Snowstorm King

by H L Macfarlane

“Do you really think I’m expecting you to act as my servant after everything that’s now happened between us?” Kilian asked, shaking his head incredulously. “I’ll have a couple of servants prepare the dining room, and we can have a bath and take our time before having breakfast…or lunch, considering the time.”

  Elina quirked an eyebrow. “We can have a bath before having lunch together? A lot of presumptions there about my willingness to spend time with you.”

  “I thought I was the cruel one, Miss Brodeur,” Kilian said, feigning hurt as he collapsed beside Elina, turning his head until their noses were almost touching. “Lately you’ve said far crueller things than I.”

  “You must be rubbing off on me.”

  Kilian said nothing; the look he gave Elina spoke volumes. Her face flushed a furious scarlet, but when she tried to look away Kilian slid a hand through her hair and pulled her back towards him. He kissed her, softly at first and then harder, harder, harder. By the time he was done Elina was gasping for breath.

  His eyes glittered with desire as he watched her chest heave. “How are you feeling this morning, Elina?”

  “As if…I spent the night in a man’s bed for the first time.”

  “How apt. Do you care to spend another?”

  Elina’s brow creased uncertainly. “I really need to go home tonight. An afternoon, though…”

  Kilian grinned foolishly, which for the first time was a good thing.

  “That sounds good to me.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Elina

  “Elina. Elina…? Elina!”

  Elina turned, surprised to see Scarlett Duke running through the glittering snow covering the forest path towards her. With the weather having been so glorious over the past three days they weren’t the only people walking beneath the trees, basking in the scent of the winter sun beating down on dark pine needles.

  She smiled bashfully. “Sorry, I was lost in thought.”

  “About something good, by the look on your face,” Scarlett replied, linking her arm with Elina’s as easily as if they were sisters. “Walk with me; keep me company whilst I stretch my legs.”

  Elina was only too happy to oblige. It was good for her to have a distraction, otherwise she’d end up daydreaming about Kilian once more. Not that daydreaming about him was a bad thing. Rather, it was a very good thing. It simply wasn’t appropriate brain fodder during the daytime…especially not around other people.

  “Sorry for not being able to speak with you when you were in the tavern the other day,” Scarlett said, leading Elina out of the forest in full view of the castle. In the wintry light she could see that the smooth-stoned walls were not quite as grey as she’d first thought; there was a warm cast to the stone she hadn’t noticed before. The warmth acted as a nice contrast to the slate blue roof tiles and delicate spires, which, during the multitude of stormy days Alder had been subject to so far, could barely be seen through the snow.

  “That’s alright,” Elina replied, letting go of Scarlett’s arm in order to hop forwards onto a stone-covered rock and slide back down to the path. “I was rather preoccupied, after all.”

  “Yes, it seems like the town has quite suddenly warmed to you,” Scarlett said, a knowing smile on her face. “Particularly the man who was sitting next to you.”

  Elina’s face flushed despite herself. “Daven. Yes, he’s…”

  “Oh, I see how it is. Something tells me you’re not quite as interested in him as he is in you, though.”

  “I…yes. I suppose that’s true. I haven’t really thought much about it, to be honest.”

  “Because you’ve been thinking about someone else?”

  Scarlett’s eyes darted to the castle and back to Elina, who was mortified.

  “I don’t – it’s nothing like –”

  Scarlett merely laughed. “I don’t mean to tease you. You’re just…very obvious. You remind me of me a couple of winters ago.”

  “I somehow doubt that,” Elina said as she glanced at the castle. She wondered if Kilian was looking out at his kingdom through a window, wishing he could enjoy the sunny day just like everyone else. It made her heart hurt.

  Scarlett watched her every expression carefully. “I really was especially naive and transparent when I was eighteen. It’s only because of Adrian’s debatable influence that I’ve grown any kind of sense.”

  “Wait, you’re only twenty?”

