Shadow Frost (Shadow Frost Trilogy Book 1)

by Coco Ma

  Rose couldn’t help but feel grateful when Eadric answered. “Orion went missing after we jumped into the lake. Harry is looking for him right now, so—”

  Asterin shot to her feet, rage cresting her features. “What do you mean, missing? Why in hell didn’t any of you say anything?”

  Eadric’s fists clenched. “Because the first thing you would have done is run after him. He’s supposed to protect you. As am I. Your safety comes first.”

  “Stop acting like your lives are worth less than mine!” Asterin exploded. “You are my friends! Friends always protect one another—”

  Asterin cut herself off just as they heard the snap of twigs and leaves rustling. Quinlan’s hands already smoldered with heat, battle-ready. Harry burst into the grove, shoulders heaving and Orion in his arms. The hunter fell to his knees, clothes and hair still dripping, and set the Guardian down. Rose’s fingers already grasped his limp wrist for a pulse. Faint, but there. “He swallowed a lot of water,” Harry said. “I got him to vomit most of it out and start breathing again, but—”

  Asterin lunged forward and threw her arms around Harry, stunning him into silence. “Thank you,” she whispered as Eadric and Quinlan helped spread Orion out on the grass.

  Rose prepared her affinity stone. “All of you either have to leave or shut up so I can concentrate. I have to get the rest of the water out of his lungs.”

  Harry chose to stay, and Eadric returned to Luna, but Quinlan stormed off, posture strung like a bow drawn taut. Rose remembered that particularly hard set of his shoulders from when they were children, from before their fathers had been killed. It came with bruises and burns hidden beneath his clothes. It came when Quinlan visited the palace and Rose asked if he wanted to practice magic, and her cousin’s smile would freeze and he would tell her with trembling courage that he had forgotten his affinity stones at home.

  Rose had known he was lying. Her mother had told her that Gavin Holloway kept them locked in a case he carried around in his pocket.

  “Asterin,” Rose said quietly, tracing her thumbs across Orion’s chest. “I know you want to help, but I can handle this on my own. Could you keep an eye on Quinlan for me? I’m afraid he might do something stupid if left alone.”

  “Why me?” Asterin asked.

  Unbelievable, Rose thought, shaking her head. You still haven’t realized? “Because, somehow, it’s always you who knows how to set him right.”

  Quinlan wondered what General Garringsford’s screams would sound like when he set her alight. Alive.

  He leaned against a tree, bark scraping the back of his neck. He inhaled sharply through his nose, struck by a sudden flash of anger. Sparks popped from his palms, hissing onto the dewy grass. There was nothing more despicable than stealing a part of someone—an identity, memories, magic. It had been horrible enough when his father had taken away his affinity stones as a child, but that was exactly it. Just the stones. The embers of his magic had always flickered within him—he needed only to set them ablaze.

  But Asterin’s parents … she would never get her parents back.

  He exhaled a plume of black smoke, lungs filled with ash, and forced himself to cool down. He remembered the first time he had used his powers without the stones. How good it had felt to be free. How good it had felt to hear his father’s screams of outrage—and pain.

  Heatless flames licked up the trunk of the tree he leaned on, leaping across branches and spreading until his entire world glowed red, smoke rising from the ground like fog. One thought was all he needed to make it burn.

  Then something cold kissed his forehead. He turned his face up to watch as a second snowflake drifted down from the sky, its delicate needles catching the light before melting on his lips.

  When his gaze lifted, Asterin stood before him, an apparition half-­obscured in the thick gray haze. “Rose told me that I might find you like this,” she said as she picked her way through the smoke and stopped a few feet away.

  His voice was a sooty rasp. “How are you feeling?”

  She stared up at the inferno devouring the treetops, yet never singeing so much as a leaf. “What’s the point of fire that doesn’t burn?”

  “Potential,” Quinlan said. “It is a sword to the throat that simply waits to deliver the killing blow.”

  Her emerald eyes had gone dull. “But why hesitate? Why give that mercy?”

