Chapter 31: Frost Sovereign

They lay tangled together on the cold stone floor, completely spent.

Selene’s head rested on Arthur’s chest, her silver-white hair spilled across his skin like silk. Both of them were naked, bodies still flushed and marked from the hours they had spent lost in each other. Sweat cooled on their skin. The barrier around them remained perfectly clear, showing the bloodstained treasury floor outside and the two corpses that still stared with empty eyes. Neither of them cared anymore.

Arthur’s breathing was slow and deep. Selene’s fingers traced lazy circles over his heart. For the first time in years the constant, crushing cold inside her body was gone. She felt light. Warm. Alive.

Then the black book lying beside them pulsed once.

Pink-gold light flared across the first blank page. Letters burned into existence, rearranging themselves as the Codex worked.

[ABILITY: ICE QUEEN]

[CHANGING GENDER TO MATCH THE HOST...]

[ABILITY: FROST SOVEREIGN]

[MASTERY: 35%]

[DURATION: PERMANENT]

[SLOTS FILLED: 2/7]

A soft wave of coldness radiated from Arthur’s skin. It was not painful. It was clean, controlled, and completely different from the poison that had lived inside Selene for so long. She felt it immediately. Her head lifted from his chest. Ice-blue eyes widened as she stared down at him.

"What... what is that coldness coming from you?"

Arthur looked at the open book, then back at her face. He did not want to lie to her. Not after everything she had just given him. Not after she had used her own body as a shield.

He chose the half-truth carefully.

"Sometimes my Grimoire absorbs things," he said quietly. "Powers. Conditions. The frostbite that was freezing your mana pathways... it got pulled into the book. That’s why you feel light now. The poison is gone from you."

Selene’s expression shifted from confusion to pure panic in less than a second.

"No." She pushed herself up on one elbow, ignoring the pain in her wounded leg. "No, you can’t. That frostbite hurts more than anything. It freezes you from the inside. Why would you take it? Give it back. Right now. You don’t have to suffer for me."

Her voice cracked. Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. The proud, untouchable Ice Queen looked almost desperate.

Arthur stared at her for a moment. Then he laughed softly.

The sound made her freeze.

He reached up with both hands and gently pinched her cheeks, pulling them outward the way someone would tease a child. Selene’s eyes went wide with shock. Her lips formed a small, pouty shape under his fingers.

"Don’t worry," he said, still smiling. "It won’t harm me. My Grimoire already adapted it. I’ll be able to use ice-related magic now. Properly. Without the poison."

Selene stared at him. The panic slowly melted away. A soft, happy smile spread across her face, shy and genuine. She looked younger somehow. Softer.

"Really...?"

"Really."

From inside the book Mimi watched them both. For a second her usual bright expression turned warm and happy. Then it shifted into something quieter. A sad little smile. She did not speak. She simply watched the two of them on the floor, as if memorizing the moment.

Arthur’s gaze drifted lower.

Selene was still completely naked, sitting half on top of him. Her full breasts rose and fell with every breath. The faint bruises from the rock needles only made the soft curves of her body look more real. Her waist was narrow. Her hips flared. Between her thighs the evidence of everything they had done was still visible.

He smirked.

"If we don’t get dressed soon, those two might actually come back and see the Ice Queen naked on top of a first-year student."

Selene’s face turned bright red. She made a small, embarrassed sound and lightly slapped his chest with the back of her hand.

"Shut up..."

But she was smiling.

They started dressing.

Selene’s original instructor coat was ruined. Torn in multiple places, stained with blood and other things. She looked at it for a second, then simply threw it aside. From a plain silver ring on her right hand a soft light glowed. A neatly folded blue dress appeared in her palm.

Arthur stared.

"What is that?"

"Spatial ring," Selene answered, already stepping into the new dress. "It can store items in a separate space. Clothes, weapons, even food. I’ll ask Master for another one for you later."

She pulled the blue one-piece dress up over her body. The fabric settled against her curves perfectly, elegant and simple at the same time. The color made her silver hair and ice-blue eyes stand out even more. She looked refined. Beautiful. Completely different from the bloodied, desperate woman who had been moaning under him minutes ago.

Arthur’s eyes stayed fixed on her.

"You look beautiful."

Selene’s cheeks turned pink again. She glanced at his still-naked body, then cleared her throat.

"Get dressed already."

"Help me."

She sighed, but the corner of her mouth twitched upward. She walked over, picked up his academy uniform from the floor, and began helping him into it. Her fingers were careful around the places where his skin still felt sensitive. When she finished tying the last fastening she stepped back and looked him over.

Arthur adjusted the collar. The familiar black and gold of House Dawn settled against his frame.

They both turned toward the transparent barrier that still locked them inside the empty space in front of the treasury door.

The two corpses lay outside. The vault door was still half-open. Somewhere deeper inside, Tom and Selby were searching for whatever item they had come for.

Arthur stared at the shimmering wall of magic that kept them trapped.

"Now what do we do with this?"