Chapter 2

J ack held the door open for me as a blustery wind bit at my exposed fingers and nose. I shivered and drew my cloak around me even tighter, acutely aware of the absence of Kodiak’s warm fur. Once outside, I hesitated. Walking away from my dog felt like leaving half of my heart behind. Since Mother’s death five years ago, Kodiak had been my constant companion. I hadn’t ever realized how isolated I would feel without him. My clothing was slightly stiff in places where streaks of Kodiak’s blood had dried during the extended time in Beryl’s shop, but as the fabric had been red to begin with, none of the blood was visible.

“So how is it that you’re so knowledgeable about mage laws?” Jack’s gaze raked my hairline for any trace of white. “You aren’t a mage.” He busied himself untying his dogs from where they were staked and detangling the harnesses.

Unsure if he expected me to get into his sled or not, I hung back. The castle wasn’t far; I would be able to walk the rest of the way by mid-morning if I needed to. Now that Kodiak was stabilized, my reservations about being alone with an unfamiliar man surfaced. Not far down the road, I saw a line of eight bleary-eyed milkmaids traipsing along toward a barn. “My father was one of the ten lords, and he had a special interest in mage rights. He always said that withholding rights from mages was a detriment to society.”

Jack turned, the gang line in his gloved hands. “You don’t mean Lord Cedric Frost, do you?”

I nearly stumbled in the snow. “Yes. Did you know him?”

“Very well. We worked together drafting several laws; did he…did he never mention me?”

My eyes bulged. “You’re that Jack? I had no idea…Father never mentioned an age, just that he was working with one of the prince’s advisors named Jack. I assumed it was someone much older.” Giddy excitement flooded through me, tingling my fingers and toes. It was as though I was back home in front of the fireplace on those evenings when Father read off the bits of drafted laws to me and articulated how they would help the merchants to have the added support from mages and how they would help businesses grow. “I can’t believe it; you must’ve been working with him for the last ten years, but you can’t be that much older than I am. How could you get the experience?”

The little remainder of Jack’s frosty demeanor melted under my rapt attention. He leaned forward conspiratorially and jerked his eyes up toward where his shock of pure-white hair flopped into his eyes. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve been a mage all my life.”

I laughed, unable to feel the cold as warmth blossomed in my chest. He had known my father and had worked with him on the same issues my father and I had shared a passion for. My stepmother had always put on a grand act of paying attention anytime Father rambled on about mage rights, but inevitably, she would end up penning letters or engrossing herself in a book by the discussion’s end. Other than a few overexaggerated bits of flattery about how my father’s passion for advocating for suppressed populations had caught her eye from the beginning, she never contributed anything substantial to the conversations.

“Cedric said he had a daughter who founded a school for young mages, but I never thought we would meet; my duties require me to stay close to the castle, but I had always wondered…” Jack ran a hand through his hair, displacing the bits of snow that had settled there. I couldn’t tear my eyes off him, desperately curious to know what he had been thinking. “Get in. I’ll take you the rest of the way.”

Any misgivings I may have had about being alone with a strange man vanished on the spot. Jack handed me into the sled and slid down next to me. A peppermint scent lingered about his person, and I found myself drawn to it. Despite it being pitch black and well past midnight with no sign of dawn on the horizon yet, the exhaustion I knew should have come was still held at bay by the excitement of my new discovery.

“Mush!” Jack shouted, and we were off.

“Tell me,” I asked eagerly. “How did you manage to get a position as the prince’s advisor at such a young age? Father made it sound as though you’ve been the one proposing the majority of changes on laws about mages to the other nine lords.”

“A gross exaggeration,” Jack answered in embarrassment. “My mother was the queen’s handmaiden and I’m only a little older than the prince, so he and I became friends. The king and queen had already been working on amending laws, and it looked good to have a mage as a member of staff. Cedric was really the mastermind behind all those laws.”

“But they ask your opinion with each proposed bill. Father told me.”

“Well, I am a mage, so I can give an insider’s perspective.”

I stared at him in awe. Meeting him was so surreal; it was as though one of the characters from my bedtime stories had come to life. Father had talked about Jack so much, but it had always been from a professional point of view. I had passed those tales onto my students, who had all begged for me to tell them again and again, delighted at the idea of a mage who wasn’t rejected by society and instead rose to a position of prominence.

“Cedric talked a great deal about you,” Jack told me. “He was very proud of all your accomplishments.”

“Which all pale in comparison to yours,” I protested. “Royal advisor, mage with ice magic, clearly an accomplished dog team handler…”

“Says the woman who founded a school on her own, won multiple ice skating awards at ten years old, and trained dogs for agility competitions when she was twelve. You’re the amazing one. I just have white hair, was born in a convenient location, and made friends with the right people.”