  Scarlett nodded. “How old did you think I was?”

  “I…don’t know. Not the same age as I am. You’re far more mature than me.”

  “Two years of travelling will do that to you. If you stay in one place for too long you cannot grow.”

  Elina rolled her eyes. “You sound like my mother.”

  “Then she’s a wise woman.”

  “And yet she could have left Alder whenever she liked – even with me in tow – but she didn’t. If you can’t take your own advice then what use is it to someone else?”

  Scarlett smiled wanly, brushing away a fine layer of snow from a boulder before perching on top of it. “Everybody has different circumstances. Have you ever asked your mother why she didn’t leave once you had grown a little older?”

  “No,” Elina sighed, hating the admission. She really did sound naive and foolish compared to Scarlett. She dropped down to sit in the snow, not caring about her cloak and dress getting wet. “No, I never have. I always just assumed she’d give me an excuse, like not wanting to leave the shop or hoping things would get better for me with the children my age.”

  Scarlett chuckled. “Those sound like valid reasons, not excuses. Your priorities change when you have a child.”

  “You…” Elina stared at her doubtfully. “Do you have a child?”

  “No, but I have two much younger brothers. And…a complicated family history. So I understand how your mother feels?”

  Elina knew she shouldn’t pry. She did anyway. “How complicated is complicated?”

  “My father fell into bed with a local girl months before he was due to get married and she got pregnant, then left the child – me – on his doorstep. He raised me with my step-mother, though I didn’t know she wasn’t my birth mother until I was sixteen. Things got worse for a while after that. Much, much worse…” Scarlett stared up at the sky; her blue eyes were slightly too bright. “But then they got better. I’m very close with my step-mother now. In fact, I’d never even call her that. She is my mother, just as she always has been. You’re crying, Elina.”

  It took Elina a few moments to process Scarlett’s final sentence. When she did, she frantically rubbed her face with the heel of her hand until the tears were gone. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I can’t believe I asked such an intrusive question. You didn’t have to tell me all of that.”

  Scarlett merely smiled. “Your mother told me and Adrian about your father; I’m merely returning the favour, since you did not get a choice in whether we found out about your past or not.”

  Elina swallowed a lump in her throat that threatened more tears. A shiver ran down her spine as melted snow began to seep into her clothes. “Did you ever think about finding her? Your birth mother, I mean. Did your father tell you anything about her?”

  “Yes and no. I wanted to know for so long – what did she look like, what was her family like, did my father know where she was – but when it came down to it I realised I didn’t need to know. I started seriously asking myself what I would do if I found her. Ask her why she left me on my father’s doorstep? That much was obvious; he was wealthy and she was not. He could raise me without any shame whereas a young mother with a child born out of wedlock would be scorned…but you know this very well already.”

  “Yes, rather well,” Elina laughed bitterly. “Though I’m finding that it bothers me less and less with every passing day. The scorn, I mean. And being ignored. Being lonely.”

  “Is that because the townspeople are paying attention to you now?”

  She shook her head. “No. Th
at’s…nice. It’s gratifying, too, don’t get me wrong. But it’s hollow at the same time. They’re only accepting me now that I’ve managed to do something worthy of their acceptance, even though I’ve been making their clothes for years and helping keep them warm.”

  “So what else changed?”

  Elina glanced at the castle before she could stop herself and immediately regretted it.

  “I knew you must have your eye on someone, but a king? You have very high standards!” Scarlett grinned. Elina was tempted to throw a snowball at her.

  “He isn’t even the king, not truly,” she grimaced. “He’s the prince regent.”

  “Doesn’t make a difference from where I’m standing. Does he know how you feel? Have you told him? What does he think about –”

  “I think you’re overwhelming Elina,” came a low, melodic voice. Adrian approached them from the forest, dark red cloak starkly contrasting against the perfect snow. When he reached Scarlett, perched on her boulder, he kissed her gently.

