Frost (Frost and Nectar #1)(74)

–Torin

“What does it say?” asked Shalini.

Ice pierced my heart, but I kept staring at the note. “A reminder that I’m not supposed to go near the king.”

Torin had told me what this would be like from the beginning, but I’d never imagined us actually married, in some kind of relationship with each other. That was never what either of us were looking for. We weren’t the romantic types. Not anymore.

So why did this hurt so much?

Through the door, I heard the sound of muffled voices—a man and a woman arguing. Frowning, I went to the door and heard the distinct sound of Moria’s voice insisting that she needed to see me.

My first thought, of course, was that she’d come to kill me. Apparently, that was Aeron’s first thought, too, because I heard him barking at Moria to stay back.

“I’ve already resigned!” she shouted. “I dropped out. I have no intention of harming anyone.”

I picked up my rapier and slowly opened the door. Moria’s face snapped to mine, drawn and exhausted. “I need to speak to you.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Moria.”

She gritted her teeth. “Fine. Then we’ll talk through the door.” She slid her eyes to the left, where I thought Aeron was standing. “I just want us to speak alone.”

To my shock, she hadn’t cleaned herself up. She still wore her leather clothes, and her hair and face were caked with dried blood. Her skin looked blotchy beneath the grime, like she’d been crying.

I’d never expected to see her looking like such a mess.

“Why would you resign from the tournament before Torin has announced his choice?” I asked in a whisper, shielding myself with the door.

“Because I know I’m not going to win.”

Doubt flickered through me. Had our deal been revealed? “What do you mean?”

She pressed a palm against the door. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a premonition, Ava. But I just had one. And my premonitions are never wrong.”

Now those were familiar words.

My mouth had gone dry. “And what was your premonition?”

The corner of her lip curled in a cruel smile. “You will die at Torin’s hands.”

My breath shallowed. “Of course you’d want me to think that.”

Tears shone in her eyes, then started to run down her cheeks, carving little rivers through the dirt and blood. “It doesn’t matter what I say now or what I want you to think. It will happen, either way.

My sister Milisandia didn’t believe me, either. But I told her that Torin would kill her, and he did. I saw it all in my vision, how he’d freeze her to death in the Temple of Ostara.”

My heartbeat was hammering. This was the sister from the diary. “Where is she now?”

Her tears were flowing freely, her lower lip trembling. “Torin thinks he covered it up, that we all believe Milisandia went missing. That perhaps she ran off to live like a beast among the monsters.

But I know the truth. Torin is death,” she hissed. “I had the premonition, Ava. I saw what would happen, that he’d swallow his dark secrets. And I dug up her body in the temple. I knew where to find it. The king killed her because he will kill anything beautiful. It’s what he does. He’s no better than an Erlking, and his touch is death.”

I clutched the door tightly. “Then why were you in this tournament to begin with?”

“I wanted to be as close to him as possible. Because if I were queen, I’d remind him every day for the rest of his life of exactly what he was. That he was death. And I would have done anything to make it happen. But now that I’ve seen the future, I know my plans didn’t work out like I hoped.”

“When you say you would have done anything…Moria. Are you the one who killed Alice?”

The corner of her mouth twitched. “Now, why would I admit to that?”

The glint in her eye told me I was right on the money.

“But listen, Ava. Maybe it doesn’t matter that I won’t be queen. I’ve seen that he will kill you, too, and I don’t need to remind him, do I? Because death will follow in his wake wherever he goes, and everyone will see. Everyone will know that the king who sits on the throne is rotten and corrupted down to his bones. Just an Erlking with a pretty face.”

“Why are you telling me this now?”

She wiped her hand across her tear-streaked cheeks, smearing them with more blood. “Because I really and truly don’t like you. Milisandia deserved to be queen, but you do not. You are a lascivious, filthy social climber. You are a whore who wants a crown, and you have never belonged here. And worse than that, I can sense there’s something really wrong with you. Something evil. You don’t belong in Seelie lands, Ava. So I want to make sure you don’t feel a moment’s sense of victory before you die painfully, the way Milisandia did. I want you to realize you are alone and unloved here. I want you to die in terror, knowing that one way or another, you lost to me, and I will piss on your grave.”

She turned on her heel and marched through the hall, her loud footfalls echoing off the stone. I closed the door and turned back to Shalini.

My entire body was shaking.

I pulled on the green gown, tuning out Shalini’s demands that I fill her in on every last word that she hadn’t been able to overhear.