6. Ivory Tower

Chapter 6

Ivory Tower

ELIO

M usic blares down the stairwell of the tower as I hammer the white and black keys in a soothing, familiar tempo. The smooth ivories glide under my fingertips, cold and familiar, my soul never quite at peace but here, lost in the melody.

From the highest window of a castle frozen in time, I see them spread around the gardens below, crawling all over my lands like ants… Another year. Another wedding.

A fresh round of the curse that started in this very room.

I haven't slept in the baldaquin bed by the window in decades, and yet everything is still here. Wilted daffodils bow to my misery, Iris's hoop earrings still laying on the bedside table. I know what the other courts—even my own subjects—whisper about me.

They say I'm desperate to forget my first love.

They say I've gone insane.

They're not wrong.

I slam the key cover down and retreat to the depths of the icy tunnels and secret passageways running under my castle. In here, I don't have to hide who I am and take solace in these last few moments of clarity.

For the next seven days, I'll have to speak like a man. Dress like a man. Eat like a man and smile to the cameras. Fuck a pretty girl to appease my people—and the powers that be.

A girl I'll only end up killing. My kingdom needs a queen, and so I marry. Every year I marry, and suffer.

Every year, I lose her all over again.

This endless curse is meant to punish me for what I've done—with no hope of release. As Winter King, death shall never come for me. For me, death never ends.