Kiss of Snow

6

The guard straightened up, even though I’d said nothing more than his name. I looked closer at one of my youngest recruits and held back my sigh. I would rather have had an older, more experienced man on guard out here tonight, but what Caspar lacked in years, he usually made up for in enthusiasm and devotion to his task.

“Have you got this?” I asked the question in a low, urgent voice. “I need you to answer honestly. That’s the future Queen of Talador in that room.”

“Aye, Captain.” His eyes looked straight ahead.

“Good.” I stepped away, fighting my reluctance to leave Lily’s side. Then I shook my head. I was being ridiculous. I didn’t usually watch her as she slept, after all. But since this morning’s attack I’d been doubly worried for her safety, and I wasn’t used to such uncertainty. Frustration pushed through me at not knowing my enemy. How could I guard against something I didn’t understand? How could I protect Lily when I didn’t know our attacker?

My heart beat a fast rhythm as I tried to contain my strides as I marched away. I didn’t want to look panicked, no matter how much adrenaline I had racing around my system.

I strode to the perimeter wall, checking on guards stationed outside the main doors as I passed through. Frost covered the lawns outside as they fell away to the walls, but the heavy wooden doors and thick stone of the castle kept out most of the chill. Above me, stars twinkled and blinked in a black velvet sky, and I blew out a visible breath that spiraled lazily upward on the frigid air.

“Simeon.” I called the name of one of my most trusted officers in a low voice. Simeon was a sharp contrast to Caspar, with his thick black beard and tanned, lined skin.

He nodded as I approached. “Yes, Captain?”

“Anything unusual out here tonight?” I looked around as I spoke, and unusual anticipation crawled up my spine as awareness of hidden dangers prickled over me. The atmosphere seemed charged with electricity, but I didn’t run my guards on instinct or gut feeling, so I tried to shove the feelings away. I had to use facts and tactics, the same things I’d use to defeat any threat, in the way my father had taught me. In short, I needed a clear head, and emotion wouldn’t help me.

“No, Captain,” Simeon said.

“Are the extra men at their posts?” I’d arranged additional guards to stand around the walls to limit an intruder sneaking into the grounds, but even with those precautions, unease niggled at me.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Good. Extra patrols around the perimeter too,” I reminded him before we saluted each other and I left to check the guard posts at the castle itself.

The unease still dogged me as I walked over the gravel paths, the small stones crunching under my feet, and I glanced to the sky again calling on the Moon and her children to protect Lily as she slept.

As if in answer to my hurried prayer, the moonlight seemed to flare, and I caught sight of a dark figure as it flew over the castle wall. It was too far away to discern what it was, and too high to reach with my sword.

“Intruder!” I yelled, but I didn’t spare more words than that before I broke into a run to toward the main doors. “Secure the perimeter!”

Simeon and the other guards burst into action, but we were all moving too slowly. I watched the shape the entire time, and it landed on a window ledge I recognized.

Lily’s window.

“No!” The shout wrenched from my throat.

The figure perched on the castle turned to look at me for a moment, although I couldn’t see any features. I quickened my pace, terrified I would be too late. Damn it all, I should have trusted my gut instinct that something wasn’t right, even after the measures I’d taken. If I lost Lily because of my failure…I couldn’t even consider such a thing.

As the figure disappeared through Lily’s window, my heart plummeted through my chest and I dragged a breath into my lungs, the harsh air stinging my throat. I avoided the main staircase, opting for a long corridor that led to an older spiral staircase that emerged close to Lily’s room. I sprinted up the winding steps, my sword held at the ready the entire time. An attacker would likely escape this way as there was less chance of being seen.

My heart thumped in my ears and I heard every breath I took, as I tried to listen for sounds of an alarm being raised, but there was nothing. Only the familiar noises of the castle and its inhabitants going to bed for the night.

I caught my breath and held it as fear wrapped an iron band around me. Maybe the worst had come to pass. Perhaps I was too late.

I only had one word, one face, in my mind.

Lily, please be alive.

Five

Lily

I

closed the bedroom door behind me without any of the usual relief I felt at the seclusion and peace at the end of the day. Instead, a strange restlessness charged through me, something frenetic as if the very air was alive with danger. I stoked the fire already burning in my fireplace, though I rarely felt cold. I didn’t know where my lady’s maid was, but I wasn’t really in the mood for the company of another anyway. She’d clearly been in here already because my bed was turned down, ready for me to get into, my drapes were drawn, and she’d lit torches and the fire. I stroked my hand over the soft, thick patchwork quilt that lay on my bed. It had been made for me by one of the ladies working in the castle. She’d used my mother’s old gowns and must have stayed up many nights to stitch this alongside her usual duties. It meant a lot to me that someone would do this simply for my comfort and not just because I was the oldest daughter of the King.