DE HUG

ars that quickly dried in the cold night wind. The drug surged ag

She's gone! The little bitch escaped

he dancing light of torches filled the courtyard bel

clattering down into the darkness below. My heart seized. I fr

rd the forest. A small mercy. They assumed I would

r in the North Wing was thick with the smell of dust and decay, but underneath it,

d creeping ivy. The door knocker was a snarling wolf's

lair of the "

tting closer, and among them, I heard a voice I despised more than

r shrill command cut through

ng hand, and knocked. The sound was ho

th

s the legend fals

ared at the courtyard entrance. I could

ounding on the door with my fists, with my whole body,

bly, my skin flushing a feverish red. They had mixed it with som

y began to charge, the heavy oak door s

ng. The door slid silently shut behind me, cutt

s curses and the guards' startled crie

rom a high, domed ceiling. The cold, crisp scent was stronger he

s back to me. He wore simple, dark robes, and his

ke it was dredged up from a frozen abyss. "Who

all to keep from falling. "I... I'm bein

m, only a pair of gray eyes that burned like embers in the dark, ancient and utterl

those gray eyes-surprise, maybe recognition. I heard him murmur, so low I barely caught it: "Frost... and

rn to me," he said, his tone so cold it was cl

, my sanity fraying. I knew simple begging

refuse. A bargain that would pique the int

s offered little modesty after the climb. "I... I have nothing to

e last of my willpower for the

dress, exposing skin flushed crimson by t

clean scent of him became intensely pred

ht flickered. It was the look of a hunter who