  “It is never a mercy to be at another’s mercy,” he said. “It only means you will suffer longer.” He covered the space between them in three quick strides and grabbed her hands, enclosing them in his own. She looked up at him, her eyes reflecting the firelight. “Asterin, I promise you. I will make Garringsford suffer an eternity for you.”

  She let out a hiss, and he realized that his hands were smoldering like coals. Maybe he hadn’t cooled down as much as he’d thought. But rather than release him, she only gripped tighter, jaw clenching as she embraced the pain.

  “Asterin—”

  She let go of his hands and wrapped her arms around his neck, her face nestled into his shoulder. His heart leapt into his throat, and hesitantly, he wound his arms around her waist, holding her close. The flames high in the trees wavered and then snuffed out, the smoke fading to a forgotten wind.

  His chest ached with a daunting, new weight he had never felt before. His father would’ve called this a fatal weakness. Never let your heart rule your head. But this didn’t feel like weakness. It felt like strength.

  He swallowed and said, “When we kill Garringsford, Priscilla might be unfit to rule after being under her control. If worst comes to worst, you must claim the throne.” He felt her shoulders stiffen. “Even if you have to fight for it. You belong on that throne, Asterin.”

  She withdrew from his arms and scoffed. “Quinlan, look at me. My Guardian almost drowned, I almost got all of us eaten by the dybrulé, and if it wasn’t for you and Conrye, we would have been killed by the wyvern in Aldville. I can hardly protect my friends, let alone hundreds of thousands of people. I’m not wise like Rose, or even kind like Luna. I can’t be queen.”

  He reached forward to cup her jaw ever so gently, tilting her face upward and wondering if she could hear his heart hammering. “You can be whatever the hell you want,” he whispered. “And I promise you … I promise you that—that if you so desire, I will stay by your side through all of it.” His face burned with embarrassment at his own words, but he barreled on, terrified that if they didn’t get out now, they would remain buried deep inside him forever. “I will stay by your side, always. I won’t leave you.”

  She stared at him. “Why?”

  He found himself at a loss for words, his expression desperate as he willed her to understand.

  “Why?” she demanded again, striking her fists against his chest. “I’m nothing to you. I’m just a distraction. I’m—”

  Quinlan grabbed her fingers and held them against his heart. He heard her breath hitch as her fingers splayed open and the traitorous thundering of his pulse told her everything she needed to know.

  “You? Just a distraction?” Quinlan almost burst out laughing. “Asterin, you idiot, I didn’t mean it like that.” All of a sudden, he couldn’t get the words out fast enough. “When you’re on my mind, I can’t think straight. I forget about everything else. You steal my attention, all of it, every time I look at you. I—I never intended to … feel anything for you. But I just can’t help it.” His hands, still gripping hers, shook from nerves like they never had before.

  Asterin’s eyes widened to moons. “Me?”

  Quinlan groaned aloud. “Yes, you, damn it. Most of the time you are unbelievably annoying and stubborn. But you are also the most brilliant, brave, and beautiful person I have ever met.”

  The hint of a growing smile. “Could you repeat that?”

  “What, stubborn and irritating?”

  She raised an
eyebrow. “After that.”

  Her smile gave him courage. “Brilliant. Brave. Beautiful.”

  The light had rekindled in her eyes. “Sorry, I missed it again. One more time?”

  Quinlan threw his hands into the air. “You’re such an infuriating little …” He shook his head, soft laughter rolling through him. “Brat.”

  “Asshole,” she retorted.

  He sighed in exasperation, and then took her face in his hands and surged forward to kiss her, so swiftly and unexpectedly that she actually kissed him back.

  The kiss lasted no more than a few seconds because he couldn’t resist breaking away to let loose a giddy whoop, fist pumping the air. “Finally!”

  “You’re so obnoxious,” she complained.

  He only grinned and then kissed her again. When they parted, the color was high in her cheeks and her eyes shone as bright as jewels.