I blushed, slightly embarrassed but also secretly pleased by his praise. A fluttering in my chest warmed me; Jack remembered what my father had told him about me. “I didn’t found the school on my own. Father helped. It seems that we can both agree that we both think the other is far superior to ourselves?”

Jack flashed a grin that showed off teeth just as white as his hair. “I can agree to that. Haw! ”

The team veered to the left, pulling the sled’s runners smoothly through the snow. The jingle bells fastened to the sides chimed merrily. Basking in the relief that Kodiak would recover soon, I continued to joke with Jack as we sped toward the castle, traveling much faster than I ever would have on foot, and we pulled into the castle’s dog yard just as the sky began shifting from inky black to velvety blue, hinting at dawn. I stole a look at the heavens. It must have taken much longer to patch Kodiak up than I thought.

“Easy, easy,” Jack called to the dogs, slowing them until he finally let out a long, “Whoa.” The sled skidded to a halt as Jack set the brake.

“Give me a few minutes,” Jack said, patting each dog in line, who all had tongues lolling out and panted hard. “Good girl, Shooki. Nice hustle, Nanook.”

“What are all their names?” I asked, unable to resist patting their heads as well.

“The lead is Ace, then the swing dogs are Yeti and Shooki. The others are Belinda, Nanook, Cinder, Sierra, and Rocky.”

I bent down to help strip off the booties that protected the dogs’ paws from becoming too packed with snow.

“You said you needed to come to the castle, but only said that it wasn’t for the prince’s bride competition. What is it for?”

“Oh, right.” In the excitement of meeting Jack, I had all but forgotten my purpose in setting out in such a foolhardy manner. “Before my father passed away, he said that he was going to pass his estate to me so I would be the next lord and also be able to use the funds to continue keeping the school open. But his will and all his documents vanished the same day he died, and I have reason to suspect my stepmother had a hand in it.”

“Do you have any proof? And are you suggesting your stepmother took the will, or that she had a hand in his passing?”

“No, I don’t think she’s responsible for his passing,” I admitted grudgingly. “She wouldn’t have done that, even if she doesn’t like me, but I also didn’t think she would leave me abandoned on a forest road yesterday. Father had been ill for a year before he met Valencia, and he seemed to be getting better. His death was sudden, but the doctors all said it was his illness from before. I don’t have any proof that Valencia took the will, either. But why would the documents vanish otherwise? There is no one else who would lay claim to the estate, and she was the one who revoked the funding and had the school closed.”

“It does seem suspicious,” he agreed. “What did your stepmother say about it?”

“She denied everything. When I questioned her, she broke down crying and asked why I was badgering a newly widowed woman who was still in mourning.”

Jack tsked quietly. “I can see how that would be effective in deterring prying questions. Did they have a reason for leaving you last night?”

“You have to be nobility to compete, correct? My guess is that if the estate passes to me, my stepmother and stepsisters won’t have titles anymore and can’t compete. I’m assuming they wanted to ensure that they would be entered.”

“But you said you don’t care about participating in the balls?”

“No. I heard that the archives keep records of wills and other legal documents and I planned to search them. It’s why I was so eager to come with my stepfamily when they said they would be attending.”

“ Sometimes they keep records,” Jack clarified with an apologetic shrug. We had finished unharnessing the dogs and unfastening all of their paw coverings. While I stored the booties in the compartment Jack showed me, he wrapped the gang line and tug lines into neat coils and hung them on the wall. “But only when things are submitted with the proper credentials. It’s a legal nightmare to get anything processed in a timely manner, if I’m being completely honest.”

“Yes, I know. Father and I had to go through a mountain of paperwork just to get our school’s license approved. It rather felt like he and I had to leap through flaming hoops to get the license originally, and now if I can’t get it renewed in the next six days, it will expire and the school will be closed permanently, or at least until I start all the paperwork over again. And if that’s the case, I have to have a lord’s approval for it. If I’m named the next lord in his will, I can approve it myself, but that means I need to find the records.” I massaged my temples. “It gives me a headache even thinking about it.”

“Ah, yes. About the records room…” Jack took a deep breath. “It’s off-limits to all but the most senior of staff here. I can’t promise that a copy of Cedric’s will would even be here, and with the balls, all the staff are busy. If you intend to press charges, there won’t be anyone to help with that until the balls are over.”

“How long would you say that will take?”

“A week. There are several balls and a feast, and…” Jack hesitated. “If you aren’t participating, you won’t be permitted to stay. The head steward has been very strict ab out that rule. He says he has enough to deal with at the moment.”

I bit my lip, staring at three stray hens that had perched themselves up in the rafters, far from the dogs’ sharp teeth. My stepmother would easily be able to forge a new will in that time and the deadline to renew the school’s license would expire by then. I couldn’t afford to wait any longer, and the longer these proceedings were drawn out, the longer my students went without an education. If I only had enough time to search for the records or find someone to talk to about funding… “Can I compete so I can stay, then drop out later?”

