Betrothed
To
Jack Frost
Book 1
ALEX GEDGAUDAS
Betrothed To Jack Frost
Copyright © 2019 by Alex Gedgaudas.
All rights reserved.
First Print Edition: September 2019
Limitless Publishing, LLC
Kailua, HI 96734
www.limitlesspublishing.com
Formatting: Limitless Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1-64034-771-7
ISBN-10: 1-64034-771-2
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Dedication
For my parents, whose unconditional love and support through everything means more than words can say. And for my Wattpad fans, without whose encouragement and enthusiasm this book would not exist. Thank you.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 22
Chapter 1
“Fire and ice have always been natural enemies,” Matthew Darrow began, watching his jubilant four-year-old daughter squirm excitedly under her blanket.
Evangeline could barely contain her excitement; her father worked long hours of the day, often coming home late at night. Their greatest pastime shared together was at night when Matthew told bedtime stories. The little girl loved to hear her father’s soothing voice tell her exciting tales of magic and make believe. They always seemed so real when he spoke of them.
“Why do you believe this is?” asked Matthew, watching the girl’s face light up in awe.
“Fire makes ice melt,” the child nicknamed Elle answered, holding all of the logic a four-year-old child could muster.
Matthew grinned. After a moment of silence, he did not speak. The young father seemed far away, lost in deep thought. He was currently unsure whether or not to share this particular story with his only child.
“Why are you quiet?” Elle asked.
“Because this is a story that should be told to you when you’re much older,” Matthew answered, ruffling his daughter’s thick, dark hair upon her head.
“But I am older.”
He snorted. “You are, huh?”
“Yep. I’m older than yesterday!”
A low laugh escaped Matthew as he shook his head. “I suppose you are. Hmm. All right, where was I?”
“Fire and ice don’t like each other,” said Elle, her eyes wide as she snuggled under her comforter.
Her father nodded. “There are two kings, kiddo. One for the kingdom of fire, and one for the kingdom of ice. Each always believed themselves more powerful and useful than the other. One fine day a very long time ago, it was told that two descendants, one from fire, and one from ice, would come together to defeat a great evil.”
“What kind of evil?”
“The type of evil that wants to enslave humanity as we know it,” Matthew answered thoughtfully. “Gods and monsters who did not believe the human population should walk free of slavery. After Lucifer the archangel fell from Heaven, he attempted to rally the sons and daughters of the Titans—the Olympians—to battle over Earth to fight the creator of the universe for dominance. But the creator deemed the few who chose to go against him to be traitors, so a great war was started. One between gods and titans, humans and monsters.”
“What happened?” Elle inquired curiously. Her bright brown eyes were wide while she wriggled her toes in anticipation.
Matthew grinned. “The good guys won. The bad guys got their privileges revoked.”
“What’s that?”
“It means that all the bad monsters and titans that wished for the humans to suffer were punished. They were locked away in the center of the earth, abandoned by their worshipers, and their beloved temples and cities created in their honor were destroyed. Their city known as Atlantis was destroyed as well. A tidal wave was sent to destroy every last inch of the golden city into the deepest depths of the Ocean, where even Poseidon himself could not resurrect it.”
“Then what happened?”
“Olympus, home of the majority of loyal gods and deities, was then placed on a large mountain smack between Heaven and Earth. It was placed out of the view of man so that there was no possible way the gods and monsters could abuse their powers against mankind again.”
The little girl considered the story her father told. Her small nose wrinkled. “What’s fire and ice got to do with anything?”
“One descendant from fire and one from ice were prophesied to make the two kingdoms come together to prevent another war from starting.”
Elle opened her small mouth to yawn. “Is Jack Frost one of those people?”
Matthew had started to pull himself off the bed and into a stretch before his daughter’s question stopped him short. He slowly turned his head toward her, a horrified grimace upon his face. “Who told you that name?” he asked in a whisper.
Little Evangeline tilted her head in confusion. The child could not understand why her father was no longer happy. “Uncle Eros told me. He said he’ll be my friend someday—”
“Never say that name again, do you understand me?” Matthew interrupted. His voice was low, full of anger. He soon groaned into his hands as he shook his head. “I’m not mad, sweetie, just don’t say ‘Jack’ and ‘Frost’ in the same sentence again, okay?”
“Okay,” the child mumbled. “But why?”
“Sometimes, speaking a certain name gives it great power. Never say that man’s name ever again, do you understand me? We don’t want him to find us—”
“Really, Matthew? You’ll give the poor child nightmares,” a male voice suddenly interrupted. He next gave a small laugh in amusement. A man with golden blond hair stood in a nearby corner of the child’s bedroom. His armor was all golden plated. A cream and gold tunic fell past his knees while he wore matching gold gladiator sandals. The new arrival carried a glittering golden bow, and a sheath of arrows was tied to his back. The man seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
“Apollo!” Elle squealed in delight, the effects of sleep no longer affecting her. Her favorite friend of her father’s had just arrived.
