The Snow Queen's Captive (8 page)

It took a lot out of her, though. Every day, she worked for hours in the courtyard, until she was exhausted and her ice powers were puttering out in spurts instead of a steady stream. Work was work, but it was also lonely, and as she’d slaved under the icy sunlight, she’d wished that Kai would be able to join her in the courtyard for company.

So…she was going to test him. They’d take a nice walk around the courtyard, she’d pretend to be distracted, and she’d see if he’d bolt. If he didn’t, he could come with her while she worked, and she’d have company and conversation.

If he did…well, then Muffin was wrong and she could never trust Kai.

Gathering her skirts in a crackle of ice, Charlotte headed out of her chambers and through one of the nearby walls. It melted backward as she passed through, and she held the wall open for a few seconds longer to allow Kai to pass through. It was effortless for her now, though she could see from the expression on Kai’s face that it was still impressive to him. Chamber after chamber, they passed through, until they descended the icy stairs that led to the front courtyard.

The sun was sinking into the horizon, the skies purple and orange, and the courtyard before her glittered with ice and snow. It was rather pretty if you liked the cold, Charlotte had to admit. There had been an orchard here, once, and the trees rustled and tinkled with the breeze, completely iced over. In the distance, there were rose bushes that were nothing but icy tangles, and a frozen over maze that the former occupant of her body had created. Charlotte hadn’t bothered with the maze, since she could just melt the walls with a thought. It sort of made the whole ‘maze’ thing lose its appeal.

“Well,” Charlotte said lightly. “Shall we walk?”

She looked over at Kai and was surprised by the expression on his face. His tan had paled, and there was a look of wonderment and some other emotion she couldn’t describe. His eyes gleamed. He looked…upset?

“Oh no. What’s wrong?” She reached out to touch his arm, but pulled back before her skin touched his. Damn ice queen business. “Is it all the ice? Because I’m pretty sure that once I’m gone, it’ll go back to normal. No need to get upset—“

He shook his head, interrupting her. “This…is the first time I’ve been outside in months.” He tilted his head back and inhaled deeply, as if delighting in the fresh air.

“Oh.” Well, didn’t that make her feel like an asshole? Or rather, an asshole-by-proxy since she wasn’t the original asshole. “I’m glad we’re taking a walk, then.”

“Yes,” Kai said simply, and then fell silent.

Charlotte clasped her hands and began to walk forward, relieved when Kai moved into place at her side. She glanced over at him, wincing at his bare feet and the way he had the furs wrapped around his shoulders. “If you’re too cold—“

“I’m fine,” he said quickly.

Right. She nodded, and continued strolling, though she tried to consciously thin and warm the ice at her feet so it wouldn’t bite at his skin as he stepped.

They walked her enormous courtyard in silence, and as they walked, her thoughts turned to the walls, as always. Here, there was a spot that could be reinforced. There, the ice had made formations that almost looked like steps and she needed to smooth them lest someone use it as a ladder and climb over all her hard work. As they walked, she peeked over at him a few times, but his face was carefully blank.

Well, it was now or never. Steeling herself, Charlotte turned to the jagged ice and approached it, placing her hands on the wall. “Give me a moment. I need to smooth this.” She turned her back to him.

And waited.

Her eyes closed, she connected with the ice. She’d been stretching and testing her ice queen powers, since no one had given her a manual. Through testing, she’d eventually figured out that if she concentrated, it was like she could connect to the ice at a molecular level and almost ‘see’ what was around her. She’d feel any vibrations of movement, striations in the ice that told her something was changing.

If Kai was going to make a break for it, she’d feel every footstep on the ice and know what he was doing without lifting a finger.

This was about trust. And she mentally crossed her fingers and hoped she could trust him. She was so freaking lonely, and captor-and-captive wasn’t exactly the most fun relationship. Something had to change.

So she waited. To Kai’s eyes, she would appear to be lost in concentration, hands locked against the icy wall. There was not a single sound except the whistle of the chilly wind.

A footstep crunched against the ice.

Charlotte waited. Maybe he was shifting his feet.
Don’t do it, Kai. Please don’t.

Another footstep. Then another.

