Frozen Tides (Falling Kingdoms 4)

“The parts that included you were wonderful.” He hesitated. “I know you can’t forgive me for . . . many things I’ve done. But my only wish is for us to find a way to move past these mistakes. One day I hope you can see me again as you once saw me—as your brother and your friend.”

“What an unusually sentimental thought for you, Magnus.” She raised an eyebrow. “But are you certain that’s all you want from me anymore? A chaste friendship between siblings and nothing more?”

His heart had begun to pound. “Lucia . . .”

She drew closer and took his face between her warm hands. “The knowledge that you loved me so deeply is the only truth I’ve held on to in the last weeks. I was a fool to deny my feelings for you all this time. I see that now.”

odded. “We were.”

He’d been doing a good job of ignoring the cold, but now a chill crackled down his spine. “You caused the ice storm, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” she replied simply.

His gaze flicked again to the young man beside her, eyeing him now with intense curiosity. He was very tall, with a strong jaw, amber-colored eyes, and dark blond hair long enough to brush his shoulders. The boy eyed Magnus with interest, an eyebrow raised.

“Who are you?” Magnus asked sharply.

“I am Kyan.”

“What are you doing with my sister, Kyan?”

He cocked his head. “Many things.”

Kyan’s short, disrespectful reply infuriated Magnus, but he held his anger tightly to his chest. “Where’s your new husband, Lucia?”

“Alexius is dead.”

He snapped his gaze back to her. “What?”

“He’s dead. He and Melenia both.”

Melenia. The powerful Watcher who’d visited his father’s dreams, advising him to build a road that would lead him to the Kindred. Up until now, Magnus had assumed that the king was still impatiently waiting for her to contact him again.

It seemed King Gaius’s days of immortal guidance were over.

“Were you the one who killed them?” Cleo asked from several paces away. Magnus tensed at the sound of her voice.

“One of them,” Lucia replied calmly.

Magnus knew how powerful Lucia’s elementia was, but he also knew that it was often uncontrollable, so much that she’d been afraid of it. She’d worried that her magic had made her evil, but he’d always reassured her that nothing about her could ever be evil.

Did he still believe that?

Lucia looked sharply to the other princess. “I’m surprised to see you here, Cleo. I was certain you’d be long dead by now.”

“Alive and well, thank you,” Cleo replied through gritted teeth.

“Magnus,” Lucia said, turning back to him, “you should take more care in selecting your company. That girl will put a dagger in you the moment your back’s turned.”

“Trust me, I’m well aware of that,” he said with a nod.

“And yet you let her live.”

“I believe she could still prove useful to me.”

“I disagree.”

He ignored Cleo’s soft grunt of disgust. “Why are you here, Lucia?”