Dragon's Ice

Chapter 13

FREYA

Troy is looking at me with a smirk on his face, stretching his hand to me. And awkward silence fills the room as all attention is on our trio again. Behind Troy, I notice a very pissed-off Eliza. I guess he didn’t invite her. Oops.

“Pardon me, Your Highness,” I say as politely as I only can, “But I am afraid that I have already promised all my dances at this ball.”

The smirk disappears from his face as he stands straight again, “You’ve been here for no more than five minutes. No one even approached you during this time! When on heavens did you have time to promise all your dances?”

“Before I even arrived here!” I throw a quick glance at Desmond and see that he is clearly enjoying this awkward show.

“Doesn’t matter,” Troy grits through his teeth, “I am from the royal family! You can’t refuse a member of the royal family!”

“W-well,” I look at Desmond with “maybe-it’s-time-for-you-to-say-something” gaze and he chuckles at that.

“That’s unless she dances with another member of the royal family, brother!” he snorts, “And it just so happens that lady Freya here has promised all her dances to me!”

“You can’t!” Troy seems fuming, his face is almost the same colour as his hair, “Even married couples don’t dance all dances with each other! It’s against all traditions!

“Well,” Desmond shakes his shoulders apologetically, “I am not the most traditional prince, am I?”

“That you are not! Have a nice evening!” Troy pshaws at us and leaves abruptly, almost hitting me with his cloak on the way..

I look at his brother and it seems like he is having loads of fun. I mean, his face looks indifferent, but eyes! Eyes give him away! The mischievous sparks do a mad dance in them.

“Even married couples don’t dance all their dances together?”I raise my brow.

“You didn’t know?” He raises his, and I choke on my word. I need to be careful about what I say. “I did think that you agreed to a bit too easily,” he adds.

“Well, I didn’t think that you would ask something so….provocative!” I roll my eyes, trying to change the subject, “So, you and your brother are not the best of friends, right?”

“Nice try”, he chuckles, “Why don’t you know such simple things? You are from a noble family and….”

“My parents are dead and no one was taking care of my education,” I interrupt him, “Sorry to disappoint you, but no interesting story here. I just lack the knowledge and that is that.”

“Of Course there Is an interesting story there. Just a few weeks ago your hair was brown and you had no magic in you. And now you have these beautiful silver locks and create ice houses that not every master water mage can create,” he says calmly but my jaw is somewhere on the floor. He did research on me!

“Were you finding out things about me?” I look at him with wide eyes.

“Of course I did,” he smirks, “You came out of nowhere and gave me your ribbon. A girl who nobody knows. I just had to check.”

And suddenly it all goes from romantic to creepy. I take a sip of wine and look around the room, noticing another familiar face. Professor Arsene!

“Excuse me for just a moment,” I say quickly, placing my goblet back at the table, “I need to say hello to someone.”

I try to walk away but he grabs my hand, his eyes glow red just for a second but it’s enough for me to notice.

“I didn’t mean to offend you, Freya,” he says quickly.

“I am not offended,” I smile weakly, “But I really need to speak to someone...”

He unclenches his fingers and I don’t waste any more time.

“Professor!” I wave at him and a warm smile spreads on his face,

“Freya! So nice to see you here! Congratulations!”

“Uhm, thanks,” I smile shyly, “I didn’t expect for all this to happen and…”

“The headmaster is so impressed with you!” He interjects, his thoughts clearly somewhere else, “Whatever you did, you did great!”

“What are you talking about, professor?” I look at him in shock, does he even recognize me? “I haven’t met the headmaster yet! I hoped that you would introduce me!”

“I am afraid he already left, Freya”, Arsene scratches his head, “But no worries! You have been accepted to the Academy! The invitation will come to the Beaufort house within next week or so!”

“A-are you sure?”

Oh, god! I hope they don’t take me for someone else!

“Yes!” the man chuckles, “He has been very impressed with your work?!”

“What work?” I feel like I am going to faint! They definitely take me for someone else!

“That little ice tent of yours! It is so impressive!” he says smiling, “You need to work on the shape. But the quality of your ice is superb! And it doesn’t melt under the heavy sun for two days straight! That’s a great job!”

Oh, my god! Did my crooked igloo just got me a ticket into the Royal Academy of Magical Arts? Unbelievable!

“Thank you, professor!” I want to jump from joy, but hold myself under control, “This is the best news ever!”