“Hello, Evangeline,” Apollo said softly, with a small wave. “I see you’re enjoying story time.”
The little girl nodded while Matthew took a relieved breath. He was pleased to have his child’s attention away from the topic he did not want to discuss.
Apollo came to Elle’s bedside and gave her a friendly handshake. There was no disliking the handsome man for the child. Apollo had a golden aura to him that seemed to warm a person up physically and spiritually by just being around him. The young man did not speak to children as though they were of lesser value than adults, as most grown-ups did. He spoke to Elle as though she was an adult herself. What Elle li
ked most about him was that he never laughed or talked down to her when she told him they were getting married one day. He nodded politely and only disagreed by simply saying that would be impossible.
“Apollo,” Matthew greeted curtly, not sounding elated in the slightest that Apollo had arrived.
“Keep embedding these stories into her head and it’ll be harder to erase her memory by age five,” Apollo warned gently.
“Sometimes I wonder if doing that is the right action,” Matthew admitted. “Tell Uncle Hermes he owes me a gold coin,” Elle suddenly announced. “He lost at tic-tac-toe!”
A low snort sounded from Matthew. “He might’ve let her win, but it seemed like a pretty serious battle, so I’m not sure,” he admitted, grinning with pride as his daughter excitedly clapped her hands together.
Apollo watched Elle in amusement, shaking his golden head. “Alive two millennia and Hermes still struggles with certain childish games. I have no doubt she truly bested him,” he said with a small wink at Elle.
“Not that it’s not good to see you, Glow-ball,” said Matthew jokingly, “but why are you here of all places?”
Apollo’s expression suddenly morphed into a far more serious one. He looked rather grave. “I’m afraid I’ve come to discuss matters of great importance,” he said, looking towards Elle’s bedroom door. Even though she was merely a child, young Elle knew this look. It was the look adults gave when they did not want a child overhearing what they had to say.
Matthew’s eyes widened before he scratched at his chin, where his newly developed five o’clock shadow had grown in. “C’mon,” he urged, motioning for Apollo to follow.
Apollo spared Elle one last grin, walking over to gently ruffle her hair. “May you lead a blessed life, little one,” he said quietly, pressing the pad of his thumb against her forehead.
Matthew scowled with complete annoyance. “Don’t bless my kid! Just get over here and tell me what’s wrong—”
Elle’s father cut off from speaking the moment the door closed. The little girl poked her dark head out from underneath the covers, a sly grin on her face. Even though her daddy said eavesdropping was wrong, Elle couldn’t help but scurry over to the door to listen in on whatever her father was talking about with Apollo. She moved as fast as she could as to not miss the conversation. The floor did not creak given the child was so very tiny.
“Matt, how long has she known his name?” said Apollo softly. Elle pushed her ear against the door; the voices were muffled. “It’s only a matter of time before he finds her. I overheard your story, but I heard Elle’s question. She’s already been told of him. I loathe to be the bearer of bad news, but if I, Hermes, and Eros hold no issue finding you wherever you go, I guarantee he does not either.”
“It doesn’t matter that she was told,” said Matthew coldly. “She’s just a little girl who brought up a name Eros mentioned. By age five, she’ll forget about anything and everything that has to do with your world.”
“It’s her world as well—”
“She’s half human. Don’t forget that.”
“I do not,” said Apollo quietly. “But her mother was not human. She made promises and deals regarding Elle’s fate long before she was conceived. It matters not that she is half your blood; the gods want her.”
“Then we’ll keep running until they forget about her.”
“Be reasonable,” urged Apollo. “How long do you really believe you can hide her from the immortals? The child has an obligation to uphold.”
“Why do you continue to assist me in hiding if you really believe that?” snarled Matthew. “Why not just let them take her and punish me already?”
“Simply because I disagree with the ancient customs means nothing. I allow her to be raised by the parent who adores her. Still, it is the girl’s birthright whether we care for it or not.”
“I’m not giving her away, Apollo,” Matthew replied sternly. “Not now and not when she’s old enough. Even you have to understand how insane it is to give your four-year-old child away to be someone’s bride. I don’t care if it settles some kind of throne controversy; I’m not doing it!”
Apollo sighed tiredly. “He wouldn’t marry her as a child, Matt. It would be after her twenty-first birthday—”
“Ohhhh,” Matthew said loudly, giving a clap of his hands in a mocking fashion. “Well, thanks, buddy. That makes me feel so much better while also taking away the ick factor. My only child would just be whisked away to an invisible mountain top, trained to be some respectable virgin bride just to please some asshole with frostbite!”
