Winter Queen by Amber Argyle Read Free Book Online Page A

up, wondering why the pain hadn’t killed her. “Please,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “Please, kill me.”
    Darrien crouched in front of her, but she couldn’t meet his gaze. “You murdered my brother.” Without another word, he stepped around her. She heard him heave Hammoth over his shoulder.
    “You’re no better than a Raider!” she panted.
    He didn’t answer. Eventually the sound of his footfalls faded, leaving her only the silence, Lanna’s body, and the pain that burned until it swallowed her whole.

4. Winter Dance
     
    Ilyenna watched as snow twirled and danced delicately on the breeze, gently covering Lanna’s bloody body with pure white. It was as stark and disturbing as it was beautiful.
    Ilyenna now felt neither cold nor pain, only wonder at the beauty around her. She knew she was dying, her soul slipping away. She waited for darkness to come for her.
    One snowflake danced toward her, twirling and spinning like a silver bowl. It hovered above her and spoke in a voice like singing crystal. “I think this one might do.”
    Other snowflakes danced and twirled, floating above her face. “She may,” one of them replied in a tinkling voice. “But then again, she may not.”
    Strange, Ilyenna thought, that upon my death, I should hear talking snowflakes.
    “Shall we choose her?” asked a third snowflake.
    Everything grew hazy and out of focus. Ilyenna could no longer see the snowflakes, only hear them speaking as if from far away.
    “She’s been marked,” came the voice of the first. “She’s already one of us.”
    “Well then, that’s something else entirely. But if we choose her, it must be quick. She’ll not last much longer.”
    Ilyenna could no longer distinguish one voice from another. Her life was slipping away as softly as a twirling snowflake.
    “I shall choose her,” said one.
    Something small, like a frozen teardrop, touched Ilyenna’s mouth. Her body instantly came back to life. The dim, grainy landscape grew clear again. She looked at the snowflakes, but their glamor was gone now. They weren’t talking snowflakes at all, but fairies. The one directly above her was the size of her largest finger. She had fluffy white wings that looked like rabbit fur.
    Ilyenna’s eyes shifted to take in the other fairies. All had high, pointed eyebrows and ears. Their hair hung long and soft as silk down their backs. Their skin varied from bluish white to purplish black, with wings as varied as their faces.
    With wings like clear ice, the purple-black fairy flew down and pressed her tiny lips to Ilyenna’s. Suddenly, the cold embraced her like an old friend. She felt as if winter’s secrets were hidden somewhere deep inside her, waiting to be discovered.
    Another fairy, with wings like fans of frost shards, bent down and kissed Ilyenna. In her blood, ice crystals formed, searing her veins. She screamed. The sound was swallowed by an avalanche roaring in her ears. The pain seemed to slowly shred her body one icy knife at a time.
    “You drag on her torment unnecessarily, Ursella. Choose her or not, but do so quickly.”
    The fairy shook out her mane of silver hair. “They are weak, even the strongest of them.”
    “The Balance requires a queen, Ursella. Choose now or she dies.”
    Ilyenna felt the truth in the words. Her life ebbed away. The pain still tore at her, but it was as distant as a fading echo.
    “Very well.”
    Faintly, Ilyenna felt the last fairy’s lips on hers. Pain and time fled. She’d lived seventeen years, but she’d not lived at all. Her body, previously broken and bleeding, now pulsed with white light. Her wounds no longer existed. She suddenly realized she hadn’t breathed in many long minutes. She gasped, taking air into her lungs.
    “And so a new winter queen is born,” said the fairy with furry white wings.
    White streamers, like ribbons of silk, slipped around Ilyenna’s body. They shimmered and rippled like water before absorbing into her skin. Light