  Scarlett pouted. “I wasn’t really. I just got excited.”

  Elina laughed nervously. “It’s fine. And it’s…complicated, I guess.” She looked at the castle once more, thinking of Kilian trapped inside. “Can I trust the two of you?”

  Adrian’s reply was immediate. “Absolutely not.”

  Scarlett swatted his arm. “Don’t be cruel. Is your mother not faring far better than she was before, Elina?”

  Slowly, she nodded.

  “And have I not just told you about my own past?”

  She nodded once more.

  Scarlett smiled. “Then I’d say you can trust us.”

  Elina said nothing for a few moments, still staring at the castle. When eventually she spoke her voice was soft and quiet. “He can’t get out. Kilian – the prince regent, I mean – is stuck in the castle.”

  Adrian and Scarlett grew serious immediately. The man’s eyes glittered with interest; leaning against the boulder Scarlett was sitting on he gestured for Elina to continue.

  She sighed, then committed to telling them the rest. She wasn’t sure at first if she could remember everything Kilian had said about his curse, given that she’d been drunk at the time, but as she spoke Elina realised she’d learned almost every word by heart. When she finished explaining Scarlett looked sad. Adrian’s face was unreadable, his strange, amber eyes staring at the castle as if he might be able to see through the stone. Elina wondered if he actually could.

  “That would explain the magic on you,” he murmured, still looking at the castle. “Elina, did your royal friend happen to tell you anything about how the curse was said? For example, what his father was doing when he spoke the words, or whether they were spoken directly to his son or to an object?”

  She shook her head. “Kilian told me he was in bed, and that his father must have thought he was asleep. All he heard were the words; I don’t think even he knows more than that.”

  “Hmm.”

  Elina didn’t know what else to say. She’d always thought that if she told Scarlett and Adrian about Kilian’s curse that they’d be able to immediately help her. She hadn’t thought about how complicated magic itself was at all.

  She felt so foolish.

  “Elina, can you get us some more information?” Scarlett asked.

  Adrian nodded his assent. “Can you wander the castle and see if there’s anything…unusual?”

  She frowned. “Unusual how?”

  “You’d know it if you saw or felt it, I think,” Adrian said, which was infuriatingly vague. “Anything else you can get the king to remember would be helpful, too. And don’t forget the servants. They might know something their sovereign doesn’t.”

  Bleakly Elina thought about how Kilian had fired most of them. She wondered if she could find some of them in Alder, now that the townspeople were speaking to her.

  So she nodded. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

  “In the meantime…” Adrian glanced upward. “Perhaps try and keep the moody king in a pleasant frame of mind. I rather like the sun.”

  “Adrian!”

  He smiled warmly for Scarlett. “You agree with me, though.”

  “Of course I do but you have no tact.”

  “But it’s obvious Elina must have had a hand in the king’s better mood. Elina, I don’t suppose you’re currently bedding –”

  “Adrian!”

  Elina could only watch the pair of them enviously. Their relationship was so easy. So…free. She had never witnessed a pair like them before.

  They’re certainly a far cry away from me and Kilian, who spend half our time at each other’s throat and the other half of the time feeling miserable for ourselves.

  The thought gave Elina pause. Was she really thinking of herself and Kilian as a couple? Could they really be described as that? She didn’t think so. For if Kilian’s curse was broken he’d run away as fast as was physically possible, regardless of whether Elina went with him or not. She wondered if he’d even want her to go with him.

  And would I want to go, either?

  But such thoughts were premature. Elina first had to focus on a solution to Kilian’s curse. Freeing him from his prison wasn’t going to be easy, after all. It might even be impossible, and he would be stuck in the castle for the rest of his life.

  She didn’t want to think about that.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Kilian

  Kilian was lounging by the large, ornate windows in the dining hall. They offered an expansive view of the grounds to the back of the castle, including his beloved hot springs. He hadn’t looked at them since he’d been forcibly handed the throne. He couldn’t bear to.

