Ice Kissed (27 page)

The door didn’t make a sound when I opened it, and Kennet stood in front of the window, pushing the voile curtains aside to get a better view of Doldastam.

While we’d been waiting, Kasper and I had decided it would be better if I took the lead with Kennet, since he and I had a bit of a history. But Kasper stayed only a step or two behind me with his sword drawn, so Kennet would know we meant business.

“Kennet,” I said.

He whirled around, his eyes startled and wide, but within seconds, a smirk appeared on his face.

FORTY-FOUR

rivalry

“Nothing can hold you back, can it?” Kennet asked.

“No thanks to you,” I snapped.

“Bryn, that wasn’t my idea,” he reminded me. “You can’t blame me for your Queen being overzealous.”

“Yes, yes, I can. You did nothing to defend me.”

“What should I have said? ‘Yes, it’s true what she says. It’s all my fault. Lock me up and throw away the key’?”

“That would’ve been nice,” I said dryly.

“Look, I didn’t want you locked up, but I didn’t exactly have a choice.” Kennet held up his hands, trying to appear innocent. “You backed me into a corner.”

I shook my head. “You’re such a conniving weasel. I can’t believe I ever found anything likable about you.”

“Hey.” He scowled. “I liked you too. And despite everything else that’s going on now, I did have fun with you, and I’m sorry that things have gone the way they have.”

“Everything you said was a lie,” I hissed at him. “Your whole act was to keep me distracted so I wouldn’t notice what was really going on with you.”

“I’ll admit, I was told to keep you occupied so you wouldn’t get yourself into any trouble. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy my time with you.” He tried to flirt with me, but it just felt forced and sleazy. “Some things can be both work
and
pleasure.”

“You’re so full of shit. You’ve only ever cared about yourself,” I spat at him. “You’ve told me over and over that you love your brother, and look how you treated him.”

His expression hardened. “I do love my brother.”

“Spare me your lies, Kennet. We all know what you did.”

“You know
nothing
about what I did!” he shouted. “Mikko hated being King. It made him miserable. He never should’ve been crowned in the first place. But he had to take the job, not because he was the most qualified, not because he was the best one in our family for the position, but simply because he was born first, and Father insisted that Mikko fulfill his obligations.”

“So you have him imprisoned for life?” I asked mockingly. “That fixes everything?”

“Once this is all over and I’m officially King, I’ll pardon him and set him free. He’ll be fine, and he’ll be happier in the end.” Kennet tried to reason away his sins. “We both will.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you tried to kill the woman he loves,” I reminded him.

“Is that what Linnea told you?” Kennet rolled his eyes. “That’s some fairy tale fantasy she has. And that’s all beside the point, since
I
never laid a hand on her.”

“You hired the person who did,” I countered.

He sighed. “You make it all sound so evil, but it wasn’t. They told me that if I gave them sapphires, they’d help me dethrone my brother in a nonlethal way. Mikko has been so unhappy since he’s been King, and I was honestly doing this for him as much as I was for me.”

“If that’s what you tell yourself, go ahead.” I shrugged. “Maybe if you keep on going with that, your brother will pardon you after you confess.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Confess? Why on earth would I do that?”

“Because this is over,” I told him. “The Queen may be blinded by your lies, but as soon as King Evert hears about your involvement with Konstantin Black, he’ll investigate and find out the truth. He’s too paranoid to let it go, so you should make it easy on yourself and just admit what you know.”

“Konstantin Black?” Kennet laughed. “I never even met the guy before you arrested him.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “What are you talking about?”

“I never met him. I’d never even heard of him or this Viktor before you all started going on about them.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Then who did you deal with?”

He tilted his head, a bemused smile on his lips. “You still don’t get it, do you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“This is bigger than either of us.” Kennet stepped closer to me, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Kasper raise his sword. “You think you can come in here and threaten me, and I’ll just bow down and do as you say, but you’ve got
nothing
to threaten me with.”

“I think you’re grossly underestimating the situation,” Kasper growled, and Kennet glanced over at him.

