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Nathan tries to speak, but she wraps a gag of ice around his mouth. His eyes widen as his gaze darts between us.
I try to summon my magic, but barely a trickle of it is left to access. My fear is so potent I can’t do anything but watch, helpless.
I am too weak to save the male I love.
The Queen seems to sense my desperation, for she titters, her laugh echoing off the chamber’s walls. “I will speak to my daughter any way I want, Summer Fae. This ismycourt, and you would do well to remember that. The only reason you’re still breathing is because I’m allowing it.”
I inhale sharply, and the blood drains from my face. “Please, Mother, don’t hurt him,” I beg. I hate that the tone of my voice gives away my emotions, but I can’t stop it.
Tilting her head, she studies me. I try not to flinch at her blue eyes.
“On your knees,” she says without emotion.
I fall instantly, ice shards cutting into my knees. I look up into my mother’s face.
“Crawl,” she demands. “Beg me to spare the life of your lover.”
“Please,” I breathe, looking into her eyes. They are filled with violence and hurt and pain, swirling with the deepest emotion, looking straight into my soul.
I’ve seen this look thousands of times before.
It’s the same one that haunted my nightmares for years. The one that caused me to cry soundlessly into my pillow at night, lest she hear me wail. The last time I sobbed in front of her was when she told me my father had died.
The only parent who ever loved me. Gone, stolen in the night by some illness. I wailed when she told me the news until she flogged my back with a whip made of ice.
Only weak Fae cry.
“What will you give me to spare him?” She asks, turning on her heels to walk over to me. The ice crunches over her feet, reminding me of the sound of bones crunching in the maw of her snow leopard.
As she speaks, her tone is almost conversational. I can see the wheels in her mind turning as she watches me.
“Anything,” I say immediately. I already know I will give him anything to live the life he deserves. “Just let him go.”
“Elva, no,” Nathaniel says, speaking around the gag as he shakes his head. Before I can respond, my mother summons a gust of wind and throws him back, his head hitting the stone wall with a sickening crunch. I can feel the impact reverberating through my bones.
A scream rips through the air as I turn and run toward him, tears streaming down my face.
“Please,” I sob, struggling to breathe. “No.”
His face is pale, cold, and his eyes are shut.
Don’t leave me here.
I crouch down, placing my hand on his face. “Wake up, please, wake up.” I beg him, faintly hearing my mother chuckle in the background. “I need you.Please wake up,” I plead with him, stroking his cold face.
Tears escape me, falling on him in tiny droplets.
Seconds tick by into minutes, and he lies still.
I hear the sound each of my tears makes as they splash onto his beautiful, unmoving face. I brush my lips on his cold forehead when his eyes flutter open.
A sob escapes me. “I thought you were dead,” I choke out, brushing back his hair from his face.
“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” he says, his lips tilting into a small smile. Relief floods my veins as life fills his beautiful eyes.
He is going to be okay.Thank the gods.
“As charming as this is, Elva, I’m afraid I must insist I break things up.” A shadow falls over me, causing chills to run down my spine. I look up and see my mother standing over me. She is wearing a cold mask on her face that I immediately recognize.
