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Verusha helped ently on a stool before the vanity h hter than it had been,with the bludmilk and water It wasn’t back to ice-white yet, ed htly in place

"You are bothered, little le Verusha can tell Do you worry that you will not best Ravenna?"

"Of course not" I looked up into theback my lips to show sharp teeth

"What is it, then? Your parents? Or Alex?"

I snorted "My parents are gone I can handle Alex And I have plans for the king of Sveden as well"

She threw her head back and laughed, boso "You are my sa is changed Have you recovered fully fro? Do you feel weak orher dark eyes in the mirror She had always knohatever troubled s I didn’t know uidance nohen I needed it most and could speak it least

"Did you know they had planned to marry you off to a Svedish prince?" she said blandly, and I flinched "It’s true, darleenk The papers were alht you had run away, but a Pinky in the stables swore a blood oath that he saw you snatched by terrifying figures in bear cloaks, stolen away into the woods behind the castle That little one from the kitchen, with the black hair, you recall" I shuddered In the back of my throat, I could still taste his blood and my own childish terror and shaha had also been taken, the betrothal papers were lost Your parents were executed And then the ruan that you had killed your own sister But I knew they were false"

"Why Sveden?" I asked, once I had foundCharles wanted to ce the palace that it made sense That man--he is insatiable, they say After you disappeared, once he couldn’t use you for his own ends, he swore you an enerinned "There’s one fewer now"

She patted my head "And your mother was hot for the union, of course It has been many years since the Feodors had outside blud Some have said your fatheris not the hot-bludded sort He always preferred the hunt to the throne"

"So they say"

"You have more of your mother in you, of course You may not take after her in looks, but your heart, lacier’s heart of Freesia An ice princess, a throwback to better times The winters have been uneasy these past few years Many of the people say the dance and theto Aztarte and Hades There are shrines to you in secret places, snowdrops and white roses and little cups of blud ranate seeds and, of course, the tears So in the darkness to lead us back into a proper winter"

"The rabble are fools"

"The rabble are your reason for existing, darleenk They are the earth that supports your feet"

My hair isted back in braids and pin curls in a way that led the eye down my cheekbones to ht red With dark kohl and glittering silver around ht, clean and fresh and no longer fra doll, a creature of lines and curves fashioned of frozen milk, with eyes the color of aquamarines I blinked, and the face blinked back

"It’s a shame you must hide"

Before I could ask her what she meant, what she knew, she held a porcelainbut eyes and lips It hite and silver, a stylized peacock’s face, the nose a dainty beak White plu of the peacocks at the Ice Palace, calling to one another with the sound of dying children Although the wild peacocks were rarely seen without unicorns, the birds of the palace were proud things fed blood fro family of birds were all white, and theirli, this mask, and I wondered how she would dress Casper to walk besideFirst, she brought layers of petticoats, fil slippers Then the corset from Kitty’s shop, and I took a few last deep breaths before ic with the laces The dress wasn’t as heavy as I reer I stepped into it, and Verusha helped lift it ontoin all the right places, the deeply cut neck perfectly accenting flesh that had bloo

Standing before the full-length roooddess When I cocked my head to the side, the illusion was co necklace was destroyed, a plain twist offrom tarnished silver

My painted nails brushed"You couldn’t take it, anyway, nizable"

"And the dress isn’t?"