Page 3 of Heart of Fire (Royal Ice Dragons #3)

HANNA

In the morning, we flew, following Kaelan’s mission to gather allies…in person, now. It drove me slightly mad to move on without Dare.

As we flew as dragons, Thorne’s wing kept brushing mine comfortingly. Meanwhile, Kaelan flew ahead, too focused on any potential dangers to care if I hated him a little at the moment. Kaelan never minded that much.

Around noon, Kaelan’s ice blue dragon soared down in front of me to land in the snow. When I followed, my feet sank through the brittle crust of snow, so deep that my claws sank through it into the permafrost. When I shifted, I was standing knee-deep in my own paw prints.

“Have I ever told you how much I hate flying?” Jaia looked as if she were trying to catch her breath as she huffed through the drifts.

Thorne landed, dwarfing her. Azora slipped off Thorne’s back, landing hard on the sparkling white surface. When Jaia grabbed her arm to steady her, Azora gave her a smile, but Jaia was in too high a temper to notice.

“Flying is incredible,” Kaelan answered her, but he seemed absent-minded as he was staring at me.

“I’m sure flying is incredible when you’re the one with the wings.” Jaia was brushing herself off angrily. “It’s not that exciting when you’re hanging on for dear life. Or worse yet, grasped in someone’s talons, knowing you’ll be squished if one of these assholes gets distracted?—”

“There’s one simple solution.” Azora waited until we were all looking at her. She announced dramatically, “ Saddles .”

“No,” Kaelan and Thorne said in unison.

“I would wear a saddle,” I said, and Thorne swiveled to also stare me down. I shrugged. “What’s the harm? I used to ride with a saddle. Branok was not going to risk me tumbling to my death when I was Honor’s little sister?—”

“Because, apparently, Branok has no pride,” Thorne muttered.

I shook my head. “I cannot wait to see you meet them. It is going to be…incredible.”

At least, I would be incredibly amused.

“And this is why the princess is our favorite,” Jaia told Kaelan.

He frowned. “I don’t recall asking.”

He was still staring at me, and as the others began their descent down the long hill toward the village, I demanded, “What?”

“You’re so beautiful when you fly,” he said, his voice rough, as if the words were being wrenched out of his chest. “So powerful. And I thought you were…”

He paused, and I thought he was going to just let the words die in the cool evening air.

But he was Kaelan. He didn’t shy away from much of anything.

Even, apparently, admitting his own failings.

“I’m sorry I didn’t see you.” He cupped my cheek with his hand, his gaze searching mine. “I missed out on all those years I could’ve spent being the man you deserve.”

“You were enchanted,” I say, my chin lifting. “I took your memories.”

“It doesn’t matter.” His gaze was troubled. “I should have always seen you. Known you. You deserve better from me.”

He had his memories back of flying together, but it must be different living in the moment now, experiencing what it was like.

“You can make it up to me,” I said lightly.

“Can I?” His thumb caressed my cheek, sending a ripple of tension through my body that made me think he could begin to make it up to me right now.

“We’ll have a lifetime together,” I told him softly. “I’m pretty sure at some point, you’ll have bought me enough things and groveled enough to tip the scales in your favor.”

His lips curled up. “I’m going to make you my queen.”

“Honestly, I’m most excited that when I’m your queen, Edric will be dead under our feet.” I didn’t feel particularly forgiving about all the things Edric had done to Kaelan over the years.

He let out a chuckle. “My perfect, murderous mate.”

Then he kissed me, long and slow. His hand cupped my cheek possessively, his lips nudging mine open. His knee slid between my thighs. Even with our cloaks and gloves, his body seemed to meld to mine as if we were meant to fit together.

Over her shoulder, Jaia called, “Come along now. Allies to make, kings to kill.”

“You know you’re not going in with us,” Kaelan told her as we caught up to them.

“I know, I know,” she said. “Go to ground. Listen to the people. Protect your cat, and also ourselves, but especially the cat.” She rolled her eyes, but she looked at him fondly anyway.

