Frost (Frost and Nectar #1)
C.N. Crawford
P R O L O G U E
I t’s a sad truth that most relationships are doomed.
Once, I’d thought mine would be an exception, that I’d found the one. That unlike most other bright loves, mine would burn forever.
Andrew was a human—unlike me. I was born fae, but I stayed as far away from the rest of them as I could. Most fae were violent, capricious, and breathtakingly arrogant. Andrew, on the other hand, made me wildflower crowns and wrote me poems about sycamore trees.
His beauty drew me in first: blue eyes flecked with gold, and wavy chestnut hair. When he smiled, his lips crinkled at the corners in a way that always made me want to kiss him. Andrew’s smell was like home, soap and black tea.
But that wasn’t what had made me fall in love. It was his kindness.
When I had a long week, he made me tea or cocktails, and I’d fall asleep with my head on his chest. With Andrew, I could actually feel safe. He was human, and I was fae, but that never seemed to matter between us.
He’d always listened to me, texted back right away, asked me about my day. He had a dachshund named Ralphie, and he drove his mom to her doctor’s appointments. On Sundays, we hung out in his tidy suburban condo and read the same books over coffee.
He truly believed that nothing was more important than love. That it should be celebrated. He told me I was his soulmate.
Unlike the others of my kind, Andrew made me feel safe. Secure.
Together, we’d planned a future. The gist of it was this: I’d help support him by paying his mortgage while he finished his MBA. Once he was earning money, we’d work on my dream: opening a cocktail bar named “Chloe’s” after my mom. Andrew would help me finance it. We’d live a joyous life together among the humans in a leafy suburb full of backyard barbecues and pillow forts with our kids. Trips to the beach in the summer. A normal human life.
Problem was, on the night of my twenty-third birthday, I learned it was all a lie.
And that was when I stopped believing in love entirely.
1
A VA
S tanding on a brick sidewalk, I gripped the bag of takeout, already salivating at the thought of chicken vindaloo and Peshwari naan. Royal Bistro made the naan deliciously buttery and the curry so hot, it made me break out in a euphoric sweat.
Since it was my birthday, the manager had let me leave the bar early. I didn’t have big plans. After a few hours of mixing drinks for the Friday-night finance crowd, I just wanted to stuff my face and watch comedies with Andrew.
As I walked along the path to our home, I breathed in the scent of chili powder, cumin, and garlic emanating from the paper bag under my arm. It was the first thing we’d bonded over when friends had introduced us—a lust for the hottest food possible.
With a rumbling stomach, I slid my key into the lock and stepped into his home.
My ears perked up at the sounds coming from upstairs. Andrew was clearly blaring some dirty videos, judging from the impossibly loud moaning and gasping—the really fake, high-pitched kind targeted at men. Women would catch the artifice right away.
Interesting. Well, he thought he had a few hours till I got home. Let him watch whatever porn he wanted. But why would he be playing it at that volume when the condo walls were paper thin?
I slipped out of my shoes. As I crossed into the kitchen, I slammed my toe into a sharp wooden chair leg and shouted, “Ow,” irrationally irritated at the chair for existing. Scowling, I pulled the vindaloo from the bag. At that moment, I realized the porn had stopped. Andrew was embarrassed to be caught. I quirked a smile at the thought. Surely he must know I didn’t care?
“Hello?” Andrew’s voice came from upstairs. There was a panicked sound to it. I turned when he said more quietly, “I don’t think it’s anything.”
My breath caught. Was he talking to someone else?
Now, my heart was hammering. Hardly aware of the hot tub of curry in my hand, I tiptoed up the stairs. The high-pitched orgasm started up again, the mattress squeaking.
Dread gripped my heart. I reached the bedroom and found the door slightly cracked.
Very carefully, I pushed it open.
My stomach clenched so hard, I nearly vomited.
Andrew was lying in the middle of the bed, his limbs intimately entwined with those of a blonde woman I’d never seen before. I must have screamed or shouted because they almost fell off the bed as they spun to face me. For a long moment, we all stared at each other, gripped by horror.
“Ava, what are you doing here?” Andrew’s face had turned bright red.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“You’re supposed to be at work.” He was lying beneath a naked woman, but he said that like it was a perfectly reasonable explanation.
“It’s my birthday. And they let me off early.”
Andrew pushed the woman off him, and they sprawled across the bed, our bed, sweaty and flushed. I stared, almost unable to believe what I was seeing, but aware that it was my future disintegrating before my eyes.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you…” He swallowed hard. “I didn’t want it to happen like this. It’s just that Ashley and I fell in love.”
“No offense,” added Ashley, pulling a sheet over herself. “But he’s done experimenting. He wants a family. A normal family? Like…a human family.”