Page 3 of Lifebound

It was thedeadIce Queen that the seer had showed them.

“It’s impossible,” the queen argued with herself—because it was. The Ice Queen had been dead for twenty summers now—dead. Killed. Gone.

“It was her—I saw it with these eyes,” her brother said. “It was her, it was?—“

“My Queen.”

Again, the voice of the companion made them both look down at the seer, eyes red but open. She lookeddead,but she breathed as she lay there on the fae’s lap, looking at nothing.

“The seer has answers,” the companion said, holding the seer by the head so that it didn’t slip down.

For a fleeting moment, the queen wondered if she were being tricked. Played with. Made a fool.

But then the seer whispered, “The prince’s Lifebound is a mortal.”

That’s when the queen kneeled on the floor as queens do not do, and her brother followed.

“Repeat that,” she ordered, and the seer did.

“The prince’s Lifebound is a mortal.”

A moment of silence.

“My son is not bound to anyone. He doesn’t have a Lifebound.”

“The prince’s Lifebound is a mortal from Nerith,” the seer spoke again as if she hadn’t heard the queen’s voice at all.

“He doesn’t?—”

“Thirteen summers ago, the prince saved a life, and created a bond that tethered it to his, perhaps on purpose, perhaps by accident,” said the seer.

“No.” The queen shook her head. “No, no, no…”

“By Reme, he hasn’t died,” her brother whispered a moment later, while the seer continued to repeat the same words as she bled.

His hand closed around hers. “Sister, he hasn’t died because he’s bound.”

“My Queen,” said the companion, and he’d leaned down all the way to bring his ear to the seer’s mouth because she could no longer produce voice. “The Lifebound will awaken him. The Lifebound will set him free,” he repeated, his voice thick, hoarse, wavy.

That was the first time that the queen allowed that hope to fully grow inside her.

The companion produced a small vial from the pocket of his suit and filled it with the white water from the golden bowl. He offered it to the queen without putting the lid on, and Helid stepped in and took it.

“His blood will take you to her. You must only search, and you will find the Lifebound,” said the companion another three times. Those same words.

After that, the seer fell unconscious.

When they tookthe seer away for cleaning, the queen remained in the bedroom with her brother. Looking out at the dark sky and the sea behind her palace, she allowed herself to imagine that this nightmare might truly be over after all. Just when she was beginning to believe that her future was doomed.

“You will go to Earth and you will find her, brother. You have the vial. A simple charge of magic should suffice,” she told Helid, who stood beside her and drank his wine, more nervous by the second.

“I will,” he solemnly said.

“Take men, as many as you need, and bring her to me.”

Her brother looked at her. “Do you believe it? Do you really believe that Lyall secretly created a life-bond? And with a mortal?”

“Thirteen summers,” the queen whispered, holding the rim of her golden cup to her lips. “Thirteen summers ago was when I took him to Earth to see it. You were there, Helid.”

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