“You and your little sword are nothing compared to what would be done to me if I betrayed my allies,” Kennet told him bitterly.

As soon as he said that, my mind flashed back to the dungeon on Storvatten, when Konstantin had still been in his prison cell and Bent Stum had been lying dead with his wrists slit. Konstantin insisted that Bent had been murdered to keep him from spilling the truth, and when I pushed him to tell me by whom, Konstantin told me nearly the exact same thing that Kennet just had.

Whomever they were both working for had them scared as hell.

“You killed Bent Stum,” I realized. “So he wouldn’t talk and ruin everything for you.”

“I did what I had to do,” Kennet admitted. “And I’ll keep doing what I have to do.”

His aquamarine eyes almost always seemed to sparkle, but now as he looked down at me, they seemed much more muted, almost glazed. The smile had gone from his face, replaced by a sad vacancy.

Then, without warning, he raised his arm and punched me in the face. It was so unexpected that I didn’t have time to block it. And he was much stronger than I’d anticipated, especially for a Prince. I stumbled back, falling against the bed.

He’d hit me in my left eye, and the trauma to my head was enough to exacerbate my injury from Viktor. My eyesight blurred in both eyes. A white light replaced the vision in my right eye while my left eyelid began to puff up, closing off my sight.

For a few horrible seconds, I could only hear the sound of fighting going on around me—grunting, cursing, and then the clatter of the sword falling to the floor. I wanted to help Kasper, but I couldn’t see, and I didn’t want to blunder in blindly and make things worse. Kasper wouldn’t use deadly force unless absolutely necessary (the sword was meant to be more of a threat) since we needed Kennet alive to clear our names.

Finally, the figures before me came into focus. They were rolling around on the floor, fighting over the sword. I started to move toward it, meaning to grab it, but Kennet got it first and rolled over onto his back, holding the sword pointed out in front of him as Kasper got to his feet.

“This game is done,” Kennet said, standing slowly with his eyes and sword locked on Kasper. “You aren’t going to let this go, which means that
I
can’t let you go.”

“It doesn’t need to come to this,” Kasper said, holding up his hands in a gesture of peace.

Kennet only smirked in reply, and in a moment of desperation, Kasper charged at him. I was sure he meant to get the sword away from Kennet again, but that wasn’t what happened.

I was standing right behind Kasper, and I saw the sword come out his back—the sharp metal stained red as it poked out between his shoulder blades. The blood flowered out around it, darkening his white shirt.

Kennet’s face paled, and he let go of the sword, allowing Kasper to stagger back. I rushed over, catching him just as he began to fall and lowering him to the floor, but I kept my arm around his shoulders, holding him up so the blade wouldn’t move.

FORTY-FIVE

downfall

“It’ll be okay,” I said thickly, even though I didn’t believe it.

Kasper stared at me, his dark eyes uncomprehending. He moved his mouth as if he meant to say something, but nothing came out. And then, as I held him in my arms, Kasper took his last breath and his body went lax.

“It had to be done,” Kennet said in a low voice.

When I looked up at him, the only thing I felt was anger—a blinding rage I’d never experienced before. I knew I should try to control it, but just then, I didn’t want to.

I jumped and charged at Kennet. He tried to block my attack, but I was faster than him and I hit him in the face, the stomach, the arms—anywhere I could reach. He stepped back, trying to avoid the blows, and he wasn’t paying attention to his footing.

His fight with Kasper had left the rug rumpled, and he tripped on it and staggered back. I watched as he fell into the window. The glass didn’t shatter, but the locks that held them shut were old, and under his weight the French windows swung open.

Kennet started falling backward, and while I was tempted to let him just fall, I needed him alive. I needed to know who he was working for and what was happening, so Kasper’s death wouldn’t be entirely in vain.

I ran forward, and I was nearly too late. I leaned out the window, almost throwing myself after him to grab his hand. I gripped it as tightly as I could, holding Kennet as he dangled over five stories above the ground.

“Pull me up!” Kennet yelled, his voice cracking in terror. “I’m sorry for what I did! Just pull me up and I’ll do whatever you want!”