“Stay away from friends and family,” he cautioned. “I’m worried enough about Dare going back home.”

“You can mention my daughter,” she said, her lips quirking. “I don’t think the princess and I have many secrets anymore.”

I felt a glow of warmth at our friendship, which was certainly unexpected, given how we had met.

“Be safe,” he told her. “It’s a command.”

Jaia looks past him to me. “Good luck with this one, Hanna.”

“Good luck with that one,” Kaelan told her, gesturing to Azora. “Given that you are…you.”

“Same,” Jaia told him sweetly. “Try not to drive her away.”

“Can’t be done,” Thorne said. “If she had that kind of sense, she’d already be back on the Isle.”

Azora picked up Finnias, kissed him between the ears, and waved goodbye to Kaelan with Finnias’s little paw. Both Kaelan and Finnias seemed to endure this without any amusement.

“We could hug goodbye, you know,” I said, dismayed at parting for an unforeseen amount of time while they snarked at each other and displayed zero affection. Jaia and Azora were like sisters to Thorne and Kaelan; it wouldn’t have bothered me to see them hug. They should. “You don’t have to be mean to each other and then walk away without a word of farewell.”

“Ice Fae ways,” Kaelan said high-handedly. “You sweet Isle folk wouldn’t understand.”

Gods.

“No need for farewells when I can’t be rid of them all anyway,” Jaia said.

Finnias watched us over Azora’s shoulder, but the women walked away without a backward glance. It was impressive how they managed to care even less than a cat.

Once they had headed into the city, we flew on to the next city, arriving only when the moon was high in the night’s sky. We flew beneath it, making sure our outlines wouldn’t be visible carving across the face of the moon. Hopefully, Edric’s spies would think we were in the city we’d left behind. Azora and Jaia would plant some evidence that suggested we were still in the city and then quickly move on.

Meanwhile, we landed outside Caer Haelock. We had to enchant ourselves to look like someone else as we tried to get close to Lord Arman—the former lord of security for King Edric, someone who still had many loyal soldiers inside the king’s castle. Kaelan wanted to be sure he would be an ally.

“It’s a masquerade,” Kaelan said, “Because of course it is. Fae love a masked ball.”

“But we’re too recognizable even with the masks.” Thorne added.

Looking at their size, their straight posture, the way they carried themselves, I felt as if they were recognizable no matter if they enchanted their faces. Who could catch a glimpse of Kaelan and his aura of power and not know he was a king, no matter whose face he wore?

Glamored, we entered the castle. Kaelan introduced himself as Lord Aivin and me as his lady. There was a mischievous twinkle in his eye as he handed his cloak to Thorne in the hallway.

Thorne took it without missing a beat, playing the role of a servant, but he and I exchanged a secret look on the stairs, following a quiet butler up to our guest suite.

The suite was smaller than it would have been if they had known who Kaelan really was. Either we would have been given Lord Arman’s room while he was relocated to another part of the castle, or we would’ve been arrested and sent to the dungeon to wait for Edric; there was no middle ground.

“Serviceable,” Kaelan said, as a gust of wind blew up and icy rain began to pelt the arched glass windows.

I was already shedding my clothes, drawn to the tub across the room. We’d been traveling too long, and as much as my men loved me, they had to have noticed we were all beginning to reek.

Once I climbed into the enormous tub, I tried not to fall asleep in the warm water. The shimmering pink water carried the scent of roses and honey, and the muscles in my shoulders began to unknot.

Kaelan came over to the tub, trailing his fingers across the edge, and I was suddenly wide awake. His lips quirked in a smirk that I didn’t mind sometimes, when he was so sure about his ability to please me and willing to work to prove himself right.

The candles cast shadows over the hard angles of his face, his full, irresistible lips. He leaned over the tub, his hand dipping into the bubbles that frothed across the water before he painted them over my breast. The contrast between the cool air and his warm touch sent goosebumps racing across my skin. I watched his face—the way his pupils dilated, how his breath caught slightly when my nipple hardened under his touch.