Jack held his hand up to his chest in feigned shock. “A damsel who doesn’t wish to wed a prince tells his advisor when said advisor is in charge of eliminating contestants?”

I grinned mischievously. “Eliminating innocent young girls? How do you ever expect to improve the public’s perception of mages if you go around killing anyone you dislike?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “You know what I meant.”

“Do I? I did only just meet you last night. For all I know, you could be one of those untrustworthy men that women are always warned about.”

Jack laughed. “I guess I’ve been called far worse. To answer your questions, yes, you can sign up and drop out later. All you have to do is prove that you’re a noblewoman and sign some forms stating that you understand competing does not guarantee marriage to the prince.”

My mouth twitched. “Can contestants be any age? I know plenty of eighty-year-old women who are nobles and very eligible. I’m sensing a lot of flaws already.”

“No eighty-year-old women as far as I know, and the prince does get to choose, you know. I can’t imagine that he would be wildly attracted to any woman four times his age.”

“What sort of tests are in the competition?”

Jack’s white eyebrows jumped up on his forehead. “Oh, and now you expect me to divulge information and give you an unfair advantage over the other girls? You’ll have to rely on more than just your looks if you want to weasel that sort of information out of me.”

“I didn’t realize you had noticed my looks,” I told him with a shifty side glance.

Jack’s pale complexion did nothing to hide the intense flush that burned on his cheeks, which made his electric-blue eyes stand out even more in the early dawn. “Not that I—I mean, I wasn’t…if you think…”

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I noticed your looks too,” I teased.

“Now see here,” Jack spluttered, hastily backing away from me into his pack of dogs, who all wound between his legs and brushed against his sides. “You can’t just go around saying things like that.”

“I don’t usually listen when someone tells me I can’t do things. There’s nothing wrong with a little harmless flirting.”

“There is when you’re flirting with a mage,” he answered solemnly. “And it isn’t you who would get in trouble for it.”

My heart sank as my heady recklessness faded, instantly replaced by regret. I’d been so swept away in the moment that I’d quite forgotten that there were still laws forbidding mages from entering into courtship with non-mages. Of course Jack would be wary of giving any appearances of flirting. He could lose his position or even be imprisoned for such an offense .

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I…I didn’t think before I spoke.”

Jack’s jaw tightened. For several minutes, he busied himself with wiping down his sled. I couldn’t think of anything to say, nor could I find anything to do besides stand and awkwardly remember my foolish and hasty comments that might have alienated him before our friendship had done anything more than bud. My heart pounded, willing Jack to forgive me. It cast into reflection all the things I took for granted, like the ability to be courted by anyone. At least, I amended in my mind, I could be courted by anyone other than a mage. Jack had no one. Of course, he could court another mage if he could find one, but when mages only accounted for maybe one birth in several hundred, finding a girl his age that he was compatible with was next to impossible. My school was tiny compared to others, with only a dozen mage pupils, and they ranged from five years old to eighteen.

After he finished wiping down his sled and got it propped against the wall, Jack relaxed slightly and the sparkle returned to his eye. “Judging by all your actions from today, I get the impression that not thinking before speaking might be common for you.”

“Only judging by my actions? Meaning that my father never said I was impulsive? It’s like he didn’t know me at all.”

His smile broadened. “Cedric did mention that a time or two.” He finished securing the ropes to hold the sled firmly in place before he turned to me. “You should enter. I’d be willing to help you look into the situation with your father’s will, and if you ended up with Prince Stephen, then you wouldn’t even need an inheritance. You would be able to open a hundred schools. ”

“Will you have time to help me? Being an advisor, especially during the balls, must be demanding.”

“I’ll find the time.” Jack’s eyes softened as he looked at me. “I did know your father, after all.”

“You’re doing so much for me; what can I do for you? I don’t want you to think of me as a charity case.”

His lips pressed into a thin line. “I wouldn’t say no if you convinced the king to grant full rights to mages.”

“I would do that anyway. I could…I could give you an ice skating lesson or help you with your dogs.” I cast around for another idea, my eyes begging him to recognize my attempt at making up for putting him in an uncomfortable situation. Besides, if he didn’t accept any help from me after he had saved Kodiak from a wolf attack, gotten him medical care, and brought me to the castle, I didn’t think I could ever ask for his help again. I already owed him too much.

“I don’t think I’d be a particularly graceful ice skater, but I may take you up on the offer as long as you promise not to laugh at me.”

“I promise.”

“In that case, I accept. Let’s get you signed up for this bride competition.”

“I thought you said it wasn’t a competition.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Forget I called it that. As long as I’m one of the prince’s advisors, I’m not allowed to say anything other than ‘a week of balls’, but”—he shot me a sly grin—“only one girl will make it to the end without being asked to leave. You can decide for yourself if it’s a competition or not.”