Frost Kisses (Bitter Frost #4: Frost Series) (6 page)

I could see Kian’s face grow hard and cold.
Whoever it was who has betrayed us,
Kian gave a stony glare out across the horizon,
I will seek out.
We will restore justice. We will restore peace. And we will make sure our enemies never ever hurt us again.

And then our connection faded, and he was gone.

Chapter 6

I
huddled against the cold, warming myself one final time against the roaring fireplace before heading out to fight the Pixies. I knew the battle would be hard – one girl, even if she was the Summer Queen with the magic of Summer, against hundreds of pixie knights. But I was willing to risk it – I had to risk it! I wasn’t going to be a slave or a prisoner to any pixie king, least of all - Delano, and especially not if I had something to live for. Kian loved me, I knew that now – and I knew too that he still dreamed of peace between our two kingdoms. If I could only get free – if I could only escape! – then we could rejoin our forces, fight once more for freedom, undo the wrongs committed by Wort and Delano in their plot to overthrow the fairies once and for all! I gritted my teeth and felt my resolve deep within me, as icy-hard as winter steel. I would not give up! Kian hadn’t stabbed me; he hadn’t hurt me! It had been someone else – someone with powerful magic willing to use it to pry us apart.

Before I finished putting on the final piece of clothing – a hunting-green velvet cloak that had clearly belonged to Delano, the warmest thing I could find in the wardrobe – I heard a distinctive cough coming from behind the door. I rushed over and opened it, expecting to find Delano lurking there.

Instead I saw a familiar face, a face I had dreamed of so often – yet more beautiful than ever in its nearness, its warmth. It was Kian, standing at my threshold with a look of rapturous joy upon his face, his smile crinkling at the edges just as I had always remembered. “Breena,” he whispered. “I found you…”

My heart leaped into my throat as I practically flew into his arms. He took my hands, and at his touch I felt that same familiar burst of electricity within me. He was staring at me now not only with love, but with desire – a palpable desire that I had never seen in him before. He had shown me love, passion, even longing before, but in his eyes now I saw the animal raging of true and ferocious need: he had longed for me; he had wanted me. And I wanted him.

Before I could speak, Kian was upon me, kissing me with a
ferociousness and a passion that he had never had before.
The passion was so overwhelming I could barely move to respond, even as my body cried out to meet him motion for motion, kiss for kiss. He lifted me, carrying me in his arms to the satin sheets of the bed that had been prepared for me.

“We have to get out…”

“Not yet!” Kian threw me on the bed, and I caught sight of his hair glistening in the flickering candle-light. “Not yet…” His shirt seemed to come off in a single, fluid motion, and I saw again the taut contours of his muscles, that soldier’s body, that had gained its strength and agility over decades, if not centuries, of practice. His skin was smooth, pulled taunt against his muscles. He was perfect. I trembled as he kneeled into the bed, straddling me as he covered my shoulders with kisses. I had once feared that I would never see him again. But as he appeared before me I knew there had never been anybody else, there would never be anybody else. Kian was my true love, and my whole body ached with the desire to let my magic, my love, my being meld with his. I closed my eyes as he removed the velvet cloak from my shoulders, then began to strip away my garb, one item of clothing at a time until I was nearly completely bare.

His lips fluttered on my skin, cold and tantalizing against the heat of my body. I could feel his tongue tickle my collarbone and explore the hidden recesses of my neck, and then lower – towards my stomach, as I couldn’t help but sigh with delight. “Kian!” I tried to think, even as his touch destroyed thought altogether. “How did you get in here? How did you find me?”

He made no response, but only returned his mouth to mine, sucking gently on my bottom lip, then increasing in his passion, biting me slightly, then letting me feel the full brunt of his passion hot upon his lips. “How did you get in?” I murmured again between kisses, my eyes closing with unbelievable pleasure. “Delano’s guards…”

And then I heard a familiar chuckle, which did not sound like Kian’s and was unmistakably evil.

“Delano!” I shot up, looking around, expecting to see the Pixie King standing at the doorway. But nobody was there.

“Looking for someone?” came that eerie voice from the bed.

I gasped. Kneeling over me, his eyes hooded in lust where Kian had been a moment before was Delano, shirtless, as Kian had been, wearing the same black trousers that I had been so close to taking off…

“No!” I cried, feeling my gorge rise. “No, no!”

“From the looks of things,” Delano said languidly, “it seemed a great deal more like ‘yes’ ‘yes’ ‘yes’!’ He laughed, and I saw in his eyes the same smoldering desire I had seen in Kian’s. But while on Kian’s face it had excited me, even thrilled me, here I felt only shock and disgust.

“That’s because I thought you were Kian,” I spat. The effort of speaking through my revulsion was great, and every word seemed like a new trial. I wiped my hand across my mouth, trying to erase the taste, the smell, the sensation from my lips. My face burned with red-hot shame, having responded to Delano with such passion.

Delano’s smile grew wider. “Just me,” he said, his teeth pointy and flashing, his hands still on my bare skin. “Just glamoured up to look like your favorite lover boy…of the moment!”

I leaped to my feet, gathering my clothes around me, putting them on as fast as I could. They were Delano’s clothes, I knew, and the idea disgusted me even more, but I wasn’t about to let Delano take a good look at me half-naked.