His lips met mine as he tweaked and teased my nipple, the tip of his tongue teasing me until I opened for him. My lips parted, as did my knees, and I slid my damp hand over the back of his neck to anchor him closer to me. His tongue thrust into my mouth, and my hips rocked up, a moan escaping my lips.

He pulled back, his eyes lit with desire, as his fingertips trailed down from my breast across my stomach to my thigh. He slid his hand across the damp skin, circling my thigh.

“Drop the enchantment. Let me see your real face when you look at me like that,” he said, his voice harsh with need.

So I did, and his gaze was intent on me and hungry as he stroked me toward my orgasm, the water rippling around his muscular forearm. I shifted in the water, feeling heat throb at my core, feeling the way his fingers played me so well. As the water lapped around my body, Thorne took a step forward to see me better, his fingers on the front of his trousers.

“Don’t stop on my account,” Thorne said, his voice rough with desire. The timbre of it sent a shiver down my spine, amplifying the pleasure of Kaelan’s touch.

Kaelan didn’t turn around but smiled against my neck. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he murmured against my skin. “Besides, she likes an audience. Don’t you?”

Rather than answer, my eyes met Thorne’s, an invitation that needed no words. Thorne’s lips parted slightly as he pulled himself out, his movements deliberate, almost reverent, as if performing a ritual in one of the temples. Sometimes I felt like the only goddess Thorne would ever worship.

Thorne’s rhythm matched Kaelan’s perfectly, as if the three of us were connected by an invisible thread of energy. His eyes never left mine as his hand moved in long, fluid strokes, the muscles in his forearm tensing with each movement.

The sense of power I had over them was almost as heady as the orgasm itself as my back arched and I writhed in the water.

Thorne let out a muttered curse, throwing his head back as he ejaculated across the water. Though we weren’t touching, it felt as if we came together; my hips rocked up and down in the water, riding Kaelan’s hand as my orgasm swept over me.

My knees were weak, and I felt wobbly when I tried to get out of the tub.

Kaelan grinned a self-satisfied, feral grin, and Thorne threw a towel to him. I wasn’t sure if Kaelan needed the prompting or not from his best friend, but Kaelan wrapped me in the towel and gathered me tenderly to his chest, carrying me across the room and kissing me over and over.

“I have to get dressed.” I tried to push away from him at the same time as I was trying to kiss him one more time, as full of desire for more as he was.

“The party will go all night,” he murmured.

“We’re surrounded by people who would betray us to Edric and see us murdered before daybreak,” I reminded him.

“True. But we’re smarter than they are.” He kissed me one more time and finally released me.

I changed into a shimmering red dress, conjured by magic. When I stepped forward, Thorne’s jaw seemed to unhinge as he stared at me.

I twirled for him, amused by the intensity of his focus.

“You’re gorgeous,” he said, his voice raw.

I felt his approval like warmth, a glow starting in my chest and rising up my neck to touch my cheeks. I grinned and shook my head at him. “You’ve seen me dressed up all the time! I’m a princess, I wear gowns and survive assassination attempts.”

“Yes,” Thorne said, “but I’ve always had to pretend I wasn’t awed by you. Now, I don’t have to hide how I feel.”

I smiled and bobbed up onto the tips of my toes to kiss his cheek. His arm wrapped my waist, holding me close to him as he turned his face to meet mine. His kiss claimed my lips and my attention utterly, and I swayed into him, wishing I could keep kissing him. I didn’t want to go to a party and struggle to make alliances. I wanted to be here with them.

“You’re going to make her even more difficult to handle,” Kaelan muttered, but I was pretty sure he was just jealous because I was kissing Thorne.

Thorne picked up the flimsy red lace mask that matched my dress. I touched my fingers to my face, placing my enchantment back into effect. Faint disappointment settled over his features when my face changed, but his touch was tender as he helped me secure my mask.

“I’d know you anywhere by those eyes,” he said quietly.

“Burning with intelligence and beauty, flame-blue as the temple fires of the goddess Idris,” Kaelan quipped, fixing his lapels.

