Free The Snow Queen's Captive by Jill Myles Page B

“Can we talk? Heart to heart?”
    Kai glared at her, stiff and angry, his entire body vibrating with rage.
    She threw her hands up. “Just talk, okay? Nothing more. No tricks. Just talk.”
    He relaxed a bit, but then added, “I can’t feel my feet.”
    “Oh. Oops.” Charlotte touched the ground, releasing the ice covering him to his calves. He danced out of its grasp, stomping his bare feet on the ground, and then set the fur on the ice, crossing his legs and rubbing his toes to bring warmth back into them.
    And he gave her another grouchy glare.
    “Sorry about that,” she told him. “I had to see if you were going to run. Looks like I was right.”
    “Like I said, I had to try.”
    “I know. And I don’t blame you. I really don’t. I just…” she sighed heavily. “Can we be friends? Truce? I’m here for the next month and I’d really like it if we could stop hating each other.”
    He gave her another wary look. “You’re not going to punish me?”
    “Why should I?”
    “You have always punished me severely for escape attempts in the past.” He watched her closely. “The last time, you put the mirror flecks in my eyes to enchant me into falling in love with you.”
    She chewed on her lip, thinking. She remembered the mirror flecks and how they’d made him into some sort of lovesick zombie. ”Nah, I’m good. Like I said, I don’t blame you for trying. I’m just disappointed, is all.”
    Kai stared at her for so long that her nape began to prickle, uncomfortable. Then, he leaned forward, his voice low as his dark eyes regarded her. “Who are you, really?”
    Charlotte clasped her hands nervously. “I’m the Snow Queen.”
    “No,” he said flatly. “You are not. You wear her form, but you are not her.”
    She couldn’t stop herself from wringing her hands in worry. If Muffin knew that he’d guessed the truth, would she be in trouble? She’d had to promise not to discuss it, or else everything would be ruined. “Yes, I am,” she said emphatically, and gave a little nod.
    “You’re different. You don’t remember anything from before. You don’t touch me the way you used to. And you want to be…friends.” He said the last word flatly. “You are not the same woman.”
    “Hssst!” Charlotte shushed him, waving her hands and glancing around anxiously in case the fairy godmother was nearby, listening. “Ixnay on that whole line of thinking, okay?”
    “Tell me the truth,” he demanded.
    She clenched her fists. “Look, Kai, I wish I could, but I can’t, okay? I just can’t. Please trust me.” Frustrated tears threatened again. “I don’t like this any more than you do.”
    “Then tell me who you are!”
    “I’m the goddamn Snow Queen!” Charlotte jerked to her feet. “You may not believe me, but it’s true. You think I’m doing all this ice bullshit for funsies? It’s who I have to be. And I’m going to protect my ass as best as I can so I can win this stupid task I’m being shoved through.”
    His dark eyes glared at her, as hard as the line of his mouth. After a moment, he asked, “You mentioned a month. A month and something happens. And you’re changing things. You’re changing all of this into a fortress.” He gestured at the no-longer pretty and dainty ice walls. “Why?”
    She snapped her mouth shut, mentally cursing. She’d said too much. He’d caught her little slip of the tongue and now she was going to be in trouble for sure. But when no fairy godmother struck her down, she supposed that she hadn’t broken the rules…
    Yet.
    Charlotte rubbed her forehead. “I can’t say.”
    “What happens at the end of the month?”
    She glared at him. “I still can’t say.”
    “Are you going to tell me anything?”
    “I honestly don’t think that I can. Not without getting both of us into trouble.”
    Kai snorted at that, and rubbed his foot a little harder, forcing circulation back into his chilled flesh. “You make it sound as if you have someone you