“I just wanted to give you a little…ah….taste of what it would be like,” said Delano. “If you were with me. I wanted you relaxed so that you could tell what I’m capable of! You see, Breena, I hold much passion for you…your refusal of me has only fueled my want of you.”

“You are not Kian!” I cried.

“The Wolf Prince is not Kian, yet you spent days and nights with him…”

“How many times must I tell you it was because of the love and lust spell Wort put me under…”

“You could pretend I’m Kian…” Delano said with a wry smile. Then he laughed. “Or your Wolf Prince… or whoever you fancy…at the moment! Although with me, you seemed to be enjoying yourself very much!”

I felt my cheeks stain red from anger and embarrassment! How dare Delano try to corner me in such a position, to see my secret feelings like that! I’d never even shown Kian that side of me before, that side so filled with desire that I was willing to – stupidly! – forego asking any questions in order to be with my beloved. And now to find out it was Delano who had seen my face, heard my moans! I wanted to throw up.

I felt my anger burning within me, a rage so white-hot it seemed to emanate in a fiery glow from my body.
You will get out of this
, I heard a voice saying – my own voice, but older, stronger, a version of myself I had never heard before.
You will not let yourself be a victim any longer.
It was Winter and Summer magic, joining together within me, the power of my newly immortal blood.

And I had to take control.

Suddenly, a sword materialized in my hand, a ray of white light that hardened into steel. Delano’s eyes opened wide with shock, and I too had to work to hide my surprise! Was this what I was capable of with my new powers? I didn’t stop to think! I rushed straight to the bed, where Delano had been lying, defenseless, and pushed the sword straight against his chest.

“How did you….” Delano’s eyes were bulging.

“Someone else was glamoured as Kian before, you know…” I prodded the sword point into his flesh. “When I was stabbed. I don’t suppose you know who it was, do you?”

Delano stared at me, his green-gold eyes blazing and defiant. His leer had twisted.
“So what?” Delano smirked. “Maybe I did glamour as Kian before – maybe I didn't! But if I did, I'd certainly say you're better off for it.”

“What do you mean?” I drove the sword in harder.

“Well,” said Delano, warily watching the point of the sword as it pressed against his pale, ivory flesh. “Now you're free of the Summer Court, aren't you? No more worrying about peace between Winter and Summer. No more stress. No more heartache – do I want Kian? Do I want Logan? None of that. Instead, you get a beautiful chamber in a gorgeous palace, with a loving pixie king who wants nothing more than to please you and give you a life of ease and luxury.”

“You call that helping?” I scowled at him. “I was fine before!”

“Really?” Delano gave me a look of mock surprise. “So let me guess. You were perfectly able to marry Kian, despite the fact that his mother and his people would never have agreed to the match. Or perhaps you were happy to marry Logan the Wolf – even though your heart belonged to the Winter Prince...”

“That is none of your concern.” And then it hit me. Wort's pixie heritage – the glamoured Kian that had stabbed me...the Summer Knights...or were they Summer Knights at all? Pixies had the power to glamour into fairies – the whole attack, the whole siege, had been a setup by Delano! “You’re the one behind all this, not Wort!” From the look on Delano's face I could see that it was true. “You set up my assassination; you set up the siege in the Great Hall. Just to get Winter and Summer fighting again.”

“I wouldn’t take all the credit,” shrugged Delano. “I believe you met my half-brother, didn't you? Wort. You didn't treat him very kindly, did you? You see, I may be Pixie King of most Pixies, but he is in charge of the Pixies of the East, close to the fairy Autumn lands. Unlike you fairies, we Pixies work together. He convinced me to create this rift between you seasonal fairies. And now you've got your just desserts. And fairyland is unstable once more, making this an awfully ripe time for me to put my oar in, as it were. Perhaps with Winter and Summer so distracted with their own wars, they won't notice the real threat...”

“The Pixies!”

“How will the Summer Court survive when its Queen is dead?” Delano smirked. So, it hadn't been about lust at all – at least, not mostly. Delano wanted to topple the Winter and Summer Courts alike and rule all Feyland with his pixie brood.

“Not so fast,” I said. “The Summer Court has a ruler – my consort, the Wolf.”

“While my half-brother Wort is quite nasty, he's awfully clever. I'm sure he'll make sure that the Wolf doesn't reign too long...”

I'd had enough of this conversation. I had no time to waste in pleasantries. I'd found out what I needed to know, and that was enough. I had to get back to my kingdom, to figure out what had happened. Logan was alive, that much Delano had revealed to me, even if it sounded like he was in danger. My hands clenched down on the sword, instinctively. I wanted to run Delano through for what he had done to me, what he had done to Kian, what he had done to all those fairy knights who lay dead on the battlefield now, both Winter and Summer, because of his actions.

Moments before I had run my hands up and down that chest. Now I wanted to see a sword in the middle of it. I bit back my anger. Killing Delano would only make the pixie problem worse. But that didn't mean I couldn't scare him. Delano kept on staring at me with those smoldering eyes, making it clear that he was thinking back on every lascivious moment we'd shared when he was glamoured as Kian. It made me want to vomit. “I should kill you,” I said. “You're lucky you lasted this long!”