His mask was secured over his now-unfamiliar features, but the mask covering his face made it easier for me to recognize him despite the changes. His jaw was not as sharp as his real one now, though his mouth was just as maddening. The way he held himself—as if he were born to be king—was always alluring.

I glared at him over my shoulder as the memories of the night he’d had me arrested thudded back into my mind. “You used that line the night you got my own brothers-in-law to arrest me.”

Kaelan’s smirk was unmistakable, even on a different set of lips. “I knew it was you, I knew you would think I was using that compliment on other women, and I knew it would enrage you.”

He was so pleased with himself.

I had felt so hurt and betrayed in that moment. And worse; I’d felt forgettable . Meanwhile, he had been obsessed with me, even as he struck at my insecurities. “You’re not supposed to find this much joy in pissing me off.”

He shrugged. “I do. And I thought you had outsmarted me for a moment that night when you enchanted me to speak the truth and I found myself confessing my desires.”

“I thought you just wanted to fuck me up against the wall.” My voice was tart, but that entire interaction had an entirely different shape. I’d known he had set me up, but I hadn’t had time to think about the raw desire with which he’d looked at me.

He’d seen me through my enchantment.

“Always,” he said, adjusting his lapels in the mirror. “But I’ve never said that line to anyone else. I’ve never been with anyone since the first time I saw you.”

He glanced at me over his shoulder, his smirk breaking into that smile that was real for me, sincere and full. “You’re the only woman in the world who burns that bright.”

“For you,” I said softly, because I knew I wasn’t special…except in their eyes. I wished everyone had someone who saw them as these men saw me. “I didn’t even wear my own face that night.”

“No, but you always have these eyes…a bit too clever and impossible to resist.” He kissed me then, covering my mouth with his, and I clung to him. There was something that felt so special about having this handsome, tall, incredible man wrap his arms around me, to breathe in his scent and be wrapped in his love.

It was hard to break away, but we did.

Kaelan gave me one last look, his eyes soft with affection, then straightened. It was as if a cold wind suddenly blew around us, chilling everything as he settled into his facade.

I raised my chin, ready to match his energy as he held his arm out to me.

“Speaking of burning, let’s go burn down your father’s kingdom,” I said sweetly.

Then we swept out into the hall.

As Thorne followed behind us, I wondered how hard it was for him to pretend to be a servant instead of walking with us…the way the three of us should be.

Four , my mind said unhelpfully. As if I weren’t already tense.

“Stay out of trouble,” Thorne said, and Kaelan frowned at him as if he were the only one allowed to give that command.

Then Thorne disappeared down the hallway. The three of us traveling together were more likely to arouse suspicion, so Thorne would blend into the party as one of the castle’s servants.

Edric knew Kalean wouldn’t let me out of his sight. He would suspect that Kaelan would want more protection for me too. We all knew far too well how Kaelan usually operated.

We entered a lavish ballroom. Shimmering golden banners and tablecloths made it feel as if we were wrapped in a present, and my feet crushed white and gold rose petals, releasing the scent of the flowers. Dozens of Fae dressed in elaborately embroidered tunics or gowns circulated, and even in the fine surroundings, knives and swords glinted at belts, bejeweled but still deadly.

Kaelan handed me a glass of sparkling wine, leaning down to breathe into my ear, “There is Lord Arman by the windows. The bald one.”

There were very few bald Fae. I found him quickly, a tall, gaunt-looking man who appeared incredibly bored by the conversation he was in.

“I’m going to circulate,” I told Kaelan, squeezing his arm.

“Stay out of trouble.”

I flashed him a smile over my shoulder as I moved away through the crowd. He did not return it. His expression was not one of optimism.

As I made my way through the party, I sorted through every snatched thread of conversation, looking for the ones that would help Kaelan in our mission to unseat his father.

“If you think the gods choose the ruler?—”

Another old man cut the first speaker off. “If the gods choose the rulers for us, you’d think there would be less bloodshed when they change!”

I studied the crowd with a smile on my face, sharpening my hearing with magic to pick up other conversations. Too many were boring, but then I picked up on a knot of male and female Fae discussing the Isle.

