Page 8 of Bound to the Shadow Queen (Frostbound Court #2)

Everly

I awoke to screaming.

My heartbeat pounded frantically in my chest, my body viscerally remembering a different kind of wailing, a child in the snow. Blood spilling from the arrow in my husband’s chest.

But these shouts were different. Adult, male. Angry instead of desperate.

What in the frosted hells is going on?

I tore out of bed, stopping only long enough to grab my dagger before wrenching my door open. Zerina wasn’t in the hall.

My heart beat faster, thundering in my ears and muffling the sounds of fighting.

My mother was out there, somewhere. I had just gotten her back, and now she was under attack.

I let my wings expand as I all but sprinted down the hall, stopping just short of running into my reluctant guard.

She held her fingers to her lips while motioning with her dagger for me to return to my room. I shook my head, pulling open the door before she could read my intent.

She cursed under her breath, following me out into the chaos.

The courtyard was a storm of wings and steel. Torchlight splintered against blades, flaring across armored warriors and the gleam of sweat-slicked bodies.

New fae swarmed the grounds, their wings broader and heavier than the Shadow Clan’s, like they were built for thin mountain air and brutal storms.

The membranes were thicker, clawed ridges running along the edges where curved talons hooked sharp as climbing spikes. Wicked blades were strapped to the outer joints, turning each wingbeat into the promise of a killing strike.

Their leathers and armor were strange too, marked with sigils I didn’t recognize. A cliff-dwelling clan, but which one, I couldn’t be sure.

They moved with disciplined precision, fanning out in sharp arcs, pressing back my mother’s guard.

The clash of steel rang out, underscored by snarls of challenge and the dull thud of fists against flesh.

One fae slammed into a wall hard enough to splinter wood, shaking snow loose from the eaves above.

My gaze darted wildly across the melee. Wings beat the air, blades flashed in the firelight, but I couldn’t find her. Panic clawed up my throat. She was out there. She had to be.

My breath snagged in my chest, until a shadow dropped over the courtyard and a voice bellowed over the fray.

“Enough!”

The single word cut through the din like a blade.

The battle faltered. Blades held high but unmoving, everyone frozen in the wake of the powerful wave of utterly familiar mana. My feet, too, were rooted to the ground, all at once too heavy to move.

I had forgotten somehow, how powerful my mother was. There was a reason she had been chosen as the stellari of our clan.

She was still here. Still safe. Still alive.

And she had frozen me along with the rest of the fae, but I wasn’t about to draw her attention to my nightgown-clad presence when I had already barreled out here without a single shred of a plan, against every lesson she had ever taught me.

She glided to the ground, holding the fae easily in her grasp as my uncle strode out to join her. I stood frozen outside the doorway, watching the furious faces of the unmoving Skaldwings in the courtyard.

“We give you access to our wards, and this is how you repay us?” Her voice was quiet steel as she scanned their faces, her lips pursing when her gaze landed on me.

“I couldn’t agree more, Stellari Mirevyn.” The voice came from overhead, a calm baritone edged with a warmth that might have been kindness or fury. “Please accept my apologies for my brother’s rashness.”

The owner of the voice stepped forward into the sun’s morning glow. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and utterly sure of the space he claimed. His wings were darker than the rest, the surface gleaming like polished basalt, shot through with pale striations like veins of quartz running through stone.

His face was all sharp lines and rugged edges, his jaw dusted with stubble that caught the fading light of dawn. He was objectively handsome, even if my ring seemed to burn with objection to the analysis.

The oppressive weight of my mother’s mana lifted, and we were able to move again.

An identical figure strode next to the one who had spoken. But where the first male was assured, the second was cocky, his chest puffed out, golden eyes gleaming with arrogance. A single onyx earring graced the pointed tip of his ear.

“What?” he scoffed. “You said you wanted to pay them a visit.”

“Yes, Kyros. Obviously, I should have assumed you would take that as a call to attack while they were sleeping.”

