Chapter 1Winter's Reckoning

Five years after I'd successfully completed the conquest, the System suddenly pinged.

[The other player, Seraphina, is dead.]

The teacup in my hand slipped, shattering on the floor.

Seraphina was my best friend.

To pull me out of this medieval world, she had voluntarily bound herself to the System, agreeing to help me conquer the two main targets: the Archmage and the Crown Prince.

When we won, I chose to go home.

She, however, had fallen in love with the Archmage. She chose to stay.

That was five years ago.

How... how was she dead?

I finally heard my own voice, shaking. "Send me back."

"I'm going to drag that useless woman back home."

* * *

The world spun.

When I opened my eyes, I was back on the familiar, foreign streets of Avaloria.

But in the bustling crowd, there was no one to grab my hand and say, "Don't be afraid, Luna. I'm right here with you."

I found a horse and galloped toward the High Temple. The System said her body was still there.

In the temple's back hills, I found it: a single coffin, covered in fresh snow.

I stumbled from my horse, running toward it.

When I brushed the snow off the lid, I saw the dark, spattered stains. Blood.

My chest tightened. My hands were shaking. "Frost... what did they do to you..."

I pushed the lid. It grated open.

The stench of rot hit me.

I held my breath and looked inside.

She was just... lying there. Her face was paper-white. Her beautiful hair had been hacked off, left in ragged clumps. Her body was a roadmap of injuries, and her right sleeve... her right sleeve was empty, the stump at her shoulder horribly clean.

They had cut off her arm.

I saw it, and my legs gave out. I collapsed.

A thought, cold and sharp, cut through the grief.

Where was Kaelen? The Archmage?

When I left, they were disgustingly in love. She was pregnant.

How could she be here, and he... he hadn't even come to claim her body?

I forced myself up and rode for the Archmage's Tower.

The wind was a blade against my skin, but it was nothing compared to the ice in my heart.

The tower was... decorated. Red banners and lanterns. It was a celebration.

It was so wrong. I stood there, frozen, thinking I'd gone to the wrong place.

"What is this?" I grabbed a passing servant.

He yelped. "The... the Archmage is getting married! It's his wedding day!"

Married?

All the blood rushed to my head.

Seraphina's body wasn't even cold, and he was getting married?

I shoved the servant aside and kicked the doors open.

Kaelen was there, in ceremonial robes, standing before a strange woman. He was smiling.

I saw his smile, and all I could see was Frost's empty sleeve.

I lost it.

I stormed the altar and slapped him. Hard.

The woman in red screamed, "Who are you? How dare you strike the Archmage!"

I backhanded her, too. "Don't worry. There's plenty for you."

She stared, her eyes filling with tears. She grabbed Kaelen's sleeve. "Kaelen..."

He shielded her, his expression a complex mess. "Luna? How... why are you back?"

"Did she send you?" he snarled. "Did Seraphina send you to ruin my wedding to Lyra?"

You son of a bitch.

He moves on, and he dares to slander her name?

I hit him again. "You don't get to say her name, you bastard!"

"She's dead! She's lying in a box on the mountain, and you're here getting married!"

Kaelen froze, his face draining of color.

"What... what did you say? Frost... she's dead?"