Frost (Frost and Nectar #1)(55)

“There. I’ve removed the brand.” He took a deep breath. “I have all the births from the year you were born, but do you have any idea what your fae name was, Ava?”

I shook my head. “No idea. But I was probably born in May, if that helps.”

The librarian pulled the box toward her. “If I may, Your Highness. This is my area of expertise.”

She added under her breath, “A girl born in May…”

She seemed eager to recover from the branding incident. After a minute of shuffling around, she’d pulled out two long sleeves filled with little silver cards and flipped through them at a stunning speed.

“Well, let’s see,” she muttered, then paused. “Here’s a few.” She handed a selection of cards to Torin. “But of course, that was the year of the massacre…” Her voice trailed off.

Torin turned to look at me, his expression suddenly ravaged. “Ava. What month, exactly, were you found?”

“August. Why?”

Torin and the librarian glanced at each other, something unspoken passing between them, a sharpness filling the silence.

The librarian cleared her throat. “The month of the massacre.”

Dread bloomed in the hollows of my mind. “What massacre?”

She cleared her throat again, then said, “We should not speak their name.”

“Is this about the monsters you mentioned, Torin?” His parents had died when he was three at the hands of these monsters—but he’d suggested it was a long, slow death. Did it begin with this massacre?

Torin’s expression had darkened. “Yes. Perhaps our parents were killed by the same beasts.”

“Many nobles died that night,” said the librarian. “But they would not have given a child up for adoption. And plenty of servants died, too. I could search the records of the victims for births of females a few months before, but the births of servant families are not very well recorded.”

Of course not. Not in this world.

My chest felt tight. This was probably what had happened to my parents, then, but I was growing frustrated with the lack of information.

Torin nodded, and she began flicking through another set of silver cards, shaking her head, muttering to herself. “Hmm. No. No girls born in May to slaughtered parents.” She looked up at the king and shrugged. “But…of course, it was such a chaotic time. Even if we did have records of the servants, some would be lost.”

A pit opened in my stomach, but I was sure now that my parents had been killed by these horrific beasts.

“I’m sorry, Ava,” said Torin. “We will keep searching.”

But already, my thoughts were swirling with nightmarish visions of monsters no one would name.





24

A VA

I stood in my room, staring at the tapestry on the wall—the one with the strange, monstrous fae, those with insect wings and patches of green covering their limbs. Fae with claws, antlers, and horns, with fangs and clothing stitched together with moss. Forbidding, jagged trees arched over them. When I looked closely enough, I saw the horrors some of them were committing—severing heads with their claws, ripping entrails from their enemies.

I still wanted to know what had happened to my birth parents, but I didn’t feel the grief viscerally.

When Chloe died, the sorrow had split me open. This sorrow, I felt from a distance. I didn’t have a single memory of them.

Shalini pushed the door open, her face flushed and glowing. “Ava, I just had the best—” She went quiet. “Is everything all right?”

My limbs had gone heavy. “I’m fine. But Torin thinks my birth parents may have been killed by monsters. The same ones who killed his. They couldn’t find any precise records, but…” I trailed off.

“There was some kind of massacre the same month I was found in the human world. They might have been killed then.”

“What do you mean? What kind of monsters?” she asked.

Ice plunged down my chest. “No one will talk about it. It’s like a superstition or something.” I pointed at the tapestry. “Do you know anything about these creatures?”

She shook her head. “No. Could be just artistic license?”

I turned back to the bed, where three books lay on the top of the blankets. “Want to learn about fae history with me?”

I plopped down on top of the blankets and pulled the bright red book into my lap. “A Short History of the Fae, by Oberon,” I read. “I can translate.”

“How did you learn Fae?” asked Shalini.

I smiled at her. “Magic.” I opened the book to the first page. “‘ A Short History of the Fae, by Oberon Quiverstick,’” I read. “‘Within this volume, I have done my best to summarize the long and complex history of the fae. No one knows when we first came to Faerie. For a long time, the six clans’ ancestors lived an uncivilized existence, for which no written records exist. It wasn’t until the first high king of Faerie united the clans that our written history begins…’”

I started to skim, flipping the pages. “Hang on. This is super interesting, but I want to know about the massacre.” I skipped past chapters about the six clans: the Kelpie, the Banshees, the Selkie, the Dearg Due, the Redcaps, the Leannán sídhe. Coming to the last chapter, I took a deep breath. “‘King Mael led perhaps the most controversial reign of any fae king.’”