A Kingdom of Frost and Fear (The Four Kingdoms, #2)

by Whitney Dean

“I am tired of forgiving you. I am tired of kneeling to you only to get my knees bruised.”

I fell deeply in love with my mirrored soul, only to find that he contained all of my answers and refused to share them.

I frowned. “But she forgave him. He lied to her and hurt her. Why don’t I get that?” The look she gave me was a mixture of annoyance and amusement. “Do you truly not know why?” The look of confusion on my face had her elaborating further, “She’s in love with you. It’s easier to forgive the person who doesn't hold your heart in the palm of their hand.”

“Imagine this: she expects you to keep her heart pumping with even squeezes, but the weight of the secrets you hold feels more like you are crushing her most vital organ between your fingers.”

“Baby, please come down. I’m tired.” “It’s not my fault you’re so fucking old,” she snapped.

“I’m here,” he began, standing and closing the space between us. “Because you, you infuriating little witch, have completely unraveled me.” He ran a hand through his hair as rain pelted down on us. “I am here because I am so wildly in love with you that I am willing to risk my own life to make sure you don’t do something idiotic like jump off a fucking cliff, Raven.”

I needed to eat. I’d been surviving off Zeke and my hatred, and only one of those was currently available.

“Typical,” I muttered. “Stroke the male egos. Never mind that some of the most powerful creatures were witches and goddesses.”

“Why do you want to see the library?” I shrugged. “I read books when I can’t understand anything around me.”

“Do you like when I want to kill someone for looking at you?”

“I will fight Zeus with my bare hands if he gets anywhere near you. Now, can you please burn through the door?”

He didn’t seem like the worshipping type unless it was to me.

Two possessive, envious people were in love, and it seemed no one was safe.

Those monstrous shadows he was so ashamed of clouded behind the tears, bringing dark-gray thunderstorms. How he could believe something so beautiful should be hidden was beyond me — every part of him mattered, and every piece of him was good and lovely and right.

“Never in my life, Raven… never in my life did I ever imagine it was possible to love someone the way I love you.”

Either way, she would always be mine — even if we couldn’t be together in the end. Even if it broke my heart, I would keep her safe.

He was devastating tonight, but seeing him dress in all black was like watching a painter craft his masterpiece. He was cut from the very landscapes of my deepest desires. He was walking sin, put on this earth to darken my soul.

Her elements’ colors blended in a pile of madness and panic. I’d never seen anything like it before, and I realized this was her magic. This was what they looked like when not manifested into her physical form.

It was beautiful — dark orange, violet, and white, all mixing and twisting in an explosion of colors. And through the colors was black mist, trying to contain the elements.

“I left you — you broke. My father shot you — you broke. I lied to you, invaded your dreams, you broke. My life here? It is breaking you. Are you noticing a pattern here?” I was partially shouting, but not at her. At myself. “I am breaking you every single day. I am hurting you. Somehow, some way, I always break you.”

Little demon fighting off death. How ironic.

Death looked so beautiful as it inched closer to me.

And as I held her in my arms, safe and sound, this moment’s euphoric satisfaction made one thing very clear: through the muddled melancholy of my thoughts lately, her light made it apparent. I could not live my life without her. My constant fear of losing her, of never having this, of having to say goodbye to her — I couldn’t do it. I wanted to devote my entire life to her.

You’ve never been my queen.”

I would burn worlds for this man. Freeze them. Break the very ground of each one.

And then I felt it. Like a snap. Deep within my chest first, the way our hearts beat as one, contracting to the same rhythm to push our life’s blood through our organs. It glided gently down my bones, the fractured memories of us in universes beyond this one. Our souls were woven together, bound by every weakness, every strength.

“You are my sin incarnate, and I am your death.”

My little… literal demon. She had death running through her, wanting to take life from living things. No wonder I felt such emptiness from her when it took over. She was immortal. Immoral. There was wickedness in that wicked body of hers.

“Stop apologizing for the actions of other people.”

But best of all, he encouraged me to follow whatever instinct I had. To allow me to freely feel, while promising that he would love every piece of me I could offer him.

I’d spent many years trying to keep what was mine, always guilty for being so possessive over the people in my life, but now I had some who loved me as much as I loved them.

“When Zeke met you, something in him changed,” Jeanine said. “That irresponsible, angry boy turned into a man. It was overnight; that growth.

You do not need to respect his reactions if he cannot respect your decisions.”

Tonight, I was just Raven. Not a queen, not a witch, not an orphan. Just his Raven — the most crucial title I would ever hold.

Because our story was infinite, it was endless, painful, and wonderful. It was a melody of rolling keys and could sometimes be so loud and thundering that logical thoughts couldn’t be heard over it, but that was where our passion lived. In the chaos, in the sounds that surrounded us. In the indecision and the memories, the snow-covered ground, the sun rays, the flowers that pushed through the dirt and rocks, only to bloom stronger and more beautiful than before. He inhabited and lived in every part of me, every thought, every decision; my days and nights consisted of him from now until eternity.

Two broken people were coming together after living a life of feeling nothing but loneliness from being ripped apart from one another. And we were all aware of that heaviness — of how lucky we were.

“Light is easy to love, easier to trust and simplistic,” he whispered against my hair. “But we fell in love under dark skies, and mine was pitch black before I met you.”

“The night you came into my life, Raven, I started seeing the light. Slowly, the black lightened enough for something else to shine through.”

“You, my love. You shot across my sky like a burning star, and I needed that fire because I felt so cold and lost without you — so hopeless and full of despair.” He

“Baby, you’re my home. I rest in you.”