Chapter 3

“No!” The word spewed vehemently from my lips. If they thought I would allow this then they knew nothing about me. I knew they would do whatever it took to ensure my ascension to the throne and if I were to think logically, I would see their reasoning behind choosing Kormen. He was the strongest amongst our warriors. The fiercest. Unparalleled in his resilience. If anyone stood a chance against balancing my power, it was surely Kormen. However, I was not in a logically thinking frame of mind. They would not make me do this. They could not. I loved Kormen. Just as much as I loved my real brother, Dallon. It was not an intimate kind of love, but that of the closest friend possible. My feelings toward him were and would always be nothing more than platonic. In spite of his strength, I would kill him. They had to know this. They had to understand that this was a sacrifice not worth making. He wouldn’t survive this. I wouldn’t survive this.

            My father’s eyes narrowed in confusion as he looked from my face, a mixture of grief-stricken horror and incredulity, to The Queen’s, pure stone. In that moment I knew that he’d been told I was okay with this. She’d led him to believe that I would actually go through with this atrocity. And he’d believed her. He took her word for it and never even thought to consider that she’d lied just as she’d done my entire childhood.

            “My Princess, it’ll be ok. I’m prepared for this. I can handle it,” Kormen stated.

            I stared at him, my mind reeling. One, I didn’t remember Kormen ever calling me princess and two, he knew this would happen. He knew and he let me be blindsided. Ambushed. I could feel my hands frosting over, a chill settling over my entire body.

            “You pre…you were…how did this…”

            The words refused to come. Questions and sentences fractured within my mind before they fully formed. He’d agreed to this. He’d told me nothing. Betrayal—deep, throbbing, and consuming, coursed through my entire being. I tried desperately to calm myself, inhaling and exhaling deeply, but I could feel the chill settling in. A few gasps were heard in the crowd and I knew that if I could see them, my irises and pupils would be turning pale blue, almost ghostly white. I felt a cold breeze as it began to stir around me, letting me know that I probably wouldn’t have to wait until after my birthday to lose control of my Vetur. In my anger, I would surely be the first princess to truly eradicate her entire clan.

            “Cyan, calm down,” Kormen pled as he took a step closer to me, his breath puffing out in small white clouds as he spoke.

            The fact that he’d reverted back to my name wasn’t lost on me. It actually made it worse.

            “Cyan! You will cease this tantrum at once!” The Queen shouted.

            Cease? Tantrum? I would not. The breeze grew stronger and in an effort to calm myself, I closed my eyes. It did no good. I heard the stirrings of panic in the yelps and shuffling of my clan. Opening my eyes, I turned to face them. Those closest to me scrambled away. Others stared in slack-jawed shock, unable to understand what they were seeing. “Leave,” I screamed as I clenched my fist. From my feet a wave of ice shot out, blanketing the floor. It disappeared beneath the feet of my clan and froze some of them in place. Shocked and somewhat horrified whispers of The Vetur flowed through the panicking crowd. The men scrambled to help the women escape, bodily lifting some of them and running for the door. Some stayed to help their brethren free themselves from where they’d been frozen. The bravest of them all? Those stayed to face me. They formed a barrier of warriors between myself and those unwilling to risk the depth of my fury. Bravehearts. Had I been in control of my own faculties, I would’ve been proud of them. However, anyone with eyes could see that I wasn’t remotely close to being in charge of myself.

            “Cy, please! Listen to me, you have to stop. This isn’t you, please don’t do this,” Kormen shouted.

            I could barely hear him over the roaring winds that I’d created. I didn’t want to hear him though. I didn’t want to listen to him suddenly revert back to the friend I knew and loved. And my Vetur? It wanted nothing more than to face the challenge of taking out the warriors before me. Their numbers created a worthy opponent. Vetur surged through me, shocking my body into a numbing cold. My power had never affected me directly. That should have been concerning, but I was beyond concern.

            “You think you can stand against me?” I challenged.

            None of them seemed certain, but there was a resoluteness to them. They didn’t want to fight with me. I was their princess, not a mean bone in my body. Yet here I stood, poised to take them out. And I would. I would destroy them all with no remorse if they attacked me. Vetur was in control and she swept through me, icicles forming sharp knives in my grips. They would regret the many days I spent suffering through their extensive training regimen. A cruel smile graced my lips. Vetur would revel in this and since we were one, I would do the same.

            “What’s happening to her? Why is she doing this?”

            That voice. Deep and raspy, compelling and demanding. It sent a shock of warmth rushing through me and Vetur took notice, urging me to seek him out. That warmth felt extremely nice. Torn between exterminating the threat of the warriors before me and exploring the voice that I somehow knew belonged to the dark stranger, I was glad when The Queen spoke. This was her doing. She was at fault. She needed to be dealt with.

            “This doesn’t concern you, Valen. Stay out of it. Cyan, do not make me tell you again. You will stop and you will do it at once,” she snapped, gathering her skirts and moving to face me.

            I turned to her and leveled her with a glare that I knew she would have been proud of under different circumstances. On second thought, her shitty motherly instincts probably still made her proud. My father sucked in a deep breath, having never seen me like this, but he moved to stand closer to his mate. He seemed to think he could protect her. Yet no one seemed to think I needed protecting.

            “Or what, Celeste?” I questioned as I made my way up the steps of the dais. She was no longer The Queen in my eyes. She was no longer sovereign. “What exactly will you do? Punish me? Starve me? Beat me?” All things she’d done or had ordered to be done to me at some point in my life. “Kill Kormen? No, that’s what got you into this mess. So, what? Kill me?” I raised a brow in question, but didn’t give her time to respond. “By all means, my Queen, please do. I have nothing left to lose. I’ll never sit upon that throne. I’ll never find my mate. And if you weren’t too stubborn to see that you would’ve let me leave when I tried to. Instead you’ve doomed us all and left me no choice!

My last words came out as a roar as I swept my hands forward and up into an arc, sending a wall of ice rushing toward her. She threw her hands up in retaliation, palms facing outward, erecting a wall of her own to stop mine. As I knew it would, mine plowed through hers as though it were simply a pane of glass.

            “Guards!” My father bellowed as he grabbed his mate, snatching her away from my line of fire. My parents’ guards hesitantly sprung forward, but with a flick of my wrist, I pushed them back and closed them within a dome of ice. It wouldn’t kill them, but it would keep them from interfering. My fury was reserved for her alone. I didn’t really want to hurt the protectors of our clan. I would force her to protect herself though. I would force her to face what she had created. Being cold and icy was a pillar of our culture, but she took it to the extreme. While my brother Dallon had been coddled, supported, and encouraged, I’d been pushed and prodded, forced to stretch my limits more and more each time I thought I’d reached my breaking point. I’d spent countless hours in training, my mind and body starved for sustenance. No food, no sleep, and no interaction with anyone outside of my teacher. My mother. And my father had allowed it. Only in secret he came to me and showed me the kind of love and care that I craved. Vetur had allowed his touch. Hadn’t seen him as a threat. At least not until now, when he’d sided with her.

            “Your guards will not keep me from her!”