“The wasting sickness on the Isle might come to our shores. We never should’ve re-opened trade?—”

“The Isle has little enough to offer us anyway!”

I huffed out a breath. Even if trade was open, travel between the Isle and the Ice Kingdom was still tightly controlled. I tilted my head, listening once again to the two old men who stood in one corner bickering about the gods.

“Speaking of the gods, do you think the Royals really did steal their power from the gods? And make themselves gods?”

“That’s a fairy tale.”

I kept a politely blank smile on my face as I wove through the maze of chattering bodies. The opulent ballroom blazed with shimmering candlelight, casting a warm glow over the bright faces of the Fae. Their faces seemed especially bright this deep into the wine; we had arrived at just the right hour. Even the dancers were beginning to stumble.

I had never appreciated the dances back on the Isle. I’d always wanted to practice my spycraft, and I’d been continuously swept away by my brothers-in-law, who danced with me politely, even though I always knew they wanted to be dancing with Honor.

Now I wished I’d enjoyed my time more when I was just a girl, and there were no life-or-death stakes hanging over my head. Those years had been wasted on me.

The smash of breaking glass cut through my reverie, jolting me back to reality. I glanced over my shoulder to see Thorne, blank-faced, facing a nobleman over a wreckage of glass.

“I handed you my glass, you idiot,” the man snarled at Thorne.

The man must’ve thrust the unwanted glass at Thorne, expecting him to take it as a servant, but Thorne’s warrior instincts wouldn’t be quick to take something from a stranger. He might even have thrown up his hand to block an attack before he could register how to play his part. We never should’ve had Thorne try to play a servant.

“My apologies,” Thorne said woodenly.

Thorne’s eyes flashed, unnoticed by anyone but me as he bent down to pick up the shattered pieces of glass, his jaw clenched. The nobleman sneered at him, then looked around to see if anyone else had witnessed Thorne’s mishap. He seemed to be gazing around for sympathy at having to deal with such an idiot.

Thorne straightened with a palm full of glass shards and met the nobleman’s gaze with a cool stare. “My apologies,” he said again, making it clear they were done and the man could move on.

“Get me another glass,” the man said dismissively, waving his hand at Thorne. “See if you can manage a simple task, you moron.”

“My pleasure to serve,” Thorne murmured.

As he moved away to get another glass, I felt a cool presence behind me that I knew was Kaelan’s, even before he rested his hand on my shoulder. “Both of you need to fix your faces. Your murderous instincts just came out to play.”

“He was rude to Thorne.”

“ I’m rude to Thorne.”

“Yes, and it strikes up my murderous impulses when you do it too.”

Kaelan gave off distinctly unapologetic vibes. He took my arm and led me away, leaving Thorne to fight his own battles. I’d really wanted to put a little spell on the man’s fresh crystal goblet, like the trick I’d played on the man who groped me back in the dancing house, but Kaelan’s grip on me tightened as if he had every idea what I was planning. “Be good.”

He drew me along, close to him, as he continued to greet people and make small talk within the crowd.

He nodded at the man who had bullied Thorne. “Lord Duccat.”

The man nodded at him, a concerned look on his face as if he didn’t recognize Kaelan but worried he was important.

When I tried to pull away, Kaelan leaned in and kissed my cheek.

“Are you holding me hostage?” I chided, lingering with my lips near his ear. “To prevent me from playing any tricks on nobles who deserve them?”

“Perhaps I just like having you by my side,” he murmured. “Perhaps I need you.”

I raised my brows at him, but Kaelan didn’t say anything else as he raised his head. “Ah, Lady Terris!”

Watching Kaelan work filled me with a rush of pride as a spy. He was masterful at manipulating people, quick witted and charming.

He was a formidable opponent. I was glad the two of us were on the same side now.

He’d made sure I knew the names and faces of everyone there. Lord Arman stood on a balcony above the dance floor, watching all of us with the occasional visitor allowed into his little court.

Kaelan’s gaze flickered up, no doubt gauging his best way to contact Lord Arman, but he kept moving without attracting any notice.

