Page 58 of Wicked Prince of Frost

I offer her my hand.

“Is it safe?”

I smirk. “I thought you didn’t care about the danger to you?”

Her eyes narrow into a cutting glare as she roughly takes my hand and steps onto the glass. Only the minor tightening of her grasp gives away her nerves as we near the center.

Though it proves awkward to walk with someone holding onto me from behind, I don’t shake her off.

We stop before the broken mirror. Violet’s other hand joins the one already clutching mine as she presses against my side.

The spider-webbed cracks in the glass distort her reflection. A few shards are still missing. I can see her trying to piece together this new information with what she already knows, and failing. She is still missing the part that ties everything together.

“I suppose I should start from the beginning—the beginning of what I remember, anyway. In truth, everything before then, and even that day, feels like a series of half-remembered nightmares where nothing makes sense.”

Violet frowns at that.

“There are details leading up to the curse that are beyond my reach. I cannot even remember how my parents died, only what I’ve been told.” I close my eyes for a moment, and everything is as fresh in my mind as it was living in that moment. “I awoke to the smell of smoke, the loss of my powers, and being cursed.”

A slight noise escapes her throat, but she remains silent, allowing me to continue.

“Each member of the royal family is born with a pearl. It is the source of our power, and our connection to our guardian.”

I glance down at her and gesture to the scar that crosses over my eye. “I am sure you’ve noticed this.”

She nods. Violet wears an emotionless mask. Even though she is usually incapable of keeping her emotions from showing on her face, I cannot read her now.

“I was down here when it happened.” I turn back to the mirror. “I was only fourteen years old. Waking up to the pain is the first clear memory I have. The curse stole my pearl and trapped it, along with my power, within this mirror, shattering it and sending the shards far and wide throughout the land. The first piece I recovered was the one that had embedded itself in my flesh.

“At the time, I could not comprehend the magnitude ofwhat that meant. So, for years, I did nothing.” I stop to swallow down the bile that threatens to come up. At the remembered pain. The regret.

There is no one to blame for my situation except myself.

“My powers grew weaker by the day, until I could no longer control the dragon. By the time I understood that it would kill me if I did not recover all the pieces, I had already wasted too much time.”

Violet’s head whips around toward Imugi.

“They are simply my bonded demon in the form of a dragon. I am speaking of the Winter Dragon. Without my powers, the dragon loses the ability to think and becomes nothing more than a wild creature.”

I pause as a shudder rolls over her.

“Why do you let everyone believe you send it out to attack cities and towns if it’s not true?” she asks, even though we both know she is already aware of the answer.

“The truth doesn’t matter when the world chooses to believe the lie.”

“But—"

“In this case, it is close enough to the truth. The dragon has been unleashed upon this kingdom, the king and queen are dead… and I am responsible for all of it.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

VIOLET

Two stacksof texts sit to my right. I have gone through the entire section on magic and gathered every book with the slightest potential of holding any information that could help me understand what the curse did to Joon’s power.

And none of them has a single mention of stolen or fractured magic, let alone anything to do with curses involving mirrors. At the very least, I expected basic explanations of the effects and general workings of curses. But to find nothing at all, as if they are things of fairy tales?

Pushing away from the short table, I stand. I stretch my back and legs, stiff from hours of study. I frown at the books, then gather them and go about the tedious task of returning them to their rightful places.