Then, he was running, and her spirits sank. Charlotte pulled her mind out of the ice and whirled around to see Kai sprinting, as fast as he could, for the icy lattice of the portcullis that led to her courtyard. If he could break through that, he could head straight on to the hills.

Or so he thought. She could stop him in an instant. Her heart sank, though. She couldn’t trust Kai after all. Not that she was surprised, but she’d hoped…

Oh well. Crossing her arms, Charlotte watched him race across the ice a moment longer, and then knelt to touch her fingertips to the ice-covered ground.

Two hundred feet away, the ice slithered and shifted under Kai’s feet, knocking him onto his back. He got to his feet quickly, shaking his head to clear it, and began to race forward again.

But she had him. The ice surged around his feet like quicksand, submerging him up to his calves in ice and locking him in place.

His feral growl of frustration was audible from a distance.

“I thought we were past this,” Charlotte called out in annoyance, pacing over to him. “Seriously. An escape? Really? You thought you could get away?”

“I had to try,” he snarled at her, twisting his body to give her his best glare as she strolled forward.

Charlotte moved in front of him and kept her arms crossed on her chest, one finger tapping on her forearm. She wanted to yell at him in frustration. She was just so damn disappointed. They couldn’t be friends after all, could they? It was all just a big pipe dream.

She suddenly wanted to cry. Was she really going to be stuck, alone and scared, for the next month with no company except a man who wanted nothing more than to flee her presence? She rubbed her stinging eyes, willing the tears away, and then sighed.

Did she blame him? He thought she was the snow queen, and the snow queen was an asshole and a half. Of course he’d run away.

Charlotte dropped to the ground in a crinkle of icy skirts. She was just so very tired of all of this. Being the bad guy was rather taxing on the soul. “Can we talk? Heart to heart?”

Kai glared at her, stiff and angry, his entire body vibrating with rage.

She threw her hands up. “Just talk, okay? Nothing more. No tricks. Just talk.”

He relaxed a bit, but then added, “I can’t feel my feet.”

“Oh. Oops.” Charlotte touched the ground, releasing the ice covering him to his calves. He danced out of its grasp, stomping his bare feet on the ground, and then set the fur on the ice, crossing his legs and rubbing his toes to bring warmth back into them.

And he gave her another grouchy glare.

“Sorry about that,” she told him. “I had to see if you were going to run. Looks like I was right.”

“Like I said, I had to try.”

“I know. And I don’t blame you. I really don’t. I just…” she sighed heavily. “Can we be friends? Truce? I’m here for the next month and I’d really like it if we could stop hating each other.”

He gave her another wary look. “You’re not going to punish me?”

“Why should I?”

“You have always punished me severely for escape attempts in the past.” He watched her closely. “The last time, you put the mirror flecks in my eyes to enchant me into falling in love with you.”

She chewed on her lip, thinking. She remembered the mirror flecks and how they’d made him into some sort of lovesick zombie. ”Nah, I’m good. Like I said, I don’t blame you for trying. I’m just disappointed, is all.”

Kai stared at her for so long that her nape began to prickle, uncomfortable. Then, he leaned forward, his voice low as his dark eyes regarded her. “Who are you, really?”

Charlotte clasped her hands nervously. “I’m the Snow Queen.”

“No,” he said flatly. “You are not. You wear her form, but you are not her.”

She couldn’t stop herself from wringing her hands in worry. If Muffin knew that he’d guessed the truth, would she be in trouble? She’d had to promise not to discuss it, or else everything would be ruined. “Yes, I am,” she said emphatically, and gave a little nod.

“You’re different. You don’t remember anything from before. You don’t touch me the way you used to. And you want to be…friends.” He said the last word flatly. “You are not the same woman.”

“Hssst!” Charlotte shushed him, waving her hands and glancing around anxiously in case the fairy godmother was nearby, listening. “Ixnay on that whole line of thinking, okay?”

“Tell me the truth,” he demanded.

She clenched her fists. “Look, Kai, I wish I could, but I can’t, okay? I just can’t. Please trust me.” Frustrated tears threatened again. “I don’t like this any more than you do.”

“Then tell me who you are!”

