Free Frost Fire (Frost Series #6) by Kailin Gow Page B

shaking. “What are you doing here? Help us!”
     
    “Help you?” scoffed the former Wolf King. “Why, you should be helping other Wolf Fey – and not needing help yourself like a schoolboy in trouble.”
     
    “I tried, Grandfather,” Logan pleaded. “I tried to be the best leader I could be. I couldn’t keep the Wolves out of the War – I tried, but it was impossible. Instead I fought as I thought best.”
     
    “Nonsense!” cried the Wolf. “So many Wolves were killed not because you couldn’t keep the Wolves out, but because you didn’t want to. You loved that mongrel half-breed Breena, and you were willing to risk your people’s lives to save her. And she isn’t even a real Fey, Logan. You knew that deep down, that she was only a human-hybrid. You knew she cannot be your destiny. And yet you still love her. You persist in your delusion that Fate has thrown you two together. You broke your promise to me – your promise that you would marry a Fey woman, bear Fey children, restore the magic of the Wolves…”
     
    “It isn’t like that, Grandfather,” Logan was insisting. “I can’t help who I fall in love with. I cannot choose my mate. My heart chose for me. I’ve known Breena since we were children – she’s my best friend. I loved her long before I made that promise to you. I’ve always loved her.”
     
    “All you are admitting to me,” thundered the voice, “is that you are weak and feeble. Your love for the Queen is a sign of your weakness, a sign that you so stubbornly refuse to become who you were meant to be. You have been infected by the worst disease of all, my grandson – love! No wonder she chose that Winter Prince over you, Logan. You are weak. Weak and unfit to bear the mantle of the Wolf Prince, let alone the Wolf King, let alone the Red Wolf! You are not fit to be even a cub – not with your human weakness slobbering all over the place. You are not fit to be a wolf at all!”
     
    Logan looked down, and Rose could see the tears forming at the corner of his eyes.  Rose gaped – how could Logan’s grandfather be so cruel to him? She had heard Logan speak of his grandfather before – of a kind, brave man, who always supported the grandchildren he loved. But this creature was a monster, trying to tear down whatever self-worth Logan had!
     
    And as Logan looked away, trying to regain his composure, the creature morphed into human form.
     
    “Don’t listen, Logan,” Shasta was shouting. “It’s a trap!”
     
    And then Rose spotted the dagger in Logan’s grandfather’s hand.
     
    “No!” Shasta leaped forward, pushing Logan out of the way of the dagger. Instantly the apparition vanished – but another took its place. One that made Shasta’s blue eyes go wide with fear and pain.
     
    “You shouldn’t have done that.” A hard, cold female voice. “Shasta, have you not learned by now – never defy your elders! But you never listened. You never did what you were told. From the beginning – always a disappointment to me. Always my greatest disappointment, Shasta. I had one child. One perfect child. My beloved Kian. So beautiful. So noble. So brave. And then there was you.”
     
    It was Shasta’s mother, the icy Winter Queen. No love shone in her blazing eyes.
     
    “From the start,” the Queen scoffed, “you were a handful. It was bad enough when you betrayed your kingdom for a lowly common Summer Knight, worse still when you broke the laws of honor I lay down by being with him after I had forbidden you to. But then you had to bring forth the Dark Hordes, didn’t you – like the selfish stupid little girl you always were…”
     
    “Mother, I…” Tears were streaming down Shasta’s face.
     
    Out of the corner of her eye, Rose noticed Alistair reaching into his bag. What was he looking for? He winked at her as he procured a bag of white powder.
     
    Truth powder.
     
    Alistair jumped forth, throwing the powder upon one of the shadows. “Speak the