CHAPTER 2
1284 Words
The Terms
Sloane's POV
They pulsed.
That was the part no one ever warned you about ice shackles.
They pulsed.
Not painfully, not exactly. Just a low, steady throb against my wrists. Every few seconds the magic moved through them again, like a quiet heartbeat. Like something alive reminding me over and over that the shackles weren’t just metal and ice.
They belonged to someone.
And now, apparently, so did I.
I counted the pulses as we walked.
It helped keep my mind from breaking apart.
One.
Two.
Three.
We passed four guards in the hallway outside the vault. None of them looked at me directly, which somehow felt worse than if they had. Then we turned through two long corridors, the sound of our footsteps echoing off the stone.
By the time we stopped, I had counted sixty-two pulses.
The door opened.
I expected a cell.
Cold walls. Chains. Maybe a bucket in the corner.
Instead, it was a room.
A real room.
There was a fire burning in a stone hearth. Two chairs sat near it, and a table had been set with food and cups of something steaming. The place looked comfortable. Almost peaceful.
That somehow made everything feel more unreal.
Prince Kael Frost sat down across from me like this was a normal meeting between two reasonable people.
A servant quietly poured two cups of something hot onto the table and left without saying a word.
The door shut.
Now it was just the two of us.
And the fire crackling softly between us.
“The ceremony is at midnight,” Kael said.
His voice was calm, steady.
“That gives us six hours.”
I leaned back in the chair, staring at him.
“Stop saying that like it’s already decided.”
“It is already decided.”
“Not by me.”
I lifted my wrists slightly and tested the shackles again.
They tightened immediately.
Cold magic pressed harder against my skin.
I stopped moving.
“I didn’t sign anything,” I said. “I was ten years old. Whatever my mother agreed to, that was her agreement.”
“The contract was written into your bloodline,” he replied. “Not to Mara directly.”
He said her name simply. No hesitation.
“It transferred when she died. The agreement has been active since the night she signed it.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“Do you hear yourself right now?” I asked. “You’re talking about owning me like this is some kind of property dispute.”
“I’m talking about a magical contract that kept you alive.”
“I didn’t ask to be kept alive like that.”
“You were ten.”
His voice stayed calm, but something about it grew firmer.
“You were unconscious. You were not in a position to be asked.”
The fire popped softly in the silence that followed.
I looked down at the food on the table.
Bread. Meat. Fruit.
My stomach twisted at the thought of eating any of it.
Kael was staring down at the table too, like he was studying a map carved into the wood.
After a moment, I spoke again.
“What does the ceremony involve?”
I didn’t really want the answer.
But I had learned something a long time ago.
The worst truth was always easier than the unknown.
His jaw tightened slightly.
It was a small movement, but I noticed it.
“A claiming mark,” he said.
His eyes lifted briefly to mine.
“The placement must be… witnessed.”
“Witnessed.”
“Yes. By the court. It confirms the bond.”
I let out a quiet breath.
“I understand what witnessed means.”
My voice came out flat, but it took effort to keep it that way.
“You want to strip me naked in front of your entire court.”
“The mark is placed somewhere specific,” he said carefully.
“I heard you.”
I leaned forward slightly, looking straight at him.
“The answer is no.”
The word sat in the room like a stone.
“Whatever my mother signed. Whatever magic you put into my body. I am not property.”
My hands tightened against the shackles.
“And I am not standing in front of your court while you brand me like something you found in a market.”
For a long moment, he said nothing.
He just watched me.
But something about the way he was looking at me had changed.
Before, it felt like he was studying a situation.
Now it felt like he was studying me.
Not the contract.
Not the problem.
Me.
Sloane Caelan.
A thief who was currently furious, terrified, and trying very hard not to show either one.
Finally, he spoke.
“The fever will kill you.”
His voice was quieter now.
“Without the bond sustaining you, you will die within three days.”
“I know.”
I picked up the cup in front of me.
The warmth of it seeped into my fingers for a second before I set it back down untouched.
“You’d better hope I find another solution,” I said.
“Because I am not doing the ceremony.”
“There is no other solution.”
“There is always another solution.”
I pushed my chair back and stood.
The shackles pulled my wrists together as I moved.
“I’ve been solving impossible problems since I was seventeen,” I said. “It’s basically my job.”
I paced once beside the table, then stopped and looked at him again.
“Why me?”
He didn’t answer.
“You’re a prince,” I continued. “You have an entire court full of people who would jump at the chance to marry you. You could have anyone.”
I shook my head.
“So why this? The trap. The waiting. Watching that vault door for seven years.”
My voice lowered slightly.
“Why me specifically?”
For the first time since we met, Kael didn’t answer right away.
He studied me for a long moment.
Then he said quietly,
“Because you are the only person in either court who carries what your bloodline carries.”
The words landed slowly.
“There is no one else.”
He said it without drama.
Without emotion.
Just a simple fact.
“I didn’t choose this situation,” he continued. “I discovered it.”
His gaze stayed steady on mine.
“And once I understood it, I made a decision.”
“You made a decision about my life.”
“Your mother made a decision about your life.”
His voice stayed calm.
“I honored the agreement she made.”
For a moment we just looked at each other.
The fire crackled softly between us.
And strangely… I realized something.
I didn’t actually hate him.
I hated the situation.
I hated my mother’s desperation.
I hated the twelve years of secrets and the magic apparently sitting inside my chest that belonged to someone else.
But him?
Standing there, telling me the truth even when the truth made him look terrible?
I couldn’t quite bring myself to hate him.
That thought made me uncomfortable.
So I pushed it aside and looked toward the window instead.
“Can I have the room?” I asked.
His eyes moved to the window.
Then back to me.
He knew exactly what I meant.
“No,” he said.
I sighed quietly.
He was right.
If he had given me the room alone, I would have been out that window in four minutes.
- Writer
