Frost Kisses (Bitter Frost #4: Frost Series) Read Online Free Page A

had hurt Kian. And now the consequences for all of Feyland were clear.
     
    Delano leaped forward, at last lifting the heavy lid of the coffin. “Special trick,” he said. “It can only be opened from the outside.” He leered at me. But as I felt the air enter my lungs – fresh and clean, so different from the dry, stale air inside the tomb – I felt stronger, better. The air, whishing through my lungs, brought with it clarity, brought with it strength. It tasted like the fresh air of the Summer Court, alive with bergamot and orange blossoms. The taste of freedom sent me reeling, and made me realize just how confining the tomb had been. My vision blurred once more as I was overwhelmed by the burst of freshness that had come over me. I felt a hand touch mine, and for a moment I let it stay there. Then I realized who it belonged to: Delano. I quickly yanked it away.
     
    Delano almost looked hurt. “I was hoping you might have forgiven our petty little squabbles, my Queen,” he said. “After all, you’re free now. No longer betrothed or bound to your fairy prince. He killed you; the bond is broken. You can choose anyone you want.”
     
    I may have been disoriented, but I wasn’t that stupid. I knew exactly what Delano wanted with me, and it wasn’t exactly connected with true love. “Why am I here?” I said in my sharpest, most intimidating voice.
     
    “Because that was part of the plan,” Delano whispered. “I brought you here, complete with your tomb and flowers, my Queen. I wanted you here.”
     
    “As a pack animal?” I snorted. “Some thing you can breed with – like an animal?”
     
    “Have you forgotten our arrangement, Breena?” Delano rolled his eyes. “Before you reneged on our plan and escaped, I believe you promised to be my wife on the condition that I freed the Wolf and the Princess Shasta.” His gaze turned serious. “You cannot go back on a pixie oath, my sweet. Everybody knows that. They are unbreakable.”
     
    “Too bad,” I said. “I’m already engaged.” The fact that my engagement was to Logan, who didn’t yet know that his love for me was worsened by the spell, I decided to leave out for the moment.
     
    “Too bad,” Delano grinned back at me. “You’re not at the Summer Palace, are you? Nobody to check up on these things here. And everyone over there thinks you’re dead. You were publicly killed – as Wort and my men, glamoured as your Summer Knights, wreaked havoc on the Great Hall.” He closed his eyes, as if gleefully remembering his crimes.
     
    “You still haven’t explained to me why I’m alive,” said Breena. “What happened? Did one of my fairies heal me?”
     
    “Afraid not, my dearest one,” said Delano. “Your wounds were too deep for that. Rodney tried – he even enlisted the help of his sister Rose, an alchemist. But it was too late. They pronounced you dead – you were dead. They laid your body in wake after the fighting died down, and after the funeral my Pixies – glamoured as some of your loyal attendants – were able to snatch away your body….”
     
    I felt even sicker than before. First Wort and the potion, now Delano and his glamouring. How dare these Pixies try to take me away, to control me? My feelings for Kian and Logan may have been confused, but they had no right to do this to me, no right to take away my choices! To take away my chance to make peace in the two kingdoms, to explain to Kian truly what had happened! My face burned with anger. “What did you want with my body?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. After knowing what Delano was capable of, I didn’t think I could stand to hear of any more of his villainies.
     
    “I thought we might be able to try some… darker methods of resuscitating you.” Delano’s pale, pointed face said it all, and I decided not to ask any more question on that front. “But you see, my dearest Queen Breena, in the end I had no need at all of using any kind of magic. You