Page 9 of Thorns of Frost
“A love potion?” I snorted. “Are you serious? I don’t love him. I’m just saying he’s not as horrible as we thought.” I waved my hand at the Exorbiant Chamber. “He’s not keeping me in the dungeons, is he? And he let me write to you. Don’t you see what I’m saying? He’s not purely evil.”
She crossed her arms, then arched an eyebrow. “He murdered our parents, Lara. He murdered Tormesh. Why do I need to remind you of that?” Disgust rolled across her features, and for the first time in our lives, something else did too. Disappointment.
Burning shame swept through me like crashing waves on the Tala Sea. I lowered my gaze to my toes. “I know. Honestly, I know. Don’t worry. I would never forget that.”
“You better not.”
My stomach clenched. “Anyway, I need to get going. The prince and I have been working on a field in Harrivee Territory. He’s taking me there again today.”
“Can I come with you?”
She asked the question too quickly, and the look in her eyes told me why she really wanted to join us.
She didn’t trust me.
My sister truly felt I was falling under some ridiculous spell the prince was weaving over me, and she probably saw it as her duty to free me from it.
“I’ll be fine, Cailis.”
Her lips pursed, reminding me of Daiseeum, my lady’s servant. “See to it that you are, Ilara Seary.”
Her meaning smacked me in the face. She’d just addressed me as our mother had when we roamed too late in the fields or were getting into mischief with Birnee and Finley.
Keep your distance from the prince. Don’t fall any further for him. Don’t betray me.
Her unspoken words made an ache form in my gut, but Cailis was right. Even if I had reluctant feelings for the prince, I wouldn’t act on them.
I slipped my hands into my gloves, my thoughts finally aligning with hers. “You need to stop worrying. I won’t do anything stupid with the prince, and you’re right about what you said earlier. We should find a way to escape. But we have to be smart about it. We’ll have to plan wisely.”
“Do you mean that?” A look of such intense relief washed over her features that guilt again burned in me. My sister was what mattered. Not the prince. Not the court.
But then my thoughts flew to the Solis continent and the millions of fae who called our frozen land home. To the bargain I’d made with the prince to restore our continent’sorem. If Cailis and I left, they would all starve.
The headache I’d been battling when Sir Featherton had been prattling on threatened to rise again.
“I’ll see you when I get back.” I kissed Cailis on the cheek, then strode from the room and out into the hall where the prince waited.
I tried to ignore the knowing smirk Sandus wore. I figured the guard was aware of the prince and my proclivities last night. Either that or he’d heard our heated arguing in the bathing chamber.
But seeing Sandus’s amusement together with the disgust from my sister reaffirmed how easily I’d fallen under the prince’s charm. I couldn’t allow it to continue.
Cailis. Cailis. Cailis.
My sister was what mattered the most now.
It was best that I remembered that.
* * *
The prince mistphasedus to just outside of Barvilum, the small seaside town on the southern edge of Harrivee Territory.
Waves crashed against the shore, and the sun shone brightly when the realm formed again after we’d been ripped through mist and shadows, air and wind.
Familiar ground covered in snow appeared beneath my feet, and the faint call of birds cawed in the sky.
Nothing but the sea, sun, and snow surrounded us. Farther out in the ocean, the Glassen Barrier Islands were visible, along with huge icebergs floating in the waves.
Prince Norivun stood just behind me, and his aura—while not quite as pounding as it’d been when he’d spoken of Vorl—was still strong.