“What is?” Desmond appears behind my back and professor Arsene turns pale and bows immediately. And that’s one very low bow. So low that I am afraid the professor would sweep the floor with his silver hair.

“Your Highness!” he trembles.

“Oh, please, just call me the Dark Blood Dragon!” Desmond chuckles, clearly joking, but the poor professor looks like he is just one step away from his grave.

“That’s a joke!” I say quickly to calm him down, “His highness has a very unique sense of humour!”

“H-how nice,” Arsene is getting paler by the second.

“So, what is the news?” the prince insists, not leaving the subject alone.

“I just got accepted into the Royal Academy of Magical Arms,” I turn to him and smile broadly, not being able to hold my excitement.

“Is that so?” he looks at me with interest, something strange in his eyes, “And you are so happy about that?”

“Of course!” I almost yell, but bite my lip at the last moment.

“Then congratulations, lady Freya,” he smiles.

“You don’t even know what you get yourself into!” Troy appears out of nowhere again, and the professor bows to him. Not as low as he did before his brother. Huh!

“I am sure I can manage!” I say firmly, the younger prince starts to annoy the hell out of me.

“Let’s see if you can even survive until the first exams, Freya,” he chuckles and I clench my fists, “You have absolutely no prior knowledge of simplest things! You even got your power by accident! You hit your head and woke up like that!”

“I fell into a frozen lake!” I correct him.

“A-ha,” he says, unimpressed, “And who knows, what if when you fall next time everything changes back to normal!”

“I’ll try to avoid frozen lakes then,” I sneer at him, “Thank you for your consideration, Your Highness, but I am not your problem. I am sure you have more important things to concern yourself with!”

“I do,” he raises his chin and looks down on me, “But I find it funny that the only date my brother could find for the ball is the girl who hit her head and forgot everything a few days prior!”

Seriously, if he wasn’t a prince, I’d slap him again. Ok, I’d slap him again just if we didn’t have so many witnesses in the room. I’ll have to find an opportunity to slap him later. What a jerk!

He leaves, laughing. And immediately at least three girls surround him. Ugh!

“It’s going to be all right, lady Freya,” professor Arsene smiles weakly, “The exams are hard but I am going to personally tutor you! Such a talent like yours… The Academy will fight for you!”

“Thank you, professor!” I almost tear up. Since arriving in this world, I didn’t have much support from someone who could actually help me. And it feels nice.

“I need to go, Freya,” Arsene bows, “Your Highness!”

He leaves hurriedly and I turn to face Desmond. He is looking at me without saying a word.

“Well,” I shake my shoulders, “Now you know my interesting story!”

“How do you know my brother?” is all he asks.

“He is a friend of my cousin”, I confess at once, “Kai Beaufort, tall, dark hair, ugly personality…”

His vacant expression gives me a hint that he doesn’t know Kai.

“He came to our house before the tournament to pick up Kai and Eliza, my other cousin. And that’s how we met,” I continue.

“And you hate him because?” Desmond raises his brow.

“He offered me something indecent and I slapped him,” I say, my cheeks turning red, “In my defense, I didn’t know that he was a prince!”

“And if you knew you would have agreed?”

“No!” I look up at him in fury but see a faint smile on his lips. He is mocking me. “But I wouldn’t have slapped him. I think I kind of signed my own death sentence by that.”

“Don’t worry,” Desmond says, taking my hand into his, “Troy barks but he doesn’t bite. Let’s go, I want to dance with you once more!”

He pulls me to the dance floor and as in the previous dance, a row of girls stands against the row of men. I gulp when Troy stands next to Desmond. And he himself doesn’t look too much happy about it. And in just a few seconds I know exactly why. This is the kind of dance where they change partners every once in a while. Damn it.

And Troy's face, when it’s our turn to go in circles holding hands, doesn’t promise me anything good!

“You are one interesting lady, Freya,” he smirks when I am in his hands.

“That I am,” I agree quietly.

“I wasn’t good enough for you, but that murderer is fine?” he is almost shaking with rage.

“I didn’t know who he was,” I reply calmly, “You said it yourself – I hit my head and remember nothing.”

“Well, then just know that you are on a date with a monster who killed my mother!”

AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you are enjoying this story, join my group on sss Marion Artwood: Den of Dragons. This is where we discuss the books, share visuals (trust me, you want to see how Derrien, Ryden and Tristan look) and have loads of fun. There will be a giveaway with prizes there soon too.