Kyros shrugged. “They shouldn’t have insulted our clan.”

“Better an insult than a blood feud,” the first one hissed.

“I couldn’t agree more, Thane Kaelen.” There was a clear threat in my uncle’s tone.

Thane?

I felt it then, the steady waves of his mana washing over the courtyard. Almost curious, like it was...looking for something. I realized a heartbeat too late what that something might be, right about the time his eyes landed on me.

He swept his gaze from the tips of my wings down to the blade clenched in my fist. There was interest there, bold and unashamed, but not the sneering disdain I had braced myself for.

My mother stepped toward me without glancing my way, proving that it was foolish of me to think I could evade her notice. “There was no insult. We hadn’t alerted any of the clans, as my daughter required time to recover.”

Kyros followed his brother’s stare, letting out another scoff.

“While I won’t deny I can see the need…” He looked pointedly from my bare feet to the nightshirt I hadn’t even bothered to lace.

“It was an interesting decision, given the urgency you claim, Thane Vaerin. And I think we can all agree the other clans were never a real consideration. Unless, of course, there are eligible Thanes hiding in their midst.”

His voice was smarm incarnate, his smirk worse, but I couldn’t muster the energy to scowl at him. Not when my mind reeled around one word.

Eligible.

“This is who you wanted to gift me to?” My voice cracked sharper than I intended. “Why you saved me?” For another Thane. Another male who was powerful enough to make my uncle tread carefully.

“Of course not, Everly.” My mother’s voice was like a whip. “No one is forcing you into anything”

My uncle’s calculating gaze suggested otherwise.

I opened my mouth to protest when Kaelen stepped closer, moving with the inherent speed of a warrior.

“I hope you have a good drink to go with the show you’re putting on.” His voice was pitched low, his teasing smile absent the malice of his brother’s smirk.

I looked around, finding every eye fixed on us. Shards damn it all .

His unexpected intervention reminded me of Soren, but my unlikely ally in the Winter Court was yet another thing I couldn’t afford to think about right now, so I focused on the male before me.

“My uncle keeps his best spirits inside.”

“Then by all means.” He gestured gallantly, like he was the one extending the invitation.

My uncle nodded, though his jaw clenched hard enough to crack a tooth. He and my mother led the way.

Kaelen turned back briefly toward one of his soldiers, a female with twin crimson braids that stood out against her vibrant pink wings. She nodded at his unspoken order, and he continued into the hall, his asshole of a brother on our heels.

As soon as the door shut behind us, I wrenched away, wings flaring in fury.

“Shall I assume you weren’t aware of any arrangements?” Kaelen asked with a raised eyebrow.

“There are no arrangements to be aware of,” I bit back. “Even if I had consented to shop around for an alliance, my marriage bond will not allow me to marry anyone else, or…breed with them.”

Kaelen’s expression flickered with something that looked like pity, before he slipped back into the same easy grin from the courtyard.

“While I’m flattered you’ve gone straight to breeding, forced bedsharing isn’t my thing, Little Frostling. I like my partners willing .” He stressed the word with a glance at Vaerin.

“And if she chooses you, she will be,” my uncle cut in smoothly, shooting me a look that promised consequences, one that made it clear the choice was never going to be mine. “She’s always stubborn to start out.”

My ring flared. Frantically. Could a bond panic? Could a piece of jewelry be afraid?

I displayed my hand for them to see the snowflake diamonds burning cold against my skin. “My stubbornness is hardly the issue, Uncle. Not when my bond is very real, and very unbreakable.”

I tugged on the band for good measure, letting them see how solidly it was affixed to my finger.

Kyros made a sound of disgust, like the sight of the ring physically nauseated him, but Kaelen’s eyes only narrowed toward my uncle.

Vaerin made a tutting sound that set my teeth on edge. “There are no bonds that can’t be broken, not even for the Frostgrave King. After all, a bond requires both parties.”

