Cold Queen - K Webster Page 0,44

and voxin leaves? Did you know those are poisonous as well?”

I walk over to her and take her hands in mine. “Not at first, but Mazon confirmed it for me.”

“Why not tell me?” she demands. “Why let me discover this myself?”

“Would you have believed me if I told you your own sister was trying to kill you?” I ask, my brows furling. “You would’ve sent an icicle through my heart.”

She lets out a teary laugh. “I would have.”

Leaning forward, I kiss her forehead. “This castle is a tomb. Do you really want to stay here after it tried to kill you?”

A heavy sigh escapes her. “I don’t. I want to go with you to the Hidden Lands and then…” She frowns. “Back to your kingdom?”

“My castle is a relic. A representation of my father and the archaic ways of my bloodline. I don’t belong there, Elzira, any more than you belong here.” I kiss her plump lips that are warm. They once were chilled and blue, but not anymore.

“A castle in the Hidden Lands? We don’t even know what exists that way,” she argues.

“I’ve studied history books and pieced together what I think is the old lands of the gods before humans ever roamed the earth. Lands where people like you and I with our gifts had once lived. Lands that are now overrun by monsters who eat the flesh of humans. They’re smart and calculating unlike The Damned. I won’t rest until I’ve scoured those lands and made them my own. Until I’ve slayed every beast and won the Moral War.” I brush my thumb over her bottom lip. “Only the best for our children.”

“Our children?” Her blue eyes widen as she stares at me with hope gleaming in her gaze.

“I plan to marry you, the cold queen of the Norta Icelands, and hope you’re already impregnated by my seed. If it’s what you want, too, then we’ll marry this evening.”

Her smile is fleeting before she pushes back and curls her arms around her abdomen, her pain apparent. “I can’t let her live. I will have to kill my own sister.”

“She’s been trying her whole life to kill you. It must be done, my queen.”

She sighs heavily. “The fires…”

“We both know she isn’t allergic to sichee crawlers. She used your love and protectiveness over her as a weapon against you.”

“The baths…”

“Cold in hopes you’d catch your death by chill.”

She swipes another tear away. “In the back of my mind, I knew something wasn’t right. The way you’d behaved toward my sister and then how she’d been so fanatical about getting me my tonics…I knew.” Her head bows. “And yet I’d still been in denial.”

“It’s easy to be in denial when it comes to the ones you love.”

She sniffles. “It wasn’t until Cavon stabbed you that my world became clear. The moment you fell to the snow and didn’t get up, I knew. He’d poisoned you and all the thoughts I’d been denying crashed into me. I told Mazon to give you the gappenoil because it was the same thing he used to treat me. Cavon accessed that poison via my sister. I just knew.” The air dips several degrees. “How could I have been so blind? To both of them?”

“You were a child when your father was killed and you were forced to be queen,” I say gently, gripping her hips to pull her closer to me where she belongs. “You clung to the two people in your world and trusted them with all your heart. There’s no fault in love, my queen.”

“How do I know you won’t betray me one day, Volc?” she demands, turning her anger on me.

I smirk. “Because if I did, you’d impale me with your diamondblades.”

“Don’t forget it either, Ryke.”

“Never,” I vow.

Her body relaxes in my grip. “I want her to confess. Then, I want to make her pay.”

We spend the next hour planning her sister’s demise. And when we finish, I take my queen down to a quaint room where a priest awaits.

The affair is a simple one given two kingdoms are uniting. Neither of us is one for extravagance, therefore we’re eager for the joining and what it represents.

I asked Elzira if she wanted a diamond or a jewel on her finger, but she had something better in mind.

“Mark your queen as your now, forever, and always,” the priest instructs.

I take her left hand and extend her ring finger. Summoning my fires, I glance up at her before I do what I