Court of Winter (Fae of Snow & Ice, #1)(50)

And as the minutes ticked by and nobody came to the door, or murdered me through the window, or called for me to come out, I eventually came to the conclusion that they’d both left.

I stayed where I was though. My entire body was shaking, so I sat on the cold stone floor, wrapped my arms around my knees, and rocked back and forth.

The crown prince believed that I had magic. Magic strong enough to create orem. And he wanted to use my supposed magic to heal our land.

My brother had been right all along. Our land was dying. The crops really were withering, and we would all starve unless something was done to make our crops thrive again.

But how could that answer possibly be me? I didn’t have magic. I didn’t have wings. I was defective, wingless, magicless . . . And nobody could create orem. That came from the gods and was only replenished by our universe’s celestial events. The gods decided those fates too. Not me.

It was so preposterous that I threw my hands up and pushed to an abrupt stand.

I paced back and forth as the prince’s face burned into my mind. If this was why he’d taken me, why hadn’t he just told me so from the beginning? Why had he kept it such a big secret?

He probably did it just to torment you, just because he could.

My lip curled as my hatred unfurled like a poisoned rose within me.

Prince Norivun was evil. Everyone was right about him, and his expression when I’d revealed to him what he’d done to my family hadn’t been that of shock, regret, or surprise. Oh no. He hadn’t worn any expression at all. He’d simply let me scream and rail at him while he probably counted the seconds until I was done.

I paused by the mirror, my chest heaving. Flushed cheeks, too-bright eyes, and dark hair that hung in curling waves past my shoulders reflected back at me. My eyes looked as blue as the gems mined in Harrivee. I brought a hand to my mouth when a sudden nearly hysterical laugh escaped me. I’d slapped the crown prince of the Court of Winter, and he hadn’t murdered me. Yet.

That thought sobered me instantly, and I resumed my pacing.

I’d gone too far. I knew that, but I hadn’t been able to contain my fury any longer. For a month, the prince had held me prisoner, and he hadn’t told me any of his beliefs or his plans.

Quite simply—I’d snapped.

I padded to the door, my heart thrumming in my chest as I debated what he would do from here. If he truly thought I was the key to saving our lands, then I doubted he would kill me—even if I knew I couldn’t save anything.

So then the next question became, just what exactly did he have planned for me?

I finally disengaged the lock to the bathing room and swung the door open. I was so lost in my thoughts that I almost stumbled into a dark figure standing by the glass doors.

I hastily backpedaled, a shriek caught in my throat.

The crown prince stood silently, hands clasped behind his back as he gazed at the garden. It was dark out since only one of the moons was alight.

I gasped as my heart turned into a galloping beast in my chest.

He’s been here the entire time?

“I remember your brother,” he said, without turning to face me. “His features were similar to yours.”

A soft mewl worked up my throat, but I quickly swallowed it down. Tormesh, Cailis, and I all had similar features. Our father’s nose, our mother’s mouth, a combination of their eye shapes.

“He seemed intent on alerting the entire continent to our plight, but I couldn’t allow it. To do so would cause panic and chaos. We’d been trying to find a solution to save our land quietly and discreetly even though some fae had begun to notice the decline in our continent’s orem, so I did what was expected of me when your brother came to the court. As the Death Master, I did my duty.”

He turned to face me. In the dim light, his eyes burned like sapphires. “I understand you hate me for killing him. Even more so because your parents presented themselves several weeks later and suffered the same plight.”

“But why?” A sob shook my chest. “Why did they have to die? They would have remained quiet if ordered to do so.”

His jaw tightened, so slightly that it could have been a shadow—a trick of the light. “I had to.”

“You didn’t.” I shook my head back and forth rapidly. “You didn’t have to. You chose to.”

He turned back to the window, the aura around him pulsing so high that it threatened to swallow me, yet his face remained impassive. Completely blank. “It doesn’t detract from what is expected of you. We need you to save our land, Ilara. Your parents’ and brother’s deaths don’t change that.”

He said it all so matter of fact, so businesslike, as though sucking souls from my family was part of his daily duties, and that was that.

“How can you be so cold?” Nausea rolled through me, and I collapsed onto the nearest chair. “Do you feel nothing?” I asked quietly as all of the fight went out of me. How did one fight a fairy who was as hard and immobile as stone? “Do you feel anything at all when you take a life?”

I blinked, and he was sitting on the couch across from me. He’d moved silently, like a phantom.

“What I feel is irrelevant.” He sat as still as a statue, not one muscle moving or twitching.

Such control. Such perfect control of any outward expression.

My shoulders slumped. He would never care what he’d done to me or my family. And even worse, as the crown prince of the Solis continent, he controlled anyone his heart desired, so unless I played the game and danced the dance, I would never be free of him. I would never be free to return home. To Cailis. To my friends. To my small, meager life but a life that was mine.