Page 14 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

It wasn’t just the mages who’d almost killed us off, but dark fae who’d allowed their more primal instincts to rule.

While the dark fae were strong enough to fight off attacks, they’d lost themselves to the darkness.

It was said they’d gone mad with the power and turned on not only the kingdom but also their families.

It was why it was imperative for us to learn to push down our primal instincts at a young age so that our instincts couldn’t rule us. But using it felt.. . natural. As natural as breathing or wielding magic.

Still, I obeyed like the good princeling ward I was trained to be.

Nalari cast a dark shadow when she flew above us. She swooped just above the tree line, the trees shaking when she flapped her wings.

Snow from the brittle limbs above fell on us, and with their magic dimmed, my friends cursed at the sharp coldness.

“Tell her to fly somewhere else,” George grumbled.

“If I eat him, there’ll be one less of you to worry about feeding,” Nalari said.

I huffed out a breathy laugh. It was all I could muster with the emptiness living inside my chest. As small as it was, it died quickly when George sent me a hardened glare.

“Easy for you to laugh, isn’t it?” he asked. While he said it with a smile, his tone was heavy with frustration.

“George,” Everly warned.

“We followed his orders,” George argued, throwing the wood he’d gathered on the ground.

Heat rose to my cheeks, and I bowed my head to hide it.

“I’ve never given you orders,” I said, my quiet reply aimed at the snow-covered ground.

“You went with me to Teddy because you chose to, and I appreciate it.” I lifted my head, catching his eyes before I rubbed a hand over my face.

Sighing, I crossed my arms over my wide chest, where my heart bled with guilt.

A muscle in my arm twitched. “I’m sorry you’re stuck here with me.

You must know how sorry I am, but you can’t cast all the blame on me when it was your choice to tear through the veil. ”

“For your female,” he said, pointing a single finger at me. “We came because you said your female was in danger. Then you told me to take care of her attacker, who was never her attacker.”

Frustrated, George kicked at the snow, sending a handful at my head. I ran a hand across my face to wipe it clean and spit out the little that had landed in my mouth.

“And I told the Elders to punish me, not you.” My words echoed in the forest, and the guilt echoed in my soul. I hated that I couldn’t undo any of this. Hated that if given the choice, I’d tear through the veil again to save Teddy’s life.

A sole bird flew from a nearby tree at the sudden boom of my voice, and my heart leaped with hope. If one bird was still alive, surely there were other creatures.

Without needing my prompting, Everly reached for her bow and arrow and struck the bird before it could fly away. Brenton picked it up and put it in his sack while I focused on George.

“Yet here we are, all of us, living out your punishment,” George grumbled, some of the heat in his tone lessening.

Brenton brushed a hand through his medium-length hair. When snow fell out of the disheveled locks, he shook his head and gave me a self-deprecating smile.

“I’m cold,” he whined, easing some of the tension that rippled in the air. “My fingers are cold, Elias. My nose is cold. I’m pretty sure limbs are going to start snapping off any time now. Let George cry and rant all he wants. Maybe his hot breath will warm us.” He smirked .

Everly snorted. From the corner of my eye, I saw George form a snowball that he threw at Brenton’s face.

Brenton swore when it hit him, but before he could retaliate, Everly threw another snowball at him.

He lifted a finger and spit, making Everly bend over in loud laughter.

But when George aimed one at her, she drew out her sword.

“Go ahead and throw it.” She tossed him a challenging smile. “I already have your eulogy memorized.”

George muttered something about crazy females but dropped the snowball by his foot next to his sack.

“Elias, my stomach.” With a dramatic groan, Brenton held a hand to his stomach. “I’ve never heard it make these noises before. I’m hungry, and somehow, I haven’t seen a single creature or rodent to roast over an open fire, aside from that tiny excuse of a bird.”

While my attention stayed on Brenton’s dramatics, I put a tentative hand on George’s shoulder. “Nalari and I are going to hunt. We’ll bring something back to feed us.” A peace offering I hoped they’d all take.

“If you find us a boar, all will be forgiven,” Brenton said with a decisive nod.

Although he said it as a joke, guilt nestled within my chest. It was true that I hadn’t ordered them to go with me, but I also hadn’t tried to stop them or stop myself.

“I will find a way to make this up to all of you,” I told my friends.