  And then, from afar, a scream ripped through the air.

  The blood drained from Asterin’s face. “Luna.”

  Quinlan grabbed her hand, and then they ran.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  If hell existed, this was it.

  Knives shredded Luna’s skin, cutting her apart. Then a needle sewed her back together. Then came the knives again, and then the needle, and then the knives, again and again. There was no end to the pain and suffering, and Luna’s only thought was, What did I do to deserve this?

  But now, something—someone dragged her back to the surface, back toward the light.

  And it burned.

  She hissed, clawing blindly in a futile attempt to slow her ascent, dreading the moment she would break into the real world.

  “Luna,” came the muted echo of a voice. The sound of her name tore through some boundary in the back of her mind, dredging up a recent memory, bright and fresh. She gasped, thrashing, only to choke down a lungful of water. She needed air, she needed the darkness—

  “Asterin, wait!”

  Luna jerked awake to find that she hadn’t been underwater at all—it was just some horrible nightmare. It took her a moment to reorient herself. Two cloaks and a jacket she recognized as Eadric’s covered her quivering body.

  Rose and Eadric’s blurred faces swam into view above her, but Luna could only see Asterin, storming closer and then stuttering to a halt, disbelief taking over her features. “What in hell?” The princess whirled on Rose, emerald eyes round. “You knew, damn it!”

  “What is it?” Luna croaked.

  Asterin’s eyes shone with concern as she sank to Luna’s side, her expression softening. “Immortals above. What did that bitch do to you?”

  “What do you mean? What were those things in the water?”

  “Luna, there’s something you need to see.”

  Asterin conjured a stream of water between them and shaped it into a flat surface so that Luna could gaze into its reflection.

  But the face staring back at her was not a face she recognized. The bones jutted out, the hair glowed platinum, and the eyes … swirling with hues of turquoise and teal. They certainly didn’t belong to her. Yet when Luna blinked, the reflection blinked back. Dread coiled low in her gut when she realized that the reflection did belong to her.

  Those eyes … she knew who those eyes belonged to, too.

  “What—what happened to me?” Luna breathed, raising her hands to her face, fingers grazing the foreign contours. “Am I dreaming?”

  Asterin watched her warily, gauging her reaction. “No, Luna. The lake we jumped into contained contralusio, a substance that reveals hidden truths. This … this is your true appearance.”

  “That’s not possible—”

  “What happened to your parents, Luna?”

  Luna shook her head fiercely, tears rising to her eyes. “They died. I grew up in an orphanage, I swear it.”

  “Luna, please,” Asterin begged. “Just try and remember what happened before you went to the orphanage. Anything.”

  “You know I don’t like remembering it, I—”

  A cold night.

  “But why?”

  “Because I can’t really …” Luna stopped, covering her face in her hands. A cold night. A bright blue ribbon. Moonflower. “I could never really remember it clearly. It was always sort of a blur, and my head hurt every time I tried. So I stopped trying.”

  Her hands fell away as Asterin wrapped her arms around her, warm and solid. “I’m so sorry,” her friend murmured. “We’ll get our revenge on Garringsford. Together.”

  “Garringsford?” Luna echoed in confusion.

  There was a series of curses from behind them, and they turned to see Orion struggling up, finally awake, hacking out watery coughs.

  Asterin released her and rushed back to the edge of the clearing for her Guardian, leaving Luna feeling strangely abandoned. Eadric strode toward her, but Luna was already on her feet, following in Asterin’s wake as she always did.

  All of them surrounded Orion, his golden hair still damp from the lake. Rose reached for his wrist to check his heart rate, and both Asterin and Harry looked like they were about to keel over in relief.

  But then Orion’s eyes cleared and fixated on Harry, who knelt in front of him. A growl tore from Orion’s throat.

  “You liar.”

  Everyone froze at the wrath in the Guardian’s sandpaper-rough voice.

  Harry flinched, shoulders curling in. “What?”

