell into an endless sleep.” I notice heverycarefully avoids mentioning anything about my father. “I didn’t leave the Frostlands for many years after your disappearance. Before that, I can’t say I knew much about the state of the world. Maps are a treasure out here.”
Frowning, I reconsider him. I never thought of who he wasbeforehis magic. Was he a poor civilian here? I vaguely recall mentions of the moon and a curse from the night Father died, but I didn’t worry about putting it all together. It shouldn’t matter when all I want is him dead. “So, nothing’s changed. We still don’t help the people suffering in this harsh climate, and we alienate ourselves from the world. No one wondered about my mother's long reign while I was gone?”
He hesitates. “To be honest, Neve, the affairs of the Frostlands aren’t well known. Even when I’ve spoken to my friends, they rarely know much of anything that goes on up here. It’s too isolated.”
“You have friends?” I smirk.
Ban throws me a half-smile, nodding. “Elsewhere in Mystica. In Sherwood and Thornton.”
“I never even heard of Thornton until tonight,” I say carefully.
He gives me a calculating look, bits of his long white hair falling across his face. It’s much longer than when I met him years ago, but I can’t help thinking that the look in his eyes is exactly what first made me think he’s attractive.
Bad Neve. Do not even go there.
“When your mother fails to give you the truth about your past,” he continues, pushing away from the wall, “you can ask me. I have nothing to gain from lying to you, Neve. I would not have woken you up otherwise.”
I startle.Hewoke me?
I was certain I managed to wake myself, or perhaps something outside the cabin had awoken me. Yes, Ban was there, but it never occurred to me why. He’s more of a monster than I thought if he decided to wait a century. I tamp down my anger and try to think clearly.
Remember, he’s immortal too. Perhaps it’s the ice curse, or he is this way because of that Reaper nonsense. He’s one of the only people left who were there a hundred years ago and recalls what life used to be like.
When I only offer him silence, he twists his wrists, and that dark mist appears. I’m prepared for him to strike, lifting my hands, but all he does is show me the item he’s now holding.
I stumble backward, managing to keep my hands up. A spinning needle lies in his palm, one that I definitelydoremember.
For this freeze to never keep, one must forgive the frozen sleep.
I heard it before, when I met Ban in the dungeons, and again, the last time I saw that needle. Gritting my teeth, I straighten my arms and push out long, thick icicles in his direction. I don’t throw them this time, but the message is clear. He’s not getting anywhere near me with that thing.
