Frost Winterborne's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Frost Winterborne pressed his bare palm to the fountain in his great hall and watched the water freeze under his skin. He did this every morning. He wanted proof that the curse still held, and it always did. A witch had bound his heart in ice long ago, so he could never love another. To break the curse, he first had to know one thing: could his heart thaw at all? But he could not test it. Everything warm he touched turned to ice before he felt a thing. His snow leopard watched from the frozen stairs. The baby snow dragon curled near the door, breathing frost. Neither could help him. They were cold, like him. He needed something warm to hold. Something that would not freeze at his touch. The great doors groaned open. A girl stepped inside, and the ice on the floor melted where she walked. Her hair moved like fire. Small flames danced along her fingers. Frost had heard travelers speak of a fire maiden who wandered the mountains. He had not believed she was real. "Your castle is freezing," she said. She rubbed her arms and grinned. "I like it. Everyone else runs from me." "Ember Ashwyn," Frost said. The name came to him from the traveler's tales. "You should run too. My hands kill anything warm." She walked closer. The frost drew back from her boots. "Then we match. Mine burn anything cold." She held up her palm, bright with flame. "Try me." Frost stepped back. "No. I have frozen birds out of the sky. I will not freeze you." "You can't freeze fire," Ember said. "And I can't burn ice that won't melt. Maybe we're the only safe thing for each other." His chest ached with something he had not felt in years. Hope. But hope was dangerous. If he touched her and she froze, he would have killed the one person who came to him unafraid. The leopard rose. The little dragon lifted its head. Ember waited, hand open, flame steady. Frost looked at his own hand. Frost crept along his fingers, as always. He thought of every morning at the fountain, every failed test, every year alone. He would never know if his heart could thaw unless he risked this. He reached out and pressed his palm to hers. Steam hissed between them. Water dripped from his fingers to the floor. Her flame did not die. His frost did not spread. Their hands stayed locked, warm and cold holding steady, neither one winning. For the first time, Frost felt heat. It moved up his arm and stopped at his chest, where the ice sat hard around his heart. It pushed against that ice and could not pass. Ember felt it too. Her smile faded. "Something's stopping it," she said. "Right there. In your chest." Frost looked down. Now he knew. His heart could feel warmth again. But the curse still sealed it shut.