I squeezed his arm. “I have my own work to do and ‘friends’ to make.” While he worked on the lords, I needed to make contact with their wives and daughters.

He nodded and released me, although he looked after me with the same sense of longing that I felt through my own body when we were separated. I had never expected to see that look so openly on his face.

Even from where I was standing across the room, Lord Arman’s daughter Ginelle seemed distinctly moody for one of her father’s officers, a man ten years older than she was. She blushed every time he looked in her direction. The poor girl seemed to have no idea of how to play this game.

And from the way her father looked at them both, he preferred it that way.

The captain, on the other hand, seemed entirely clueless about how she responded to him.

“You and I should go out to the training yard tomorrow for old time’s sake,” she told him, managing a smile that didn’t do anything to detract from how brightly her cheeks were burning. “I miss when you used to teach me?—”

“That hasn’t been since you were a little girl,” he said, in a tone that made me think he still saw her as one.

“But if you don’t drink too much tonight…” She blushed even harder as he gave her a quizzical look, and stammered, clearly having planned a little bit of flirtatious speech that she was now struggling to deliver. “If you’re not hungover…we could…”

“When you were a little girl,” he said gently, “you weren’t sick.”

“I’m doing better,” she mumbled.

“That’s good.” But no matter what he said, he looked at her in a way that made me think maybe she would never be well.

I watched Ginelle carefully after that, trying to understand just what was wrong. It was one more piece of information that might be useful.

This was just one of a dozen things I was trying to work out about the lord and his family, but by the time Kaelan beckoned me over with two fingers curled at his side, I was beginning to have an inkling about the answers to some of my questions.

“Are you having a nice time?” Kaelan asked, offering me his arm again. He would know well enough that I was not having a nice time.

“It’s a positively beautiful evening,” I said.

His lips quirked as if he knew just what I meant. “Glad to hear it.”

Before I could ask why he had summoned me, he led me into a library—which I was generously choosing not to be offended by, given how he had beckoned like he would a pet, and with considerably more effect than he would have had with Finnias.

I didn’t know why—not that I ever objected to going into a library—but he drew me over by the window. His gaze sparkled down at me as he leaned in.

I tried to frown up at him, but then his lips were on mine. My palm slid up the fine fabric of his tunic, feeling the hard, cool planes of his body beneath it, as his lips nudged mine open insistently.

The tip of his tongue teased against the seam of my lips, and my hips swayed forward to meet his, even as I pushed us apart with my hand. His lips paused above my face, one of his brows arching above those intense eyes.

“There is a time and a place,” I chided him.

“There is.” He pressed against my lips. “And it’s when I say it is.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, but the door was already opening again.

Lord Arman walked in, arguing with his daughter. “It’s unseemly. It’s bad enough if you must flirt with a man fifteen years your senior, but you are also terrible at it.”

Ginelle flushed a shade of scarlet that I had never seen on a face before. Then she caught sight of us, and her lips parted in horror.

“So sorry,” Kaelan said. “We were just seeking a bit of privacy.”

“In my library?” Arman sounded scandalized.

“Well, we were seeking our privacy with you.” Kaelan reached up to remove his mask and his enchantment with one sweep of his fingers across his high cheekbones.

Somehow, seeing Kaelan revealed in all his sharp-jawed, high-cheek-boned glory made my heart flutter, even after all this time, even knowing he was utterly mine.

Arman only appeared shocked for a moment. “Your highness. I wasn’t expecting you…I suppose you know that.”

“I wished to be discreet,” Kaelan said.

“Because your father is seeking to get a message to you that you don’t want to hear?”

“A message is a rather generous perspective on what he seeks to deliver. It seems lately that he’s become disinterested in passing on the throne.” Kaelan seemed more cheerful than one would expect for a man whose father was intent on murdering him.

“And you remain interested in inheriting it.”

“Given that it’s a choice between inheriting the throne and dying a bloody death, yes, I’m rather inclined toward the crown.”

“And why did you come to see me?” Arman asked.

“I’m going to need allies.”