“Tell me who you’re working for!” I demanded.

“Just pull me up and I’ll tell you,” he insisted, and his eyes were wild with fear.

The truth was that I was
trying
to pull him, but my grip on him wasn’t good enough. I had to use one hand for balance, holding on to the windowsill so I wouldn’t tumble out with him. Both of my hands had Kasper’s blood on them, leaving them slick, and whenever I tried to lift Kennet, I felt him slipping away.

“Tell me first,” I said, trying to pretend like this was my idea and I wasn’t losing him.

“Bryn,
please!
” Kennet begged. “I’m sorry! Just help me!”

And I wanted to. As much as I hated Kennet, I wanted him to live so he could pay for what he’d done. But I couldn’t hang on.

His hand slipped from my grasp, and he fell to the ground, screaming all the way until he hit the cobblestone courtyard below. I looked away so I didn’t have to see the mess he’d become.

I turned back to the room, with the open windows letting in an icy wind behind me. Kasper lay on the floor. I didn’t want to just leave him here like this, but I didn’t know what I could do.

His eyes were still open, staring up at the ceiling, so I crouched down next to him and closed them gently.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered around the lump in my throat.

Kennet had made a lot of noise as he fell, so it wouldn’t be long before guards found their way up here to investigate what had happened.

I grabbed a chair and pushed it up against the door, propping it underneath the handle so they’d have a little more fight before they could get in. I went into the bathroom and washed the blood off my hands, trying not to think about where the blood had come from.

The H
ö
gdragen would be on the lookout for me, and one thing I’d learned from growing up in Doldastam was that my blond hair made me stand out like a sore thumb. I needed to cover up.

I ran over to the wardrobe and grabbed the parka, then I jumped back into the dumbwaiter and prepared to make my escape.

FORTY-SIX

exile

“Yes, sir. I understand. Of course, sir,” Ridley was saying into his cell phone. “I will.”

He stood in the living room, his back to me. He still wore the
Ö
verste uniform with the silver epaulets on the shoulder. When he hung up the phone, he ran a hand through his hair and let out a heavy sigh.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“Holy crap, Bryn!” Ridley turned around to face me, and his surprise was immediately replaced by relief as he rushed over to me. “What are you doing here?”

“Your back door was unlocked.” I motioned to it behind me.

He pushed back the hood of the parka so he could see me more clearly, and he grimaced when he saw my eye, which had to be blackening by now. “Oh, Bryn.”

“How bad is it?”

“I’m not sure if you’re asking about your eye or the situation,” he said. “But the situation is not good. I just got home from work, and the head of the H
ö
gdragen called to tell me that you’d been arrested for treason, escaped from prison, and then murdered Kasper Abbott and the Skojare Prince before going on the run again.”

“It’s not like that.” I shook my head. “I never hurt Kasper, and I even told him he shouldn’t come with me. Because Tilda—”

My voice caught in my throat as I realized what had just happened. Kasper had become my friend in his own right. He was good and capable, and he was dead. Not to mention what this loss would mean to Tilda. My best friend’s husband of less than twenty-four hours and the father of her unborn baby had been killed.

But I couldn’t let the full gravity of it hit me, because if I did I would just crumple up and sob.

“And the treason charge is bullshit. I would never do anything to damage this kingdom. I was trying to protect it. It was Kennet. He’d been supporting Konstantin, and I wanted to keep the King safe. And then everything happened so fast, and I got out of there as quick as I could. I took the dumbwaiter to the basement, and then I climbed up a garbage chute to the outside, and I had to sneak around town to get here as fast as I could. But I didn’t do those things they say I did. I didn’t.”

“I know.” Ridley put his hand on my face to calm me, since my voice had taken on a frantic pitch, and he looked me in the eyes. “I know you didn’t do anything wrong. And you can explain it all to me later, but right now, we need to get you out of here before the H
ö
gdragen find you, because they won’t believe you.”

I nodded, because now everything was too far gone. I’d only been trying to make things right, but I didn’t know how I could ever come back from this.