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We would have been outnumbered ten to one.
A cold sweat drips down my spine as I see with my very eyes how close Levi was to dethroning me. With an army of that size at his beck and call, he would have been able to conquer my castle with the bat of an eye. I knew my kingdom was in danger, but I never realized how close to the precipice of losing everything I hold dear I truly was.
Why, Levi?
Why are you so eager to rob me of my birthright?
I thought you were a better man than that.
There was a time I actually considered you to be the best man there was in the whole of the Aikyam kingdom.
So why, old friend, have you turned into my enemy?
If my heart was not as cold as the northern ground he has maliciously stepped on, I would have taken his offense personally. But this has nothing to do with me and everything to do with power. A power that I intend to keep.
When large lit tents come into full view, I close my curtain again, not wishing Levi to think me curious to see him after so many years. He’s proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that it’s my crown he wishes to set his eyes on—not me.
When my carriage finally comes to a stop, I shut my eyelids and send off a quick prayer to the gods.
Be with me, oh heavenly ones.
Let the cold northern wind seep through my bones and offer me courage.
Let the snow at my feet crunch loudly, a preview of the enemies’ skulls I can crush with my heel.
For I am the Winter Queen.
And no winds from the east, south or west could ever defeat me.
I then open my eyes, feeling suddenly refreshed and reborn, ready to meet the first king who has dared to defy me. Levi might have come at me with soldier steel, but I have the gods’ true justice in my corner.
It’s time he was properly introduced to it.
Chapter 5
Levi
Anxiously, I pace back and forth in my tent, waiting impatiently for Brick to return and announce Katrina’s arrival. A formality, since I heard her train of men and horses’ gallops into camp over an hour ago, my heart thumping in tandem with the crunching sound of horseshoes digging into the snow.
But it’s not the fifty odd soldiers she brought with her that has me so anxious.
My frown deepens as I realize that even after all that has transpired, this whisper of a girl still makes my heart leap into my throat with nerves. My back molars grind at my weakened state as I try to focus on all the damage her family has done to mine to strengthen my resolve.
This reunion should not elate me.
It should anger me.
With one stroke of the pen, she foiled my well-laid-out plans with her prosperous game of a marriage proposal. I could have stolen her crown in the dead of night with my troops, and yet with one single, two-paragraph letter, she was able to outmaneuver me.
Like she premeditated, the minute my men heard the rumor that I could win the north without any of them drawing up their swords, their hardened spirits softened, looking to me to spare their lives as well as redeem my kingdom’s pride. Thoughts of waging war on the north were quickly tempered to the ground, thinking their king would achieve what I had promised them just by wooing a simple girl.
But Kat was never simple.
She was always a conundrum to me.
One that I thought with time, I could decipher and maybe… just maybe… make mine.
But those foolish ideas were dreamt up by a young boy whose soft heart sought only her attention. Half a decade has passed since that boy has even existed. Her father made sure to plunge a sword through his bleeding heart and kill him for good. Katrina should count her blessings that I’m not as ruthless. If I were, the minute she stepped into my camp, I would have ordered the remaining soldiers I have on hand to butcher hers on the spot. Her pretty little neck I’d slit myself.
