Page 66 of Blood Beneath the Snow

There was a hint of amusement in his voice. “I’m twenty-two.”

My spoon froze in midair on its way to my mouth. “You’re onlytwenty-two?” I gaped. Arne was twenty-two. Freja and I would be turning twenty-two in the next year.

What was it like to be so young and have the fate of two countries at war on your shoulders? I clenched my teeth as my thoughts reminded me.You alreadydoknow what it’s like. You’re in the same position.

“Now it’s your turn,” he said, not acknowledging my disbelief. “Tell me something true. Why did you turn down your proposal?”

The callback to when I’d demanded he kill me in the snow made my cheeks heat. “Oh, I see how it is,” I said with an eye roll, hoping he didn’t notice the flush on my face. “No superficial facts from me, then.”

He shrugged, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. “I already know the basics about you. A symptom of being royalty—you’ve never gone unnoticed. I know you just turned twenty-one. I know you are the only daughter in your family. I know you only get along with your two middle brothers. And I know someone taught you how to wield a sword wrong.” Was hesmirkingunderneath that mask? “Did I miss anything?”

I glared at him and swallowed the bite I was chewing. “If you must know, I refused the proposal because I didn’t want to marry Volkan.”

“You would rather die than be married to someone you don’t love? Volkan is kind; he would have left you your freedom.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How would you know?”

He sighed. “Volkan is…a friend.”

My eyes widened and my spoon clattered in the dish. “Gods above. You datedVolkan?”

He whipped his head around sharply. “How the hell did you know that? Did he tell you?”

“No, you just did! You should have heard your voice when you said he was yourfriend.” I laughed, then stopped abruptly. “Wait, you’re not still dating him, are you?”

“No. We broke things off amicably years ago.”

I picked up my spoon and resumed eating. “How did you even meet him?”

He tilted his chair back, balancing it on only the back two legs. I resisted the urge to snap at him to sit properly. “We attended many of the same diplomatic events as children. This was long before I was the Hellbringer. None of the adults wanted anything to do with us, so we got into trouble on our own.”

The Hellbringer had aristocratic blood, then. If he attended the same events as Volkan, presumably when the Queen of Kryllian and the royalty of Faste got together, then he was high in station. Perhaps the queen’s son? But, no, the Queen of Kryllian had no children. I tacked the knowledge onto the end of my list of facts about him.

If things had been different—if Bhorglid had been open to diplomacy—would the three of us have been friends as children? Would I have met the Hellbringer before the mask defined him?

“You’re queer too, then.” I raised an inquisitive eyebrow as I took my next bite.

I had no doubt he was rolling his eyes at me behind the mask. “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes. Bisexual, if you want to get specific.”

“Me too,” I said. “It’s not outlawed to be queer in Kryllian, is it?”

He shook his head. “No. I’m surprised Bhorglid doesn’t make a big deal of it.”

I snorted. “We make a big deal of so many other things. I’m sure we would have added queerness into the mix too if we weren’t so busy policing every other aspect of people’s identities.”

“True. But you never answered my question: Why did you turn down the proposal?”

I scraped the bottom of the bowl with my spoon. “I rejected the proposal because I was tired of only doing what I was forced to do,” I admitted. “And because I realized when my father uses me as a pawn, he gives me power to destroy his plans. In this case he believed my marriage would be the key to ending the war; all I had to do was demand what I wanted in exchange.”

“And what did you want?” the Hellbringer asked.

I glanced up at him. Considered telling him about Freja for a moment, how I needed to free her. But he’d admitted to being there when she was taken prisoner. He likely already knew she was part of my motivation. Besides, if he got to keep secrets, then so did I. “You know the answer. A chance to compete for the throne.”

There was a pause. “Do you think you can win?” he asked. His voice was quiet.

An ounce of the panic I’d held back for days threatened to spill over its dam. “Probably not,” I said. During a sparring session a few days earlier, I’d explained the plan my brothers and I had concocted. It seemed pertinent to the Hellbringer’s mission to train me. “With Frode and Jac on my side, I at least have a chance. So I’m going to try.”

He nodded. “I understand. To be nothing more than a pawn in someone’s game is less than ideal.”

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