Page 106 of Wicked Prince of Frost

I am a fool for not heeding his earlier advice.

“She has no access or ability to create such things,” I point out in a mocking tone. “Especially when she has spent so much of her time under careful watch.

“A witch is capable of doing so unnoticed. Even within the palace walls.” Minister Ilseong is relentless.

“She is human.” It’s growing ever more challenging to keep my temper in check.

Ilseong looks to King Sameun again as if expecting a specific response. “If that is so, then she clearly conspired with a witch and brought it with her.”

“What evidence do you have that led you to that conclusion?” the king asks.

It is not the response the official was hoping for. I straighten in my seat. Minister Ilseong will continue to talk in circles, falsely accusing her, until he gets what he wants. But I have no intention of allowing it to go that far.

He moves to stand beside her. “Well, that is merely conjecture. However, there is no other explanation for why she possesses a forbidden forgery. That treasonous act alone is enough to warrant her death.” His hand shoots out and yanks her head back by the hair. A dagger appears in his hand. The metal glints with malice as he brandishes the blade against her throat. “I call for her immediate execution!”

King Sameun is silent for a long moment. I know his answer before he moves to speak. There are laws that even kings and queens are subject to.

“No,” I say calmly, rising to my feet and descending the stairs.

I take my time. Our audience holds its breath, waiting to see what I will say, what I will do. I stalk toward the Minister of Justice.

“I think it was you,” I say. The man sputters, but I don’t give him the opportunity to speak. “Do you believe I haven’t heard the whispered rumors you spread? Or the ways you choose to speak out against me for years?”

“That-that’s—” The look on his face makes it clear he believed I had not been aware of his movements all this time. That I was oblivious to his machinations. Too weak and too stupid to figure it out.

I lean in to whisper so only he can hear, “Did you think I wouldn’t find out how you sent people to murder her in the streets or the demons you lured into the gardens?”

His eyes bulge, and he looks to the king in panic. But my uncle does nothing. It’s more than enough to cement my suspicions.

The recent threats to Violet’s life, and now this farce, were too manufactured and too close together to be coincidental. All of it was his doing. I straighten.

“And now, you plant this abomination among her things, where it happens to be discovered so you can stage this trial as yet another way to undermine me.”

I turn his lie back on him. We can see the truth of it in each other’s eyes.

The silence in the room is heavy.

Now, he knows what it is like to have no one come to his defense.

Minister Ilseong knows he has lost. If he changes his story now, it will only make his guilt that much worse.

I lift a hand to shoulder height, keeping my eyes locked on his. A jagged crystal of ice forms under my palm. It flies through the air and finds its mark in the chest of the guard who kicked Violet. Shouts of alarm fill the room. Ilseong gasps and turns to look. But my hand is already around his throat, squeezing until he releases Violet. His weapon drops with a clang against the marble as he grapples uselessly against my grip, trying to pry himself free.

My fingers elongate, turning into razor-sharp talons. The tips press into his skin, slowly piercing. Hot blood seeps from the wounds. I pull his power from it, then send it back into him.

The power of the bargain commanding me to protect her is a weak pull, smothered by my own will.

The quiet crackle begins in his throat, first cutting off any ability to make a sound. It moves into the muscles of his limbs, then his organs. I let the ice form slowly. Painfully. Only when he passes out do I let it consume his lungs and heart, then over his skin until he is encased in ice.

It is not the enchanted ice of the Winter Dragon but of the undeniable death of a traitor.

I release him. His frozen body crashes against the floor with a hard crack.

Violet whimpers and shies away from her would-be murderer. She is pale, and her eyes are wide. I offer her my hand. Slowly, she pries her gaze away from the minister’s body.

For once, I cannot read her expression. Is it for what Ilseong would have done to her or for what I did to him?

I crouch and grip the irons chained around her wrist. Witha burst of power, I freeze them and twist, shattering them into a thousand pieces between us.