Page 32 of Cold Hearted
“I have the maps and the guard change schedule.” The woman ran over to where a fire was roaring in the living room, and I quickly took note of our surroundings. The home was bare of any furniture. Only a warm fur blanket and a cup of steaming tea lay before the fire. Clearly no one lived here. She’d just been waiting for us.
When she got back to Zander, she handed him a bundle of papers. “It’s all there. Hopefully enough to help you defeat the rondak and get the city back.”
Zander finally looked away from me to give her a pained smile. “Hopefully.”
I put my hand on the dagger that would cleave the heart from Zander’s chest, and the cuffs tightened but didn’t break the skin.
“We miss you, Lord Roan.” The woman’s voice broke. “The people are getting weary with the daily beatings and weekly hangings.”
Zander’s shoulders dropped. “I’m sorry for failing you. Hold strong, I plan to take the city back within a moon’s time.”
She nodded, bowing deeply one more time. Then she left out the front door, latching it shut behind her and leaving Zander and me alone.
I swallowed hard. Pulling my dagger free, I pointed it at him, chest heaving. “Youare the Northern lord!” I declared, and the cuffs bit into my skin, causing blood to flow and wet my sleeves.
Now it made sense why these blasted things never fell off. I’d always intended to kill the Ethereum lord of the Northern Kingdom, and that’s who he’d been all along.
He nodded, took off his cloak and hung it on a hook. He then walked toward me slowly until the tip of my dagger bit into the cloth of his shirt. “And you are the Summer Court princess of Faerie, here to take my heart, my magic, my kingdom. All so you can power your own.”
I gasped. He knew.
Had he known this whole time? Or maybe it was my power last night that gave me away.
My hand shook as I held the blade against his chest.
Do it, Dawn.
Press the blade in hard, then carve downward, then to the right, then up and over. Just like you practiced.
But my hands shook, and I didn’t move. Could I kill him? The man who had brought me all this way, introduced me to his sister-in-law,his nephews. The man who called me little bird and constantly watched my lips like he wanted to kiss them. A man who clearly loved his people and only wanted to do right by them.
Zander wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t the beast my mother described. Oh, I’d broken all the rules. I’d let him speak. And when he’d told me he was the commander of the Northern Army and would bring me to his lord, I’d believed his lies.
Gritting my teeth, I grabbed the dagger with both hands and attempted to plunge it into Zander’s chest. My muscles shook with effort, but the blade didn’t move an inch. I knew in that moment it wasn’t the cuffs that prevented me from digging my blade straight through and carving his black heart from his lifeless body. No, it was my own heart that stood in the way.
My chest heaved as I stared into those endless blue eyes. I dropped the sunstone dagger and it clattered to the floor. There, I had my answer. I couldn’t kill him.
Immediately the cuffs popped open and fell away, hitting the ground next to my weapon.
I was a failure. I couldn’t carve out the heart of the Northern lord, and the proof was lying on the floor in front of me. I should’ve been disappointed and shamed by my failure, yet all I felt in that moment was immense relief that I hadn’t killed Zander. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I had.
I looked up at him. “But the Ethereum lords are evil. You’re… supposed to be evil.”
My mother spun me a tale of an evil line of males who were cruel and wicked, fae who didn’t look monstrous but on the inside were twisted and brutal, more beastly in nature than even the unseelie.That was not the man before me. I knew in that instant I could never hurt a hair on Zander’s head.
“And you, little bird…” He stepped closer to me so that our bodies were practically pressed together. “… were supposed to be a ruthless assassin who would come in the night and carve my heart from my chest before I could utter a single word.”
So he’d heard stories of my kind too. Stories that were one hundred percent true.
“Iama ruthless assassin,” I admitted as I reached out, placing my hand over the area where his heart was. It beat wildly against my palm as Zander eyed my lips for the hundredth time since I met him. “But I could never hurt you,” I confessed, and then his lips crashed onto mine.
I moaned, and he inhaled the sound, grasping my hips with his fingers and pressing into my skin. My lips opened to allow his tongue to caress against mine, and an icy fire spread throughout my chest, like frigid water slipping into my veins and pouring throughout my body.
I gasped as he kissed me deeper and it felt like in that moment my entire life was complete. Like I’d spent every day since I was born searching for this. For him.
Something bright flashed behind my closed eyelids, and I popped them open, pulling away from Zander to see that we were covered in a golden glow. It kissed our skin like a mist clinging to the air for several moments before fading away.
Panting, and with wide eyes, I looked up at him for an explanation, but he seemed just as surprised as I was.
