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“You are wrong, human. The entire fate of this world hinges on you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You are meant for a king, Ella. It is your destiny.”
“I’m not sure of your meaning. I know of no king.”
“But you do. It is your destiny to capture his heart. With you, however, the prophecy is forked. One path leads you right into the hands of the Dark King. And the other…”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand your meaning,” I scoffed. This seer was speaking in riddles, and I couldn’t parse out what she meant. There was something she was communicating in between the lines, and I didn’t know enough about this place to figure it out.
“The other path is frozen. The Ice King’s heart will need to be thawed before he claims his fate.”
“Who do you mean? I know of no king, simply a steward. Do you mean Valtimir?” I pressed, becoming increasingly frustrated. This was going nowhere. I needed answers.
“I speak of a man that placed his crown aside many years ago.”
“You mean Nykor,” I said quietly, realization finally dawning on me.
“I do.”
“He has never mentioned that he was a king,” I pressed.
“He is Dragonborne. The throne is his birthright.”
“He wants nothing to do with me.”
“The fate of the world depends on you, Ella. Either you accept destiny and thaw the Ice King’s heart, or you leave the inhabitants of this world to an eternity of cruel darkness.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but a sudden gust of wind swept up and cast the clearing in a blinding flurry of snow. I threw my arms up to cover my face, closing my eyes. I tried to blink away the sheen of white flakes, but when I was finally able to see again, the clearing was empty. There were no wolves to be seen.
Behind me, there was an abrupt series of shouts. Without warning, soldiers poured in all around me, all of them brandishing swords, axes, and shields. Someone grabbed my arms and yanked me hard enough to make me lose my footing. I cried out in alarm, but a cloth quickly covered my mouth, and then all went dark.
CHAPTER11
Ella
When I woke up the next morning, my head was pounding so fiercely I convinced myself that someone had taken a hammer directly to the back of my skull. I went to press my fingers to the side of my head in an effort to soothe the pain, but my wrist stopped short, and a chain rattled in the quiet. Hard metal cut into my wrist, and my eyes popped open to see the chains in which I was bound. The cuffs were bulky and thick, likely designed to keep some oversized creature prisoner, which meant that they would be more than enough for a human like me.
I shifted in the bed, quieting my alarm as I observed my surroundings. There was no one in the room with me, at least for now. From what I could see, I had been taken back to my quarters. When I glanced towards the windows, I noticed that they were all shut and small deadbolts were locked on each of the latches. But if the chains and locks weren’t enough, my ankles were bound with cuffs of their own. When I tried to pull my hands through the cuffs, the metal squeaked tighter, almost as though it could sense my escape. My flesh tingled, the now familiar sensation of magic pouring through me. I tensed immediately, my sense of foreboding at an all-time high.
The cuffs were spelled to keep me captive.
I heard the jarring sound of a key turning in the door, and I ceased my struggles. I laid still as the door creaked open and a man walked through.
It was Valtimir.
He turned his head and appraised me on the bed before he shut the door behind him. His gaze was cold, yet decisive, and when his lips rose in a devious grin, an uneasy feeling bubbled to life in the pit of my belly.
“My guards tell me you escaped castle grounds last night after I gave the very explicit order for you to remain in your chambers,” he began brusquely, and my apprehension only intensified. He turned and slipped the key into a small hole in the door.
He’d locked the door from the inside. No one was going to come in and save me from whatever this was. With a sense of measured arrogance, he placed the key down on the table and approached me, closing the distance between us far more quickly than I anticipated.
“I see their secondary measures were more successful at keeping you where you are supposed to be,” he murmured. His dark eyes slid over me, reminding me of a snake slithering along the ground. When he sat down on the bed, my uneasiness boiled over the edge, and I tried to pull away even though I knew fighting against the chains was pointless.
Bending over, he slid his hand into his boot. When he pulled it out, I saw the flash of a knife in his hand, and a wave of nausea passed over me. A cold sweat broke out over my brow, and I could do nothing but lie there and wait for this man to either kill me, torture me, or whatever else he had planned.
“When I first heard word that Nykor was on his way to us from the north, I hadn’t expected him to bring anyone with him, especially a human girl as beautiful as you.”
