Winter's Bride - Candace Wondrak Page 0,48

pleasure we gave each other that night was indescribable, unbelievable, and undeniable.

Hours later, when the sun poked through the window, an oddly nice and bright day outside with not a single cloud in the blue sky, I realized I could never say goodbye to the Winter king.

Chapter Nine – Summer

I gave Morana privacy. She’d asked for one month, and I was determined to give it to her. Every now and then, I did pop up in my brother’s castle, just to make sure she was still alive and breathing and not frozen. If something should happen to her in the next month, I didn’t know what I’d do.

Granted, I didn’t think my brother would do anything to her, since he’d all but begged me to take her. Still, it was Morana herself who had expressed to me she needed more time. Time to think, time to decide.

There was no decision as far as I was concerned. There was only me. I had kept watch over her for nearly her entire life, not my brother. Abner did not know she existed until recently. She was mine. She had to be. I would not step aside and let my brother take the one human who I could see myself with.

Oh, I was sure I could call out for a bride and there would be countless of human females who would heed the call. The point was I never wanted to; Morana was… different. She made me think things, made me feel things and want things of which I’d never before. She was blessed with my magic, my Summer heat.

She was mine.

That’s what I told myself as I wandered my castle. It was much like Abner’s, but it was situated on the opposite side of the kingdom, a thing made of golden blocks with towers stretching up to the sky. It was not on a mountain, but it was just past a magical forest that no human could ever walk through. Nature always found a way to keep things from the humans.

My castle was full of light, the candelabras on the wall lit with real flame on wax instead of glowing ice like my brother’s. The windows were constantly glowing with sunbeams, nary a storm ever overhead here. It was a nice place, beautiful in every way. I had a garden just off the courtyard in the back, full of roses and flowers—though most were not blooming now, as the season was changing. As much as I wished it could be summer all the time, it could not.

Truthfully, I hardly spent any time here. I was always wandering the kingdom, invisible to the humans. I watched them, took joy in their triumphs and sorrow in their failures. Though I never showed myself to them, I never felt lonely, never did I want to take any of them to my castle and force them to spend the rest of their lives with me.

But Morana? I wanted to do that with Morana, and unfortunately it wasn’t until she’d sacrificed herself for her sister that I realized it. If only I’d known it sooner, if only I’d been able to recognize the feelings growing within me for the spirited girl, I could’ve saved her from my brother before she’d even met him, before that day of the choosing.

It was far too late for that, though. Too late, for now Morana had a sense of loyalty to her sister, to continue down the path with my brother—a path that would only lead to her demise. Truly, it was a good thing I’d reasoned with Abner, that he was able to realize she didn’t belong with him. He’d only hurt her.

Morana realized this. She was smart enough to know the dangers of staying in that castle. What she should’ve done was come with me immediately, and we could’ve started our life together, but, for whatever reason, she’d been hesitant to.

I supposed I could not blame her. Everything was changing for her in such a short amount of time. She handled everything remarkably well, of course, much better than the average human would, I think. It was part of her charm, her fiery spirit and her beauty.

I wanted her. I wanted her so badly it was almost unreal. Never before had I craved someone so bad, never before had I wanted to let someone in, have them live in my castle and sleep in my bed. Sleep beside me each and every night. Oh, how great it would feel,