Page 145 of Wicked Prince of Frost

The monster chuckles, amused by the effort I exert on such a simple thing. He points to the ground and swirls his finger, motioning for me to turn. My body obeys his command as if it is no longer mine to control.

The boy in the mirror lifts his head and gracefully gets to his feet. He turns, the upper part of him shrouded in a shadow that cuts diagonally across his torso.

He takes a step forward. The unnatural umbra melts away, revealing his face.

It is not my brother, as I’d assumed…

My reflection stares at me. His head lists to the side in a jerking motion. Vines of bloody thorns, wrapped around his limbs and body, push outward. The mirror’s surface ripples as his hand passes through it.

A cold smile stretches over the lips of the other me a second before his fist plunges into my chest. He rips his arm back to whatever nightmare realm lies on the other side of the glass.

Slowly, he unfurls his fingers, revealing my pearl—the connection to both my guardian and my magic. I lunge, onlyto slam into the hard surface. I claw and scrape uselessly at the glass.

Dragon! I call to the guardian within me.Dragon!

There is no answer beyond a restless writhing that lets me know he is still there.

The boy within the mirror holds his free hand, open above my pearl. His fingers undulate, pulling on invisible strings. Light blue light shines as he works my power from it.

He throws the glowing orb of magic. It smacks against the glass, seeping in and seeps in, becoming one with it. A cold grin stretches over his mouth right before he hurls the pearl. I flinch at the loud crack and watch in horror as it fuses with the mirror.

The soft crunching of cracking glass feathers outward, growing louder and faster as fissures race across the surface.

Then, silence.

Three heartbeats… four… five.

The shards explode in a fierce explosion.

Blinding, searing pain slashes over one eye. My hands fly up, hovering over the area.

“Your memories will be gone within minutes, and soon the pain you feel will be a distant dream, half remembered,” my uncle’s voice whispers into my ear.

The writhing inside me stretches. Shimmering scales break out across my hands, then disappear with each thrash of dragon’s claws.

“Soon, everyone will know that you killed your family because you were too impatient to wait to sit on the throne.”

“That’s… not true,” I grind out as I fight to keep my guardian contained.

“When the world wakes, they will know of your treachery, but I will be by your side, watching as you fail to regain the broken shards of your power until the day you finallysuccumb. When that day comes, I will take great pleasure in ripping out your throat. And all of Arum will cheer me as I claim my crown, once and for all.”

“No!” I scream.

In my anger, the tenuous grasp I had on my guardian slips. The dragon breaks free, sending my consciousness plummeting into darkness.

There is the vague sensation of flying over the palace—a roar summoning a massive storm to envelope the entire kingdom. Images of the fae lands and cities blur past. A blast of ice cuts through the forest, clearing the way.

I wake, cold and afraid, the next morning with Imugi at my side. We are on a platform surrounded by a small pool of water that looks like a sheet of silver. Before me is the polished metal backing of the broken mirror with lines forming a map of the missing pieces.

With a groan, I sit up. The cut running through my eye from brow to cheek stings with the rawness of it. My hand goes to my eye, fingers brushing over the sharp edge still protruding. My heart stumbles.

Blood seeps from the wound like a crimson river. I grip the shard with both hands, ignoring the pain of the jagged edges that dig into the tender skin of my palm.

A scream rips from my throat as I try to remove it in a single pull. But my hold is slippery from the new injuries.Bit by bit, I make progress. Each attempt is agony. Several times, I stop to wretch from the pain.

Finally, it slips free, and I let it drop.

Imugi breathes a puff of fog over my face, instantly dulling the pain. My skin tightens as it stitches itself back together.