“He said a bad word,” Elle mumbled as she listened, trying hard not to giggle. Her father had recently started a new game to hand Elle a dollar every time he said a naughty word. So far, young Elle had managed to collect thirteen dollars in her bubble-gum pink piggy bank. She was saving up her swear dollars for a vehicle for her dollies. The little girl tried hard to continue listening, only to find she could no longer hear her daddy or Apollo. They’d gone to the other side of the house.
“You should not listen in on what adults say, little one,” said a voice suddenly, causing Elle to release a small gasp. She was not alone in the bedroom. Turning around, the girl could not find anyone else in her room. There was a window open, however, now allowing soft flakes of snow to gently glide inside. Given this was Arizona and the weather was normally never cold enough for snow, this was odd. As Elle continued to look around, she found there was no one in view.
“Who’s there?” she asked softly, strangely not feeling alarmed. She was used to people randomly stopping by as if suddenly appearing out of nowhere. The people were friends of her father’s who had strange magical abilities. Immortals were what her father called them.
“Really, I do not even know how I would begin to answer that. We are not friends, enemies, acquaintances, or anything of the sort,” the same voice said coolly, causing Elle to realize the mystery person was hiding in the very dark of the corner where her nightlight did not reach.
Elle tilted her small head to watch the dark corner of the room where the voice came from. “Then what are we?”
A small, contained laugh filled the silence as Elle could hear both her father and Apollo now starting to argue somewhere in the house. “We are supposed to be betrothed, child,” the man said, disgust saturating his lovely voice.
Young Elle blinked a few times, not knowing what that big word in particular meant. “Does that mean best friends?”
The voice laughed once more, this time with amusement. “I suppose that’s a tad too complicated of a word for you to understand just yet.”
Hesitantly, Elle took a step out of the light and toward the darkness. She could see the shadowy figure step back, as if trying to avoid her advance. “Why are you hiding?” the child asked, watching as snow began to gently fall from her bedroom ceiling. Small, cold flakes of dazzling white snow started to exit her bedroom ceiling as if it was the sky. “Pretty,” Elle cooed, watching the sparkly white snowflakes flutter to her floor.
“I’m contemplating killing you to put me out of my misery,” the voice answered casually. “However, I do not particularly relish the idea of murdering a child. So right about now, the decision is up in the air for me.”
Elle caught a few snowflakes in the palms of her small hands, delighted that something so beautiful could be falling from her own ceiling. “Why?”
The voice laughed heartily. “Why aren’t I killing you? My, my, you are an inquisitive little thing, aren’t you?”
“Well, you shouldn’t wanna kill me. I didn’t do anything to you,” said Elle. She was oblivious to the true meaning behind the words.
The man released his musical laughter once more. “Let’s just say it’s what you will do in the future that will cause me anger. There’s a prophecy with your name on it.”
Elle had heard of prophecies. They were what Apollo often spoke of and what her daddy explained to her in his stories. Most of the time Matthew’
s stories regarding prophecies had very dark endings. “I’m very sorry,” she sighed, already knowing that not much could be helped in regards to prophecies. She learned that much from her father. Prophecies were supposedly written long ago, back before you were born. There was no escaping something that fate designed for you.
The velvety voice laughed once more. “Gods, you’re so very amusing. Tell you what, little one,” the man said, using a wave of his hand to diminish the light from her pony nightlight. The room was now pitch black. At the same time, he used a hand to collect all the snow to make it suddenly vanish. “You caught me on a damn good day where I might have found myself feeling somewhat guilty about murdering a child. So, I’m going to give you seventeen more years of living, and if my situation hasn’t resolved itself by that time, then I’ll kill you.”
Elle found herself giggling. To her, the man was funny. He had a charming voice that sounded like a vocal substitute for velvet and honey combined. She found no fear in his threat.
“Now,” the man said, the shadows of the dark keeping him concealed, “you’ve just won seventeen more years of life. After that, all bets are off. Now, I’m going to give you a present—”
“What kind of present?” Elle interrupted excitedly. All thoughts of the man’s casual reference to killing were cast aside. How could she think of such a thing? There was a present involved!
The concealed man walked forward, placing a globe of some sort of her nightstand. “This, Evangeline Darrow, is a traveler’s globe. It looks like any regular snow globe, but this has a certain magic to it. When the city inside has snow falling when you haven’t shaken it, it means I’m close by. To anyone else, this will seem like a regular globe.”
“How does it know when you’re around?” Elle whispered, her chocolate brown eyes glued to the beautiful snow globe with a silver city inside. It was a city unlike any Elle had ever seen from pictures or movies. Tall silver and diamond skyscrapers were among the city, along with smaller diamond- and crystal-looking places that made nearly the entire city sparkle like a real diamond. Yawning, Elle climbed up onto her bed to settle herself beneath the warm covers.
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