  But he was doing a lot of things he couldn’t bear to do before, including being sober and treating what few servants he had at his disposal kindly, so Kilian figured he could handle looking down on the one part of his country that he actually liked.

  And Elina was down below, exploring on uncertain feet, which was the primary reason Kilian was looking out of the window in the first place. He’d never admit that to anyone, though. He didn’t even want to admit it to himself.

  I’m sickeningly soft with no alcohol in my blood, he thought with a grimace. Even my outward appearance is soft. Kilian scratched his chin; it was clean-shaven and smooth. His long hair, which used to run past his shoulders in matted knots, was meticulously washed and combed and braided, keeping it away from his face.

  His clothes were unstained and fresh; his ragged overcoat was nowhere in sight. The embroidered waistcoat he wore over his white shirt made Kilian feel oddly constrained, though he supposed that was a given considering he’d been living in shirts three sizes too big for him with ineffectual trousers and little else.

  Though he would never say he was happy about it, he looked far more like a prince that he’d ever done before. Kilian could tell the servants felt the same way, though they were still nervously testing the air with their ‘reborn’ regent. It was reasonable of them to expect that Kilian would simply grab a bottle of vodka and revert to who he was two weeks before, after all, so he couldn’t blame their shifty expressions and furtive footsteps.

  I need more staff, he thought, tearing his eyes away from the window in order to look around the dining room. Kilian had wanted to eat in here with Elina after she’d spent the night in his bed; it hadn’t happened. The room had been too filthy, with most everything in it covered in dust. It had since been cleaned to its former glory, but it was only one room out of dozens in the castle. He couldn’t expect three servants to ever hope of keeping the place in check.

  Kilian laughed derisively as he returned to watching Elina. His original intention of making the castle so filthy and neglected simply so Gabriel would have to deal with fixing it when he returned from war seemed so stupid now. Immature. Pointless.

  Worst of all, it would have only proven to his brother just how useless he was. This wasn’t something he’d ever cared about before – rather, he had thrived
on disappointing him – but now things were different. Kilian had a clear head. He wasn’t in pain. He could think. And though the cold was still there, seeping into Kilian’s very soul and demanding he drink to forget about it, he could resist. If he fell prey to it then all he was doing was dying.

  Kilian didn’t want to die. He knew that now. All he wanted was to be free, and to do that he had to get his act together and work things out. For curses could be broken if he could only work out how.

  And she may be the key. Kilian tracked Elina through the window with hawk-like eyes, observing her every movement. There didn’t seem to be anything magical about her, but it wasn’t as if magic was inherited like the colour of one’s hair and eyes. But Elina was smart and could see right through Kilian. Most importantly, she hadn’t abandoned him. She wanted to help him. And, though she might not yet be willing to admit it, Kilian knew that Elina liked him, even though he was an entirely unlikable person.

  He had never wanted someone to like him before; having women be superficially attracted to him for a single night had always been enough. But Kilian wanted more for himself now. He wanted to give more to Elina.

  “She’s so beautiful,” Kilian uttered, words fogging the window as he traced Elina with a finger against the freezing glass. The sun – which was more Elina’s doing than Kilian ever wanted her to know – shone brightly in her hair, bringing out copper and gold and red tones usually hidden in the brown. Her skin was soaking up the sun like a sponge; it had already grown a shade or two darker in the week since the weather took a turn for the better. It made her look even more out of place against the snow.

  Kilian longed to go somewhere together with her where snow didn’t fall at all.

  When I’m free, he thought longingly. If that ever happens.

  It was dizzying to Kilian, how much he liked Elina. And he could never tell her. Or, rather, wouldn’t. Despite everything that had happened so far – all of the ugly confessions, unruly behaviour and deadly storms – part of him was too prideful to admit how much the woman affected him.

  I want to fix myself by myself. I don’t want to fall apart the second she’s gone. I need to be better than that.