The Snow Prince - Raleigh Ruebins Page 0,2

he was from me.

After tomorrow, I was going to have to be away from Henry for three long weeks. Twenty-two days, to be exact. My mother was set to arrive tomorrow evening to take me back to the castle for the holidays.

Berrydale Village was all warmth and kindness. Simple people with simple lives. People who’d rather talk about mulch or pot roast or TV shows than international royal politics. People who didn’t only think about bloodline and lineage. A sense of normalcy.

Frostmonte Castle was… icy. Cold stone and long, grey corridors. It was massive, and beautiful in an austere way, but every time I was in the castle I ended up alone in my room, looking out the window down at the villages below, wishing I was back in Berrydale. The only home I actually cared about.

“Wait,” I said, taking a few steps forward and grabbing the sleeve of Henry’s jacket. I turned quickly and looked back at my aunt’s house, making sure she wasn’t in earshot.

“What’s up?” Henry asked. He was close to me now, and it took every ounce of control in me not to stare at his lips.

“I… I don’t want to do the same thing tonight,” I said, my voice hushed. “This is the last night I’m going to be here for a while.”

“You don’t want to do the same thing?” Henry said. “But you always do—”

“Come over tonight,” I blurted out.

He lifted an eyebrow. “You don’t think you’re going to get in trouble?”

I swallowed hard, pulling in a breath of icy air through my nostrils. “I can’t get in trouble if no one finds out.”

A slow smile spread over Henry’s face. He was always trying to get me to break the rules. Usually, I never gave in.

“Hell yes,” he said.

“Come to my bedroom window at eleven o’clock tonight,” I said. “Not ten. Not ten fifty-five. Eleven. Okay?”

He nodded. “Got it. Yes. Eleven.”

My stomach was doing somersaults already. If my aunt caught us, she would tell my mother, and my days in Berrydale might be over in a split second.

But Henry’s gaze was sparkling with excitement, the orange glow of my aunt’s house reflecting in the pale green of his eyes.

I’d do anything to make Henry’s eyes look like that. I wanted to look at that for the rest of my life. And it was clear that this already was making him very, very happy.

My teeth chattered as a breeze blew past. “Am I crazy? I’m already terrified,” I said.

“Don’t be. Love you, Sebastian.”

He was already walking off, practically skipping his way back across the yard.

It was ten fifty-two when I heard Henry’s soft knocking at my window. I clenched my jaw, tossing off my sheets in my dark bedroom. I tiptoed across the hardwood floor to the window, pushing open the curtains.

Henry’s face was right there behind the foggy glass. He was holding up a small bottle of something in one hand, shaking it at me.

I glanced back to the crack under my door, making sure my aunt and uncle had turned out the light in the hallway, which meant they’d gone to sleep. The coast was clear. I was actually going to have to go through with this.

I pushed open my window as slowly as humanly possible. I winced as the frame made a quick, sharp cracking sound, pausing as if it had been as loud as a gunshot.

“Come on,” Henry said from outside.

“Shh,” I hissed before I started again. Cold air rushed in as I opened the window all the way.

“It’s not even eleven yet,” I whispered at Henry, who was now poking his head in through my window.

“I tried my best,” Henry said.

“Well you’re fucking awful with time.”

“Oooh,” Henry said, a little too loudly. “So you curse like a sailor when it’s past your bedtime, too?”

“Fuck off,” I whispered. I smiled despite myself. “And yes, apparently.”

“Let me in,” Henry said. “I stole this orange liqueur stuff, which is probably going to suck, but we’re partying tonight.”

“What? No. You can’t come in here,” I said. “Let me get my coat. I’m coming out there.”

“But it’s colder than the Arctic tundra out here,” he protested.

“So?”

“So we’re going to hang outside even if it snows?”

I shrugged. “The cold’s never bothered you.”

His eyes searched my face. “Yeah, but I don’t want you to freeze,” he said. “Don’t hurt yourself just because you’re in the mood to break rules tonight, S.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “My coat is thick.”

“All right,” he said as he started to head