Chapter 1

To please his mistress, Callum ordered me—pregnant—to dance barefoot in the black salt ice cellar.

When I stumbled back to the doorway to warm myself, the mistress covered her mouth and retched.

"I'm pregnant. I can't stand this death-stench of winter."

Only because I was a princess of the Winter Realm, born carrying frost in my veins.

Callum flew into a rage and had me locked inside a frost-crystal cage, sunk to the bottom of the ice well. No one was allowed to release me without his command.

"A princess of winter, afraid of the cold? What a joke!"

No matter how I struggled or begged, he couldn't have cared less. He and his mistress treated it as entertainment. And just like that, I froze to death at the bottom of that well.

What he didn't know was that although we winter-born are forged in bitter cold, when we carry a child, every drop of magic goes to protecting the baby. We have no defense left for ourselves. The very ice that shaped us becomes the thing that kills us.

Two days later, he was finally satisfied and ordered them to pull me up.

But I could never come back up again.

......

I never imagined I would die frozen in ice. Even less did I imagine that the one who killed me was the man I loved with my life.

"Isolde, what are you standing there for? Dance for Ignis." Callum had his arm around Ignis, impatience dripping from every word. "Or are you telling me you won't even obey your king?"

I had no choice but to step onto the ice.

I am a princess of winter. Before, moving on ice was as effortless as breathing. But now I was pregnant. Every trace of winter magic in my body had been forced inward, contracted around my abdomen to maintain the ice shell protecting the baby.

My skin had no barrier left. Each step I took, the cold drove straight into my veins.

My breath froze into white mist. The baby stirred with waves of cramping pain. My movements grew slower and clumsier by the second.

I didn't last long before a violent surge of cold pain forced me back to the stone steps by the cellar door, doubled over, trying to warm myself.

Ignis immediately covered her nose and turned away, retching.

"That winter death-stench is making me sick..." Her voice was soft and frail, her whole body curling delicately into Callum's arms. "The high priest recently confirmed that I'm with child. I truly cannot bear this frost-breath."

"I know the princess resents me for carrying your baby. But she already tried faking a pregnancy to win back your favor, and now she's deliberately releasing her cold to—"

Faking a pregnancy.

Those words drove into me like a needle, hitting the place that hurt most.

I was pregnant. Days ago, I had taken Callum's hand in our chambers and pressed it against my belly to tell him.

Winter and Summer had been severed for centuries. Ice and fire repelled each other. A half-blood child was nearly impossible. Callum himself had told me more than once that his solar bloodline was destined to die without heirs. He had long since given up hope.

That was when Ignis had just caught his eye. He labeled my honesty as a ploy for attention and tore into me without mercy.

"Faking a pregnancy to compete for my favor? Isolde, don't you find yourself pathetic?"

I thought the same claim of pregnancy from Ignis would earn the same fury. Instead, Callum was overjoyed.

He looked down at the woman in his arms, his eyes brimming with excitement and tenderness. "Really? Ignis, you are Summer's blessing. I thought I would never have a child of my own."

Then he lifted his gaze to me, and every trace of warmth vanished.

"Unlike some people, reeking of frost-poison, making everyone sick just by standing here."

He waved his hand. Several guards carried out an iron cage—the frost-crystal cage.

"Lock her inside and sink her to the bottom of the ice well to reflect on herself." Callum's tone made it sound like he was disposing of something trivial. "She doesn't come out until Ignis feels better."

My blood went cold in an instant.

Since becoming pregnant, I couldn't draw on even a sliver of magic to protect myself—it was all going to the baby. If I stayed in that well for long, I would freeze to death.

It didn't matter if I died down there. But my child hadn't even been born yet. He hadn't seen this world, not even once.

"No!" I lunged forward and grabbed the bars of the cage. "Callum, I'll freeze to death in that well! Let me out—I will really die!"

Callum looked at me, the corner of his mouth twisting into a cold smirk.

"A princess of winter, suddenly afraid of the cold?"

He slammed his hand onto the activation rune of the cage.

The cage began to sink.

"Callum!"

He had already turned away, ignoring my cries.

He bent down, lifted Ignis into his arms like a fragile treasure, and walked away.

Ignis rested against his chest, looking back over his shoulder, staring down at me with triumph in her eyes.

But there was nothing I could do. Clutching nothing but despair, I was dragged down into the lightless depths of the well.