Finding Her Magical King novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Register

Anselm's POV

There was no pain under the ice.

That was the part nobody would believe if I ever told them.

It was white and quiet and slow, and I was in no hurry to leave.

I could feel my father's hand on my shoulder, and the gag in my mouth.

Then a voice came down through all that white, thin and cracked, and it said my name.

"Anselm."

I knew the voice.

"Anselm, please. I read the letter. I know what it is."

Something warm closed over my hand.

The mark on my wrist lit, and the cold let go of me an inch at a time.

I dragged in a breath, and it hurt.

Soot was sitting on my chest with his claws in the blanket.

Sorrel knelt beside the bed with her face wet.

Her hands were grey with frost, and they were wrapped around mine.

"There you are," I whispered.

"Don't you dare do that again," she said.

I laughed, and it turned into a cough.

Ivor stood in the door with half a dozen wolves behind him.

He was grinning at the ceiling.

"Tell me," I said.

She told me.

She told it badly, in pieces, with her teeth chattering.

Her mother had cursed the crown in the yard.

The curse ran on Sorrel's hatred of my family, and the frost was how it came out.

The cure was that she forgive me, and mean it.

When she finished, she wiped her face on her sleeve and sat up very straight.

"Right," she said. "Let's try it."

"Sorrel."

"I forgive you."

She said it fast, and flat.

Nothing happened.

I felt the cold in my chest tighten.

The frost on the pillow ran another inch toward my jaw.

"I forgive you," she said again, harder. "I forgive you, I forgive you, I do."

Soot hissed at nobody.

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