The Ice Queen (Dark Queens Book 3) by Jovee Winters

head as a pained expression flitted briefly across her brow.
    “Last night I stood in the snow. You watched me,” she said it without preamble, and again there was no artifice to it. It wasn’t a coy question asking for more, simply a fact.
    And he didn’t know how to answer.
    “I...uh. I did not know—that is to say...”
    Her smile was soft.
    “It’s okay, male. You’re curious about me. About who I am. Are you not? It is why you continue to ask me why you’re here.”
    He clenched his jaw, in a few words she’d gotten to the heart of the matter. Licking his front teeth, he simply nodded once. No more, no less.
    Picking up a leg of meat, she held it in her hand. In less than a minute the leg that’d been succulent with juices and fat, froze. Turning blue at the tip of the leg bone.
    Frowning prettily, her eyes never looked up at him as she said, “The truth is, centaur, this is all my fault.”
    He knew that wasn’t true. He believed that with every fiber of his being now. Not after what they’d done last night. Not after her continued acts of kindness. She’d not been the one to grab him, it’d been the Under Goblin.
    Just thinking about that animal caused an ache to spread through Alador’s chest. He rubbed his thumb across it, wincing at the fiery pain and wondering what’d just happened, but as quickly as it’d come on, it disappeared.
    There was dark magick in this place, he felt it lingering everywhere.
    Sighing, she set the now frozen hunk of meat down on her plate that she’d not touched yet. “I know what you’re thinking, that it hadn’t simply been me. And while that’s the truth of it, there’s more to the story.”
    “Can you read minds?” He touched the tip of his forehead.
    “No.” She dusted off her hands, folding them elegantly on her lap. “But it’s what I would have thought were the situation reversed. This is my fault because of what I did the night I chose to make Glaciem my home. I did not know that land belonged to the Goblin. In fact, I’d never heard of him before. No doubt, that bit of wounded pride was the seed that rooted all those years ago. Culminating in what he’s now done.”
    “And that is?”
    Heavy flakes of snow fell languidly down around her shoulders from nothingness. And it was odd, because he should have been frozen being surrounded by so much ice, but he felt fine.
    Whatever she was doing, she was keeping that sting from him.
    “That you are to remain trapped within this labyrinth of snow for a month’s time or until I discover where he’s hidden the key to our release.”
    A test then. To take back the Goblin’s lands.
    It seemed petty and pointless.
    But then, centaurs were rational creatures and this type of mean-mindedness was beneath his kind. If vengeance was to be had it would be met face to face, not by using innocent pawns to further their agenda.
    “Ours? So you’re trapped as well.”
    Her cerulean gaze pierced his. “Yes, it would seem so.”
    “And yet you still have your magic. You should be able to leave, no?”
    “I have some magic.” She shrugged. “But nothing at all like what I typically have. I could kill those ice demons, but I can hardly control the elements outside the door, and no matter how much I will it, I cannot leave.”
    He heard the sadness in her words and he frowned, feeling her emotions on a visceral level. Her sadness was now his. He didn’t like seeing her this way. He hadn’t seen her laugh or smile often, but when he had, it was as though the sun had finally come out after years of darkness.
    Again, he rubbed a hand over his chest as his heart beat forcefully against his rib cage. He was just about to say something, when a sudden thought intruded.
    “Earlier, when the children and I marched through the snow, I could have sworn I’d heard the voice of a woman.”
    Deep down he knew it’d been her and he half expected her to deny it, but again she surprised him by being honest.
    “It was