Page 133 of Wicked Prince of Frost

Sent for me… interrupted… The episode in the throne room.That’show he knows.

“I knew there was something strange about you!” he barks a sharp laugh. “But I never would have guessedthisis how you did it! No wonder he has kept you so close all this time, doting on you as if he cared.”

“Let go—you’re hurting me.” I loathe how weak my voice sounds when I want to scream the words.

The king sends a violent pulse through me, releasing his grip.

Unbalanced, I stagger back. The vial slips through my fingers and shatters at my feet. Even as I hunch over, gaspingfor each pathetic breath I take, the urge to apologize is nearly automatic, but I bite it back.

He doesn’t seem to care as he nods toward the broken mess. “Would you like to know what it does?”

I don’t answer. Whatever was inside it is now ruined.

“It would have marked your life force for the Winter Dragon,” he goes on eagerly. “It is a pity you will not get the chance to share the same fate as the other women.” The king smirks. “You would have made a nice edition.”

“Why?” Even though I already know, I cannot help asking anyway.

“Unfortunately, it is necessary to put a stop to it before you ruin everything.” He stalks closer. “If you succumbed to the demons in that garden, then I would not have been forced to push him to present you to the court so soon.”

My heart squeezes. It steals the breath from my lungs and freezes my muscles. Spots bloom across my vision. The moment stretches endlessly as the shapes of things he hasn’t yet said hover just beyond my grasp as the full extent of his actions falls into place, one by one.

The king, seemingly oblivious to it all, continues to speak. “Minister Ilseong nearly succeeded, but who would have guessed the prince with the frozen heart would come to your rescue?”

Black veins pulse from his pupils, cutting through his irises and over the whites of his eyes as if poison in his blood spreads within.

“At first, I thought you were nothing more than another warm body for my nephew to use and discard… Who would have thought you would be his true weakness?”

His words are cruel. Meant to cut. To drive a wedge between Joon and me. Whether his words are true or notdoesn’t matter, because beyond a brief moment of jealousy, I don’t care about Joon’s past. I never truly did.

I shake my head as I back up, trying to put distance between us, even as he follows.

The demon attack. The look of betrayal on Minister Ilseong’s face was because the accusation about the pearl had been the king’s idea.

“Tonight.” The word is barely a sound on my lips, but he catches it.

“Pity the Minister Yeona had to die. She was young, but she was shaping up to be one of the best Arum has ever seen.”

In my stunned silence, he closes the distance. His hand whips out, grabbing my hair. “If you had only left things alone, it would have dissolved with his death.” The king leans in. “Forgive me, but I cannot allow him to get that final shard from you.”

“I-I don’t have it.”

My mind is reeling, trying to process everything he’s said, amidst the agony racking my body.

He knows about the shards and the curse.

No…

The danger, the deaths, the attacks, the?—

He didn’t try to kill me to keep Joon from breaking the curse—he wanted me deadbecausehe is the one who created it.

“Oh, but you do.” He chuckles as he circles a finger, pointing at me, inching closer. “Right—” The king jabs my chest. “—in there.”

At the touch, a pulse of power zaps through me, as sharp and hot as lightning.

“If you die, the shard and the magic within dies with you, then the prince will at long last fall to the curse.”

Demon shit.