Page 105 of Frost and Death
Jerrick’s voice chimes into my thoughts, pulling me away from falling into a deep, dark pit. “I was present at all my father’s meetings, and not once were there any plans for the death of your fath—”
I flash a look, warning him he is on thin ice.
My heart and mind are being torn apart, unsure of what to believe.
“Your father could have hidden that from you,” I sneer, trying to gain semblance over something.
But Jerrick shakes his head. “I’ve spent the last five years combing througheverythingof his investigating this. I’ve hunted to quench this need to kill, trained my magic to help me, and doneeverythingin my power to find a way around this curse, to avoid marrying you and involving you.”
I don’t understand why he kept this decree to himself.
Maybe if he had come to Axidoria, the Makers wouldn’t have punished me with all these years of grief. Maybe the Makers wouldn’t have punished me with the inability to control my powers.
I turn on him with hatred oozing and spewing from my tongue. “Why?”
“Because I didn’t want to associate with the daughter of the woman who put a curse on me and had me kill my own father!”
I lurch back from the booming anger in Jerrick’s voice.
The rage and darkness surround him—surround us. But his words carve deep into my soul, words I have already carved for myself.
Fear mixed with sympathy is dangerous, especially when it is for a man who is my enemy—for a man who is a monster.
Just like you, Tove. Your mother made him a monster, and her death made you one.
I plunge my empathy down as Jerrick masks his own dark fury, brushing hair away from his face as his voice levels.
“And I truly don’t know what happened to your father. Regardless of how obsessed my father was with your mother, I’ve never found any evidence of my father arranging the disappearance or death of yours.”
Just because Jerrick didn’t find any evidence doesn’t mean there isn’t any.
Did Mother do all of this for Father? Could she really cast curses?
His words halt my brewing questions. “What do you meanobsessed?”
“They were involved before becoming rulers, and your mother broke it off, knowing they wouldn’t have a future together. And that was all I knew about your mother until she came to Palaenaafteryour father had disappeared, offering my father the one thing he wanted. Marriage. She believed her husband died during his travels, and she drafted this marriage agreement, claiming it as fate for the two of them to finally be together.
“She made sure I was there as a witness to such a decree, knowing the magnitude of joining two kingdoms. My father was obsessed and infatuated with your motherandthe idea of ruling two kingdoms. He agreed without a second thought. Jonas and I tried for weeks leading up to her arrival, begging him to reconsider, and we both were reprimanded for speaking against our king.”
He gestures to the pink scar on the side of his face, and my mouth falls. One of the first questions I ever asked him finally answered.
“I promised I would answer all of your questions.”
“Y-Your father did that to you?” I ask, heartbroken that a parent could do such a thing.
Jerrick shrugs, unbothered and detached from his father’s cruelty. “That and more. But your mother ensured his debt came due.”
I want to pity and sympathize with him, but I still can’t believe everything he is saying. I’d done nothing to earn this vulnerability, and I am tired of being manipulated.
Thishasto be of his own doing.
I would not fall for another one of his tricks. I refuse to let him diminish all faith and trust I have in my mother.
“Who is to say this so-calledcurseisn’t your own magic?” I challenge.
“It’s not.”
“You are full of shit.”