George raised his chin in acknowledgment.

“There is nothing for you to make up for,” Everly said.

Her loyalty humbled me, but Everly had always been loyal to my family as was her mother before her. That loyalty was ingrained in her since birth, and while I wanted to argue her point, I needed at least one friend who didn’t question me .

I could understand if they didn’t forgive me. This was an extreme and unbalanced punishment.

“We came with you because you are our friend. It’s as simple as that,” Everly finished, her eyes holding mine.

“Food and shelter,” Brenton added with a tip of his chin as a satisfied grin spread across his face.

“You get us food and shelter, and I’ll make sure George never mentions tearing through the veil, plunging the human realm to their death, or exiling us without our magic.

” He lifted his smallest finger at me. “Pinky promise.” He winked.

With an amused shake of my head, I pushed his hand down. “Get out of here with your nonsense.”

“Food and shelter,” he shouted when I turned toward the closest clearing to meet Nalari.

“Build your own shelter,” I called back. “There’s plenty of wood.” I waved my hands toward the trees. “Make something useful.”

The trees around me seemed to silence at my approach. I scanned the area, staring at each trunk I passed just in case. If the thunderbirds had made it through and they weren’t as stealthy or fast as the lirio, it’d only be a matter of time until the lethal, tree-like fae crossed the veil.

I climbed Nalari’s leg and scales until I made it to her back. Before I settled behind her neck, she pushed off the ground and took flight.

I bit back my curse and gripped her. “You’d catch me if I fell, right?”

She replied with a dry, “Humph,” that didn’t answer my question.

The cold air bit into my skin in a way the cold in our realm never had. Even the puffs of breath I took seemed harder on my lungs and made me wish yet again my friends had more of their magic so they could keep themselves warmer.

Blankets and mittens. I’d sew them blankets and mittens from the fabric my mother had given me before I’d left.

I doubt my friends would even tease me about my love for sewing once they felt how warm it’d keep them.

It was a unique skill set I’d learned from my mother.

Something she’d insisted I gain knowledge of before I’d joined the military school so I’d have something constructive to do with my hands rather than simply train for battle.

While I’d hated it at first, sewing had become an integral part of me once I'd made my first kill. It was a way to balance the deaths caused by my own hands. If only woodworking had come as easily for me, but anything I’d ever attempted to carve had wound up a mess of wood shavings and horrible angles.

The small hills around us were covered in layers of snow that didn’t melt but continued to pile.

It was a dangerous beauty that was vastly different from that of my realm.

While this realm’s endless winter came from ours, not only was our temperature not as cold, but with fae in every corner of our kingdom able to use their magic to melt the snow, the snow never had the chance to accumulate as it did here.

I narrowed my eyes on a village at the foot of three larger hills.

“We’ll have to evacuate that village,” I told Nalari. “I doubt the people will be happy with me, but I’m worried about an avalanche.”

“They wouldn’t survive an avalanche,” she agreed.

A sudden strong gust of wind blew, and Nalari beat her wings to keep us steady while I drew myself closer to the back of her neck .

“Don’t get too close,” I said. “We don’t want to alarm them with your presence just yet.”

She huffed out a noise that I’d come to learn was a laugh.

I felt my own smile spread. “Can you imagine what the humans will do when they see you—an actual dragon?”

Another laugh rumbled deep in her throat, and I felt its vibration beneath me. “If the snow doesn’t kill them, the shock of seeing me will.”

Through our bond, I felt her sudden joy dissipate.

She pitched to the left, away from the village and back toward the lake.

She circled it twice, using her magic to melt the snow where she landed on the rocky shore.

Once she crouched down, I jumped off her back, but unused to the unstable terrain, I stumbled when I landed, using my hands to keep me from tumbling.

Some of the small rocks pierced my hands and tore through my trousers.

I waved a hand over the trousers to mend the small holes and stared at my palms when they took longer than usual to heal.

“We’re in a strange world, Elias.” Nalari’s watchful eyes fell on my hands. “It may take your magic time to learn how to adapt to this realm. Or it may not come back fully at all.”

“ I healed Teddy just fine the other night.” My heart stammered at the thought of her name.

“I don’t know.” She paused to think. “Maybe it was adrenaline that allowed you to heal her, but I’d say it’s a good sign you’ll adapt and get your magic to function here.”