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Touch her and lose your hands.

“I will make good on that,” I added, my voice dipping low.

Father’s lips spread in a cold smile that promised malice. “Whore and prince killer aside, you’re right. She is family now, bears our name, perhaps will even bear my future line. Might already, for we all know that she spread her legs for you last night.”

Gasps flew from the crowd, but I kept watching him. He had something up his sleeve.

“I wouldn’t risk harming my blood, son.” He twisted, snapping his long, white fingers. “Bring Sir Qildor here. And find Sir Caelo.”

My stomach fell as soldiers pushed my friend forward, still in his sleep clothes, and shoved him onto all fours. His violet eyes met mine for a moment before he gave a cry of pain. Ice manacles formed around his wrists and ankles, so thick that even a male as strong as Qildor could not break them.

“The whip,” Father commanded and held out a hand.

The weapon appeared too fast, and the king’s fist closed around it, his knuckles white with the pressure. Frost formed on the weapon, which then turned to sharp ice shards at consistent intervals.

“Father, no!”

He glowered at me. “The price for your actions.”

“I will take the lashings.”

“You will not.”

Before I could speak another word, an icy grip formed around my leather boots. Ice shackles froze them,and me, to the ground. Neve gave a little whine, and I twisted to see her smaller boots were also blue with frost and circles of ice ringed her ankles.

“Buthewill, my son.” Father raised the weapon, then brought it down.

The whip cracked, and a moan rang through the hall as Sir Qildor gripped the ground. At the first strike, a tearhad formed in his sheer violet wings, making my throat tighten.

I called air magic, my strongest power, and circulated air, as warm as a son of Winter could make it, around my feet. But it did nothing. No surprise there. Father wasn’t only the king in title. He possessed the strongest winter magic in the realm. Switching tack, I bent at the waist, hoping to force my feet out of my rigid boots, but Neve’s grip tightened on me.

“He’ll freeze you up to your knees,” she whispered. “Then he’ll go longer on Sir Qildor.” The column of her elegant neck bobbed as she swallowed. “Harder.”

How was it she knew my father so well already? Or did she just know the cruelty of kings that well?

I had no idea, but my wife was right. One wrong move, and I’d be stopped, either by ice or by one of the many guards at the king’s command. My father might even kill my friend. I stood still as the whip cracked twice, three times, four. I stopped counting at ten.

The iron tang of blood hung heavy in the air and my friend’s moans, which had started out as loud and gut-wrenching, grew faint. Weak. Still, Neve gripped me tight, and I tried to cling to the belief that he’d stop, that he’d see sense. But when the skin of Qildor’s back was little more than ribbons punctured by ice spikes and multiple tears riddled his wings, my refrain vanished.

I’d opened my mouth to speak when Mother rose from her throne. “I believe that is enough, my king.”

Father froze and turned slowly, his glacial gaze so intense that anyone else would have run.

Not Mother.Full of grace, she descended the steps and placed a hand on her husband’s shoulders. “He’s a Clawsguard—an elite soldier. They take so long to train. Don’t waste that talent.”

“You’re right. I will move on to Sir Caelo,” Father growled. “Where is he?”

Silence hung in the air, heavy and thick and suffocating.

“We cannot find him, my king,” said Lars, an older Clawsguard. He was among my father’s most trusted. “No one has seen him since last night. He was supposed to report to rounds this morning but did not show. He’s not in his room either.”

Snow swirled viciously around the king again. “When he’s found, bring him to me. He, too, will pay for bearing witness to my son’s idiocy. For not stopping it and protecting Vale from following the whims of his cock.”

I began to protest when Father turned his ice-blue gaze on me. “As for you, go to the docks. Tell the vampire’s ship what happened and to leave my port. We will send diplomats to their court later.” Father released the magic holding my feet in place and stormed out of the throne room.

Chapter 6

NEVE