The blood drained from my face as his meaning took hold. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, my fists clenching as I tried in vain to even out my breathing.

Surely, if his aim was to kill Draven, he would have done it by now. I saw the arrow piercing my husband’s chest, saw him sink to his knees.

That was an isolated incident though. He was exhausted because of the monsters. Because of me. Keeping up multiple wards and caught off guard.

Under ordinary circumstances… He had taken out entire legions at the Frostgrave battle. The Skaldwings were no match for him.

I must have spoken the words aloud because the air went deadly still.

Shards.

Vaerin’s lips were parted in offense, his wings taut. Kyros was shaking with the weight of his fury, and even my mother was looking at me like she had never seen me before.

Only Kaelen looked thoughtful. He held up a hand like he was calling for a semblance of peace, and his mana washed over the room. Whatever power he had, some of the tension left my body.

“There could be another option, assuming…you want out of the bond?”

Did I? My marriage had only ever been forced on me, and surely there was no point in staying shackled to the king who hated my people. If I couldn’t get my mana back, I couldn’t help Winter.

So why did it feel like my chest was caving in?

“Of course she wants out of the bond,” my uncle spat.

“Does she? Or does she enjoy being his whor—” Kyros’ words cut off with the weight of my mother’s mana.

A choking noise erupted from him, and Kaelen clenched his jaw. Several seconds tipped by while Kyros’ arrogant face turned precariously purple. I was torn between wanting her to stop and hoping he passed out so I didn’t have to hear him finish his sentence, but my uncle solved the conundrum for me.

“Enough, Mire,” he ordered, cold amusement belying the command. “I’m sure everyone in this room understands the consequences of another insult to our clan.”

“We do,” Kaelen said sharply. “Leave us, brother.”

My mother let up, though her face was still pale with fury. Kyros stormed out of the room, leaving a tense silence in his wake.

“What is it?” I asked Kaelen.

It was easier than responding to his question outright. Easier than acknowledging the casual bloodshed that governed the lives of the fae, Seelie and Unseelie alike.

Kaelen turned to me, taking a breath while his brother sputtered in the background.

“The Dragon.”

“No.” My mother’s voice was so sharp it seemed to cut the air. The room darkened with the word, shadows gathering in the corners as the torches guttered in and out.

Power rolled off of her in waves, cold and suffocating, the kind that made seasoned warriors shift in their seats and reminded everyone why my uncle had chosen her as his stellari.

“I know it’s a risk,” Kaelen’s voice was kind, but there was an undercurrent that was almost…desperate. “But my seer?—”

“Seers are notoriously blind where dragons are concerned,” she said darkly. “But the Dragon is out of the question. Not only would he be just as likely to burn you to ash as help you, no one even knows how to find him, if he even still exists.”

I turned to scrutinize her.

There was something slightly discordant in her tone…the same way she used to sound when she told stories about my father. The one with the crimson wings who died on the front lines, whose siblings I had once called Aunt and Uncle. Who had never been related to me at all.

To prove my point, she didn’t meet my eyes. Instead, she cleared her throat, her fingers rising to briefly rub the amulet around her neck, before running a hand over her warrior’s braid instead.

“Regardless, there is no need to discuss this right now. As my brother has said, we have promised all of the clans equal opportunity. If and when my daughter chooses a mate, we will ensure that the bond is broken.”

She exchanged a look with my uncle, who nodded after a beat.

“Thane Kaelen, I invite the Stormbreak Clan to stay the evening for the purpose of making your case. I’m sure my niece will be more than amenable.”

He didn’t give me a chance to respond before he directed us into the courtyard. I wasn’t foolish enough to push him on this after my slip up mere moments ago. So I allowed Kaelen to escort me out the door, taking his proffered arm with equal parts distraction and dread.

Because I only had one ally in this clan, and now she was doing more than keeping secrets.

She was lying.