Neve screams, throwing the second icicle with less accuracy. I’m barely able to use my frost to stop this one, the throw strong enough for me to stumble back a step.
Shit.I’ve always known Neve is more powerful than her mother, but I’ve never had to really fight her. Even during her rage after waking up, I assumed exhaustion would eventually win out.
She flies across the space, using the ice to propel herself, and slams me into the rocks behind us. I grunt and grab her wrists, more ice gathering in her hands. After ripping her arms above her head, she attempts to make the ice longer to stab me all over again.
Glaring at her, I sink into the shadows. Her eyes widen a fraction when she realizes my trick, and her silent scream falls on deaf ears as we tumble into the darkness together.
Her ice can definitely still stab me in here, but getting the upper hand is important before she manages to really hurt me. Ihave ice and shadow magic, but Neve is the better winter mage. A hundred years of sleep didn’t dampen her skills. If anything, the uncertain queen I met in the dungeons was blinded by disappointment, not lacking power.
Had she not been so new all those years ago, I never could have borrowed her magic in the dungeons. Now, she has rage to help force her strength through her motions.
When I throw us out of the shadows again, Neve’s still screaming. We’re farther from the palace, tumbling into the snow close to the mountains. She lands on top of me, and I force my hands into the sharp icicle tips before dissolving them.
I’m too focused on getting control of her ice that I never consider Neve might know how to fight. I grasp one of her wrists, intent on getting this damn girl to listen to me. She draws her arm back fast enough I don’t quite catch her before her knuckles strike across my face.
For just a moment, I’m too stunned to stop her. Neve fucking punched me.
And, fuck me, if it wasn’t goddamn beautiful.
“It had to be you!” she screams, throwing ice from her fingertips. I’m prepared for it to rain down on my face, but all the little shards seem to land around me instead of hurting me. “It has to! No one else could kill my father!”
She stops throwing ice at me, keeping me pinned beneath her straddled thighs, and when she starts pounding on my chest with closed fists I see the pain return. Her strikes are hard, but no harder than the burn she left on my cheek.
Her eyes gloss, and she looks more frustrated than ever. “Why? Why won’t you fight back?”
“I could, but it’s not going to give you any satisfaction. You want the King Killer, right? Even if you take my life for his, Neve, I didn’t kill your father. It’s not going to give you the vengeance you crave.”
She stops slamming her fists into my chest, her hands frozen against my dark coat. Pained eyes glare down at me, matching the broken crack in her voice. “Then who will?”
Holding up my hands again, I nod to one side. “Let me up, and I will show you.”
“Show me?” she hedges, unmoving. Her legs clench on either side of mine, sending my thoughts to unholy places. “You didn’t even know about the history of this land. How can you show me anything from the past when you don’t understand it?”
“Loaded question, Your Majesty,” I reply, and she grits her teeth at the jab. “Get up, and I can show you how. Maybe you can shed some light on Wonderland afterward.”
A flicker of uncertainty crosses her eyes, and for a moment, I wonder if she’ll simply try to kill me. It’s not going to work since I am now cursed,twice, with immortality, but she can try all the same.
If Dima’s ignorant attempts didn’t work weeks ago her strikes aren’t going to end me tonight either.
Neve all but throws herself off me, using the ice to push herself up. She’s wearing a cream-colored gown with embellishments and high slits on either side of the skirt. It draws way too much attention to her thighs, and I’m already struggling to stay focused after she pinned me.
I let the shadows give me a momentary reprieve before I stand, moving closer to the jagged rocks that follow the base of the mountains. Snow flurries around us, the storm growing closer.
She gestures to the space around us. Pain and distress burn her gaze, and I can’t quite get a lock on what she’s thinking. “I know you recognized Hartsell, but did you recognize the man at all?”
She hesitates, biting her lip. “Not the man. I’ve never met Lancelot.”
“Neither have I,” I reply carefully. “He’s from Camelot and I don’t know much about that kingdom. I heard him speaking to a few people recently, but I had nothing to put the face and name together until now.”
“How can you not know more?” she asks, scoffing. “What have you been doing for a century, ice mage? Staring at me while I slept?”
“I died again at one point,” I say casually, and her gaze flickers to the spot on my neck. “And I had to teach myself how to use my ice magic. I’ve had things to do, Neve. More important than watching someone I couldn’t wake.”
“And howdidyou wake me?” she presses. She gestures wildly behind us, and I’m surprised how attuned she is to where we are. It's like she senses where the palace and capital city are. “I sleep for a century, and then I just wake up, and no one knows why?”
“Because your mother was busy keeping you asleep.”
Neve bares her teeth, but there’s too much pain in her eyes for her to be vicious. “Tell mewhy, Ban.”
