AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What are you doing?” she hissed, finding her father still asleep on the settee, light snores escaping his parted mouth.
“Nothing,” Morozko said, folding his arms. “I came to wake you, little bird. We have matters to discuss.”
She scowled. “You weren’t waking me. You werestaringat me.”
“So I was.” He shrugged, motioning with a finger for her to follow him. “Come outside with menow.”
With a frown, she pushed up from the floor and met him outside in the snow. “You need to learn manners. Not demand others to do as you wish the second you say the word.”
“I am the king, and I can order whomever I want to do whatever I wish.” He shrugged, offering a sharp-toothed grin. “Besides, we can’t always get what we want.”
“That includes you,” she snapped. Something swirled in his gaze. A hint of worry? “What is it?”
Morozko lifted a brow, then took the blade of ice she’d left in the snow and pressed it into her hand. “Keep this on you at all times. We are to leave now. A few guards will remain behind.”
“Now?” Eirah asked. “I’m not leaving what’s left of my village after it was ravaged by creatures thateatpeople’s organs. I haven’t even helped Saren bury Petre. My father is still healing, exhausted, and his glasses arebroken. He needs me.”
Morozko stilled, eyeing her closely, but he didn’t glare. “I had a vision,” Morozko said it as if he was saying what color the sky was.
“And? What did you see?”
“Come with me.”
He folded his hand around her arm, and she yanked away from him. “I will not.”
Morozko’s nostrils flared as he stood a hair’s breadth from her. “This is not the time, Eirah. And so help me, I will carry you, as I did in my palace, out of this village.”
“Oh yes, where you fed me your magical blood. Secretly, I might add. And…” she trailed off. He hadn’t called her little bird—he’d called her by her name. The smirk he usually wore was not there—the play in his stare didn’t dance. “Something is truly wrong, isn’t it? Please tell me. You confessed things to me last night that you’ve kept locked away. I may be nothing to you but a means to an end, yet don’t I deserve honesty? Or am I to go back to being your bird in a cage, not knowing anything?”
You aren’t a means to an end. You’re a thorn in the bottom of my foot that makes me question everything I know.
Her eyebrows lifted, and she took a deep swallow as he sighed, knowing she had heard him.
“I will tell you now instead of back at the castle,” he said. “But only because I believe you will save Frosteria. In my vision, these changelings… they aren’t only here to kill. They can take over mortal children’s bodies.”
Her heart sped up. “Take over the bodies? I don’t understand.”
“There are children here who may have these creatures hidden beneath their flesh, so we must leave now until we can devise a plan. The only other option is to slaughter them, and I don’t believe you or I want that.”
Eirah looked at the remains of her home, the fire that had burned it down and had also helped to drive the changelings out. “You can show fire to everyone in the village. My father said the changelings are afraid of it.”
“In their true form, they may be, but while in the shell of a mortal child, I’m not certain. Everyone surviving has been near the bonfire or had candles lit in their rooms.”
A chill crawled up her spine. Innocent children she may have brought toys to could have these creatures inside them. Wicked creatures she had yet tosee.
“We can’t leave, Morozko. I can’t leave my family again, as small as it may be. Put your blade to my throat now if you must because I won’t go. If your guards return me to your castle, I’ll shift and fly right back here.”
He ran a hand down his face, the vein along his jaw ticking. “You are the most stubborn and insufferable maiden I’ve ever come to meet.”
“And I’m glad we can both agree those are wonderful qualities,” she drawled.
He arched a brow. “Tell me what your alternative is, then I’ll decide if I will allow it.”
Eirah thought about what they could do. She knew Morozko wouldn’t let her remain in the village while he and his guards were back at the castle. And she also knew the king and his guards wouldn’t stay here, either. An idea came to her then… “I know what will work for us both, and it gives us what we both want. We take the village survivors to your home.”
Morozko scoffed. “No. Monsters inside them or not, you’re not inviting an entire village into my home.”
“You haven’t heard what else I have to say on the matter.”