  “Don’t play innocent.” Orion lurched forward, grabbing Harry’s collar with unsteady hands, and Luna had never seen such fury twisting his handsome features. “You lied to us,” he said, “right from the very beginning. I should have listened to Eadric and Rose. They were right all along.”

  A torrent of emotions played out on Harry’s face. “Orion—”

  “What are you saying?” Asterin asked her Guardian, but from Quinlan’s stance and the way that Rose slowly slipped out her affinity stone, Luna had a feeling that all of them already knew what lay ahead.

  A dark chuckle escaped Orion. “I’m saying that Harry isn’t just some hunter.”

  Luna inhaled, praying to the Immortals that his next words wouldn’t be what she feared.

  But they were.

  “Everyone,” Orion spat, “meet our demon.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Even after he had brought Orion safely back from the lake to where the others huddled in the grove, Harry couldn’t break free from the images looping through his mind—plunging into the cold water, searching the depths, dragging Orion’s lifeless body out, hollering incomprehensibly and pumping at his unmoving chest on the bank, leaning down to press their lips together, filling Orion’s lungs with air, mouths wet from the lake water—

  It certainly wasn’t how Harry had expected their first kiss to go.

  And when Orion had finally awoken, Harry had been so relieved to see those ice-chip blue eyes open that he didn’t even notice their blazing wrath at first. When he did, he knew it was already over. His time was up.

  Still, after everything that had happened, he could still try, he could still—

  Orion laughed again, a hard, mean bark that grated against Harry’s ears. “Stop staring at me like you think you can fool me. I saw you in the lake, Harry. I saw you.”

  Harry’s heart plummeted. There was no way out of this. A part of him had sensed Orion wasn’t totally blacked out when Harry, in his demon form, had found him and dragged him back up to the surface. He had shifted after jumping into the lake, though not because the contralusio had forced him to. The only truth the lake had revealed to him was just how shitty of a swimmer he was in his human form, and Harry refused to risk Orion’s life for the errors his human form might make.

  Now two hands locked onto Harry’s shoulders, one from Quinlan and one from Eadric. Harry wanted to tell them that he wasn’t planning an
escape, but judging from their vice grips, he doubted they would care.

  Orion released Harry’s collar and stepped back in disgust. “You’re a monster.”

  Harry closed his eyes. “I’m not a monster. I’m an anygné, an immortal being summoned from the Shadow Kingdom—”

  “I don’t give a damn about what you are,” said Orion, an empty smile fixed on his face. “You’re a monster for what you’ve done.”

  “Orion—”

  “I don’t want to hear your excuses, or your apologies. I trusted you.”

  In the silence, Harry could only hear his own blood rushing in his ears. Asterin had her face buried in her hands. Luna kept looking back and forth between him and Orion like she desperately wanted one of them to yell, Just kidding! And Rose … Rose just seemed resigned. Of course, Harry couldn’t see Eadric’s or Quinlan’s expressions, but he could only imagine the captain’s rage.

  “Plotting away in some cozy little shithole with Garringsford, figuring out the most amusing ways to torment us—”

  “Wait,” Harry interrupted with a frown. “Who is Garringsford?”

  “The General of Axaria, obviously. Your contact. The one who sent us to you.”

  Harry inhaled sharply. “The Woman.”

  Asterin glanced up. “The Woman?”

  “Yes … she never gave away any hint of her identity, although I was fairly certain she worked at the royal palace. But I had no idea that she was the general … I’m sorry,” he said, throat dry, unable to come up with anything else.

  “That day I came upstairs to your room and you said that you didn’t feel well …” Asterin trailed off. “It was you who set off our trap, right?”

  Harry bit his lip. “Yes.”

  Rose tilted her head. “How did you get the dye off?”

  Harry looked away, the weight of Orion’s stare still pinning him to hell. “Does it matter?”

  At that, Luna descended upon him like a furious wasp. “Of course it matters! Do you know how relieved we were when that trap confirmed you weren’t the demon? So tell us how you got the dye off, Harry, or so help me, I’m going to—”