“Last I heard, you had managed to amass quite a few. Though, I don’t know of enough allies to make anyone too eager to join your side.” He was fishing for information, just as Kaelan was probing him.

“I thought perhaps we could make a deal,” Kaelan suggested.

“And what are you offering?”

“A powerful position in my new court.”

As the two of them moved pieces back and forth across the board, it seemed Ginelle and I were left out of the game entirely. She glanced at me, still red-cheeked and shame-filled. I smiled at her, but she just glanced away, her throat bobbing as if she were swallowing down tears.

A wave of pity swept over me. I knew the humiliation of being publicly unloved, even though I’d inflicted that cruelty on myself.

“I retired from a powerful position in your father’s court. If I still wanted it, I would still be there,” Arman returned. “And before you offer me money, I’m not wildly interested in more of that. Not at that level of risk either. I put you and your father at even odds.”

“Even odds,” Kaelan murmured, and to be honest, that was nice to hear, because I thought we were pretty badly outmatched at the moment, unless Honor helped us take over the Ice Kingdom—and that felt like entirely too much to ask. “Well, what is it you want? Everyone wants something.”

“If there’s anything you can offer me, your majesty, that’s worth the risk…”

“I can offer something,” I said, letting my own mask enchantment drop.

Genuine surprise was reflected in both her face and his.

“I didn’t expect you would have your princess with you,” Arman said. “We all know how much you value her.”

There was a distinct threat there, but Kaelan didn’t react. “I need her.”

I flashed Kaelan a smile, feeling a surge of warmth and pride that he admitted that now.

Kaelan took a step back, sweeping his arm toward me. Deferring to me. “What are you thinking, my queen?”

Arman’s gaze sharpened. When Kaelan called me his queen , it wasn’t just a pet name or a promise. It was a threat to anyone who stood in our way.

“I can offer you a way to get your daughter to the Isle back in secret,” I said, “given that King Edric and his people would certainly not sanction such a trip.”

“And why would I want her to visit your cursed little Isle?”

“Because the wasting sickness she suffers stems from the Isle.”

“And why would I want to send her to a place that cursed her? So she could be even sicker?” The irritation in his voice told me I’d struck a nerve.

“Because we have the cure,” I said, more confidently than I probably should. Honor had just sent me another letter, full of relief and joy that they’d been able to cure a few of their plague victims. “We have the cure, and I’ll make sure your daughter gets to the Isle, is healed, and returned home again. No one will ever know.”

“And why would I believe you have the power to do that?”

“Because I’ll be returning home to the Isle to get my sister’s help in this war,” I said, and I felt Kaelan’s gaze swivel to me. “We will be unstoppable. But even if the worst should happen, and we fail…your daughter will live, and no one will be the wiser.”

He examined me shrewdly. “You think you’re clever, don’t you?”

I smiled in response. What was the point in denying it?

“Fine then. I’ll swear on the magic that if you deliver my daughter back to me, healthy and well, you will have my full support.”

“I’m going to need your help before then,” Kaelan said. “I need insights into my father’s plans.”

“I no longer have a front seat to your father’s plotting,” he said.

“No, but you know how he works, and you’re a clever man yourself. So, if you go to him and tell him that I asked for your help, you’ll be able to tell much of what he’s planning.”

“And how are you going to know you can trust what I say?”

Kaelan smiled coolly. “I trust the vows. And if I wasn’t willing to take some risks…I’d run back to the Isle with Hanna and stay there.”

His words startled me. It sounded as if he’d thought about our escape to another world and a quiet, free life…without a crown.

As much as I missed the Isle, the thought of abandoning the Ice Kingdom made me feel strangely hollow.

“Let’s make our vows,” Arman said.

Magic tingled in the air, feeling like the moment before a lightning strike.

I was almost too distracted by the vows, which had to be so carefully pieced together. I almost missed the intense way Ginelle watched me.

Despite her flushed face and her wide-eyed, wild way of looking at the world, a creeping sense of unease ran up my spine.

Something was wrong with Arman’s daughter, but I wasn’t sure what.