“I’m the goddamn Snow Queen!” Charlotte jerked to her feet. “You may not believe me, but it’s true. You think I’m doing all this ice bullshit for funsies? It’s who I have to be. And I’m going to protect my ass as best as I can so I can win this stupid task I’m being shoved through.”

His dark eyes glared at her, as hard as the line of his mouth. After a moment, he asked, “You mentioned a month. A month and something happens. And you’re changing things. You’re changing all of this into a fortress.” He gestured at the no-longer pretty and dainty ice walls. “Why?”

She snapped her mouth shut, mentally cursing. She’d said too much. He’d caught her little slip of the tongue and now she was going to be in trouble for sure. But when no fairy godmother struck her down, she supposed that she hadn’t broken the rules…

Yet.

Charlotte rubbed her forehead. “I can’t say.”

“What happens at the end of the month?”

She glared at him. “I still can’t say.”

“Are you going to tell me anything?”

“I honestly don’t think that I can. Not without getting both of us into trouble.”

Kai snorted at that, and rubbed his foot a little harder, forcing circulation back into his chilled flesh. “You make it sound as if you have someone you answer to.”

She pressed her lips together, still silent.

“Do not tell me, then,” he said. “I will harbor my own suspicions. But tell me this: what will happen to me at the end of the month?”

“If it’s up to me?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll let you go. You can go home.”

He looked surprised. “You’d just let me leave?”

“That’s right.”

His brows furrowed. “You make it sound as if I’m a guest instead of your prisoner.”

She wanted to tell him that none of this was her idea, but she forced herself to press her lips closed, keeping her secrets.

“Very well, then,” Kai said, wiggling his toes. He gave her a scrutinizing look. “You will keep me as a companion for this month, and then you will let me go. Why?”

She shrugged. “Maybe I needed a friend.”

He stared at her for so long that her cheeks felt heated with a flush. “A friend,” he said flatly.

Now she felt stupid. “Whatever you may think of me, it’s true. All
I
want from you is a friend.”

“I see.” He thought for a moment, and then gestured at the furs he sat on. “If we are to be friends, I want clothing. And boots.”

“If I knew how to get those, you’d have them already.” She gave him a wry smile. “I’m not exactly sure who is in charge of shopping around here.”

“You have servants, remember?”

Right, so she did. “I’ll put them right on that.” Just as soon as she figured out how.

~~ * * * ~~

When Kai went to bed that night in the snow queen’s chambers, his mind was troubled. Well, no, that wasn’t quite right. His mind was always troubled when it came to her, but now he was simply confused.

She wasn’t the same person as before.

Oh, she’d danced around the subject and given him vague answers, but what she hadn’t admitted to had told him plenty.
Look, Kai, I wish I could, but I can’t, okay? I just can’t. Please trust me. I don’t like this any more than you do.

She — Charlotte, he had to think of her as Charlotte – made it sound like she was not here of her own choosing. More games? He didn’t know. But when she’d said she wanted a friend…he’d believed her.

Maybe she’d be true to her word and release him at the end of the month, like she promised. He considered her words. Maybe I wanted a friend.

Very well, then. He’d give her a friend. Bees flock to honey because it is sweet, the old saying went. He’d get further with her if it seemed like he was playing along with whatever her new game was. If it was a game at all. He hadn’t missed the sheer disappointment on her face when she’d caught him escaping, but she looked sincere when she said she hadn’t blamed him.

Kai didn’t know what to make of her.

Even now, he lay alone in her bed, wrapped in the blankets. He held his breath, listening to the stillness. Tonight, as every night, he heard the muffled sound of weeping.

So she was a different woman, and she cried every night. And she couldn’t tell him anything about who she was or why she was wearing the same face as the snow queen.

One thing was certain, though; she was no happier to be here than he was.

Chapter Five

Something stirred Kai out of sleep. He remained still, his breathing even, as he assessed the situation. His fingers twitched, desperate for his hunting knife, but the snow queen had shattered it moments before she’d captured him.

His ears pricked as he caught the low sound of murmuring voices. Was that Charlotte? Who was she talking to? Her servants? But…why in the middle of the night?