Frost Kisses (Bitter Frost #4: Frost Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

given you his snowflake,” said Delano. “So perhaps Winter is overtaking you after all.”
     

 
    Chapter 5
     
     
    I could feel my heart pounding, and in my blood I knew that what Delano had said was true. Whatever was in me, changing me, it had come from Kian; his Winter blood had entered my body, my soul, and transformed my magic, making it meld and shape into his. The magic I had felt within myself when Delano kissed me – the same magic that had made me immortal – was different from anything I had known before. This was not the warm magic of Summer, with its scent of orange blossoms and the gold liquid feeling inside me. This was icy cold and strong, primal – this was the very essence of Kian’s being inside of me. This was how much he had loved me – loved me enough to give this part of himself to me, to make me immortal through the gift of the Winter snowflake pendant. I could have been his! My heart cried out through the pain and confusion. If I had only said yes, I could have been his Queen – the Winter Queen. The magic couldn’t lie. I belonged to Kian, as utterly and totally as he belonged to me – his magic giving me new life, new strength. I knew now that whatever had happened at the melee at the Summer Court, Kian could not have truly betrayed me. He still loved me. I felt it in the effect of his magic. I felt it in the pounding of my heart. He loved me.
     
    “Kian!” I heard myself whisper, and my love for him was born anew. We would have much to work through – the cloud of my love spell that had overtaken my heart and my brain, and thrust everything into confusion – but we could do it. We had to do it. We would be able to do it, together. We could restore peace once more, hope once again, make everything as it once was: Winter and Summer, together. My body shook with the surety of this vision.
     
    Before Delano could stop me I leaped to my feet and began rushing across the room, thrusting his arm off me as he attempted to bar my path.
     
    “My Queen!” he shouted. “You will remain!” He stepped over to the door. “Or risk facing an army of Pixies alone… Summer Queen.”
     
    I gritted my teeth. I wasn’t interested in fighting pixie hordes, and as long as I could get out eventually, it was probably a better bet to keep calm and carry on. “Fine,” I said.
     
    Delano led me into another room. Delano’s bedchambers. This was far less sparse and cold than the room in which I had been laid out. Here was an opulent space, a bedroom made warm by the blazing fire roaring at the heart, a warmth that comforted my aching joints. I could smell the sizzling food and just-baked bread that stood tantalizingly on the table.
     
    “In the wardrobe,” said Delano, opening it wide, “you see a vast selection of pixie-made fashions.” And so there were – glittering gowns, gold, silver and green, in all manners of silks and satins and lace. I could not deny their beauty, but I refused to be tempted. I looked down.
    “Since you left,” Delano whispered close to my ear. “I have thought of nothing but you. I have attempted to make our pixie ways more to your liking. We are a cold people, who like the bare stone and the flaming roast, the snow and empty, barren mountain ranges. But I know you like the warmth and beauty of summer, and this I have supplied to you.”
     
    “How sweet.” I made it clear I wasn’t having any of it. “Do you think I like being taken prisoner?”
     
    “Not a prisoner, but as my betrothed, as you have bargained for, my dear,” Delano winked.
     
    “My heart belongs to another, Delano.”
     
    “For now,” he shrugged.
     
    “For always!” I raised my voice.
     
    “And what about your engagement to the Wolf?” Delano said with a smile. “What was that, eh? Always-love – just a bit confused, a bit muddled up?”
     
    I remembered my queenly manners just in time to avoid slapping him. “There was a spell…” I muttered through clenched