Ambrosia (Frost and Nectar, #2)(34)

The cold bit at my skin, and I nodded. “You know, it’s impossible to get warm in here, even with the fire. This isn’t a normal cold. But where I come from, they say body heat is the best way to warm another person.”

“Is that right?” He raised his eyebrows, and a sultry look ignited in his eyes.

My gaze brushed down to his beautiful lips, then back up again. How could anyone be so perfect looking?

His eyes danced with a seductive promise. “Every day, I think of giving up my vow.”

He slid his hand around my neck, pulling me closer. With the touch of his lips against mine, embers rose to molten heat inside me, until I found myself pushing him down onto the bed.

He kissed me back, deeply, and it felt like the kiss of a man who’d been thinking about this intensely, every moment of every day.

As my hand slid under his uniform, feeling the heat of his hard abs, he moaned into my mouth.

“Wait,” he whispered. “I can’t.”

Gods damn it, Torin.

A loud knock sounded at my chamber entrance, and I caught my breath, my gaze reluctantly sliding to the door. I tried not to groan audibly with exasperation.

Sighing, I noticed that someone had slid a letter under the door, which was weird. I didn’t feel important enough to get letters here, just a human who’d overstayed her welcome by several weeks.

Aeron kissed my throat, his lips hot against my skin. “Are you going to get the door?” he murmured against my neck.

“Hang on, Aeron. I’m coming right back to you.”

Painful as it was, I forced myself away from him, my heart racing. What if this was news about Torin or Ava?

I picked up a cream envelope with maroon calligraphy on the surface. It was addressed to Shalini.

When I opened it, I found an invitation, inscribed with the same maroon ink and ornate decorations around the borders.

Dear Shalini,

We have succeeded in locating Modron, and our soldiers are returning with her as we speak. In the meantime, we have been working hard to keep every family fed and clothed through the cursed frost. This terrible tragedy that has befallen our kingdom is not an accident of nature, but the scourge of the demons’ evil curse. We ask that you not blame King Torin for his absence in this time of need. We have only one true source of blame, and it’s the demons who have haunted and tormented us for centuries.

While we wait for the arrival of Modron, we request the presence of all members of the court in the throne room tomorrow night at dusk so that we may discuss our current situation and discover how to work together.

It was signed by Moria and Orla. My stomach twisted, heart hammering.

I wasn’t sure I was ready to find out what had happened to Ava, and I knew I didn’t trust Moria to get to the truth.

Deep in my bones, I knew Ava was in trouble.

With a pang of regret, I realized I almost wanted to stay in the safe cocoon of ignorance with Aeron for just a little longer.





21





AVA




“In Faerie, I will freeze anyone that I love, Ava. I will kill anyone that I love. That’s what Queen Mab cursed me with. And that’s why you can’t come with me, my changeling.”

My eyes snapped open, and cold grief spread through my chest. I still lay on the roots in the dungeon, flat down on my front. Once again, my back was ripped open. I don’t think I’d slept for longer than twenty minutes in…however long I’d been in here.

Every time I fell asleep, I saw Torin again, as if he were alive before me.

I don’t want to be without you any more than I have to.

I turned my head, looking up. Faint silver light pierced the canopy high above me.

This was a different cell than the one I’d been put in before, the one where Torin had carved through a wall. There was less light, and it was more cramped. My gaze trailed over the five bowls of food someone had delivered to me. They were feeding me this time, but I hadn’t bothered to eat.

I had no appetite whatsoever, either because of the infection or because I’d killed the man I loved. Torin. The memory of it was like a thousand rocks pressing on my chest, crushing my ribs.

My normal life seemed a million years away. I could hardly remember what Faerie looked like, let alone the apartment I’d shared with Andrew.

The human world seemed a distant gray dream, vague and unreal. I faintly remembered a room with white walls, and a kitchen downstairs. A blue comforter. The bar I’d gone to with Shalini every week…

It felt like another planet altogether.

My memories of Faerie were a little more vibrant—the towering dark castle, the snowy valleys, and the mountains. But it hurt to think about it. Mostly, I thought of Torin.

The Seelie king and the four cramped walls around me were my universe right now.

Wincing, I reached behind my back. The skin felt hot and swollen. Infected again. I sat up, and my thoughts swam, my stomach tightening with nausea. Every inch of me felt sensitive to the touch, my body alternating between hot and cold.

I closed my eyes, delirious. My brain kept forcing me to relive those moments with the red leaves swirling around us and the vines that seemed alive snaking over the columns.

For a moment when we’d been fighting, I’d imagined the leaves and vines were responding to me, but I must have imagined it. I was disoriented by pain and fever, losing touch with what was real and what wasn’t.