Road To Winter (Fae's Captive #2)(4)

“I could tell you such things, winter king.” Her tone turns dreamy. “About yourself, your mate, the king beyond the mountain. Valuable information. Priceless.”

“Then tell me.”

She tsks. “Not for free. Nothing is free.”

“I don’t bargain.”

“Pfft.” She sweeps her white hair from her black shoulder. “Perhaps not today, winter king. But you will. By the end, you will beg me for a bargain.” Her pointy teeth clack against each other again. “Maybe I’ll give you one, maybe I won’t.”

My hand itches toward my blade, but I don’t draw it. “Get on with the boon.”

“It’s for your mate only. Not you. You must go.”

“I’m not leaving her alone with you, witch.”

“Selene. Selene is its name.” She wrenches one leg from the ice, but the other remains stuck.

“I’m not leaving, and I’m beginning to rethink this boon.”

“You can’t kill me now. We both know it.” She bares her teeth. “No more winter in you. Not enough.”

I regret sparing her. “Maybe I can’t shatter you, but I can make you hurt. And I’ve recently come up with a theory.” My voice drops to lethal levels. “The only known way to kill you is to shatter you with cold. But perhaps we’re missing something. Maybe I simply need to experiment. Shove a sword down your throat, take a diamond axe to your head, roast you over a fire until the obsidian gets hot enough to melt. There must be some way to—”

“I gave my word and you dare threaten me? Dare question my oath simply because I am Obsidian?” A phantom wind stirs the witch’s white hair, and she narrows her black eyes. The tension rises around us like floodwaters, and I raise my sword.

“Selene.” Taylor hurriedly steps to my side. “I apologize for calling you creepy.”

The witch’s white eyebrows twitch, and I get a glimpse of what she could have been had she not fallen into the twisted evil of the Spires. Witches like her were once fae, but they followed the call of the dark and wound up changed by the mysterious forces that inhabit the Wasted Lands.

“Apologize to me?” Selene peers at Taylor as if she’s confusing and entrancing all at once. “No one has ever apologized to Selene.” She taps her chin. “Begged? Yes. Demanded? Yes. Cursed? Certainly.” She cackles. “But apologized? No.” She points one long finger at Taylor. “You are a special one, and not only because you were foretold.”

I want to ask her what she means, but I can’t. Making another deal with a loathsome creature like her would end badly.

“Well, I mean it.” Taylor shrugs, innocence in every move she makes. “I don’t know what’s happened to you or anything about you really. And you were forced to come after us. So, I can’t blame you for it.”

“Yes, yes. All true. Wise one, you are.” The witch nods furiously.

“Little one.” I lean down and kiss the crown of Taylor’s head. “You are new to this world, and your heart is purer than anything I’ve ever beheld. But an Obsidian witch is nothing to pity. Selene has likely shed more innocent blood than you can even imagine.”

She meets my eye, her blue ones sparkling even under the night sky. “You’re right. I don’t belong here.”

I wince and want to tell her she belongs here with me, always, but she continues, “And Selene has said some things that make me—” She swallows hard. “Uncomfortable, to say the least. But I don’t know what she’s been through or why she’s like this. So, I’m going to reserve judgment.”

“You don’t understand. Your heart is too pure for—”

“You don’t know me, Leander.” She straightens her back. “You don’t know anything about me. However pure you think I am, I can assure you that’s not the case.”

Her sharp tone cuts me to the quick. “I know you.” I take her hand and place it over my heart. “I know you as the other half of my soul. And one day, I hope to know every minute detail about you. When we’re settled in the winter realm, I’ll happily spend all my time learning you.” I hold my tongue before I say I hope all of that time is spent in bed.

She drops her gaze.

I know what she’s thinking as surely as I know the snows are falling fast and thick on the High Mountain. She longs for her old life, for the land of the humans. It is up to me to show her that this is her home. That I am worthy of her, that she belongs atop the throne of the winter realm, ruling alongside me. I make a promise to myself that I will prove to her that she belongs with me. That’s one bargain I have no trouble making.

The witch rips her other leg free from the frost and rushes forward. I pull Taylor behind me and brandish my sword.





2





Taylor





“Enough heroics, my lord.” The witch rolls her eyes at Leander. “I was only testing out my parts, making sure you didn’t frost them into oblivion.” She dusts herself off, icy flakes flying. “And you’re not necessary. Go, go, stalk away and be kingly elsewhere. I’d rather speak to the pretty one who is far more level-headed than your dark fae heart ever could be.”