Page 118 of Wicked Prince of Frost

It’s a short distance, but I am gasping from the exertion by the time I reach the main entry.

Imugi pauses, watching me. Probably to see if I will follow or faint.

I nod and motion to keep going, following the sound of Joon’s and Mingi’s muffled voices.

“Joon,” I call to him. I want him to know I’m here. “Joon!”

There’s another voice, one I don’t recognize. Too deep. Too raw. “Stop her! She can’t?—”

I pass through the open door and stop in my tracks.

Joon and Mingi are the only ones in the room.

Shimmering scales break out across Joon’s skin and disappear—the same as the iridescent sheen that flickers over patches of his skin every time he’s siphoned.

Joon stops partway down the steps leading to the underground cavern, holding the mirror. Our eyes meet.

Mingi races over, tugging on my arm, but I refuse to be moved.

Because one of the eyes staring at me does not belong to him—it is not the deep, endless blue that I could drown in—but the summer blue of the Winter Dragon’s eyes.

My gaze drifts down to the arm he clutches with his other hand, but that is not his either.

Betrayal tightens my throat.

The Winter Dragon isn’t some beast he keeps locked up?—

Before I can think of anything to say or do, Joon’s body shudders, and then he’s gone. Disappearing into the depths below the castle.

Yanking free from Mingi’s grasp, I spin on my heel and race for my room. I catch myself in the open doorway and stare at everything that is not mine.

He lied.

He’s been lying to me this entire time.

He talked about the dragon as if it were something separate from him, something he controls—rather than a part of him.

He attacked people, freezing them—my parents.

He did this to them.

The betrayal threatens to suffocate me if I stay.

I grab my cloak and run, half-blinded by the bitter tears that sting my eyes.

Imugi sails through the air and hovers before my face, blocking me before I can step outside.

“Get out of my way,” I grind out. My teeth are clenched so hard, my jaw aches.

“Where are you going?”

Joon once said the dragon killed his wives, not him.Another lie, I think bitterly. How gruesome were their deaths? I need to see the truth of their fates for myself.

My heart seizes. Did Joon kill them because they learned his secret too, or had they simply outgrown their usefulness?

“Where is the royal crypt?” I demand, ignoring their question.

“In the chamber below the Temple Tower. Why?” Iseul asks from behind.