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I’ve spent my entire life surrounded by beautiful things. Trophies. Diamonds. Designer gowns. Priceless art. Yet somehow, a few words from him mean more than all of them combined.

“Thirty seconds, Artemis!”

The stage manager’s voice snaps me back to reality.

Backstage erupts into motion. In an instant, my wings are secured, my makeup receives its final touch, and Stevie squeezes my hand. “Go break the internet, Ice Butterfly.”

I smile and then I fold Stephen’s note carefully and slip it into my bra.

Close to my heart where he belongs.

Always.

Then I lift my chin just in time for the curtains part.

In an instant all the light floods the entrance and hundreds of people wait beyond it, their applause growing louder beneath the music.

For years, I’ve walked onto runways carrying expectations, perfection, and the weight of a name the world thinks it knows.

Tonight, I carry something else.

A secret smile and the heart of a man waiting for me across an ocean.

I step onto the runway and the crowd erupts.

Cameras flash. Music surges. My wings catch the light, scattering silver across the room like a thousand falling stars.

And then I do what I’ve never done for the cameras.

I smile for them.

And it’s not a fake one.

It’s a smile that comes from the heart.

A heart that no longer belongs to me.

It belongs to the man who learned to love ice.

And when I see him again?

I’m kissing him so hard that man will forget every single word of every song he’s ever written.

Until all he feels is… me.

@iceprincessupdates

ARTEMIS JUST CLOSED THE WINTER WINGX SHOW!

OUR PRINCESS CLOSED THE SHOW.

WHO ELSE IS SCREAMING?!

@VolpeNation: She ate the runway alive.

@ArtwithArtemis: I’m crying. She looks like a goddess carved out of ice.

@ArtwithabitofKhaos: We don’t deserve her, but I’m grateful anyway.