Prologue. A Frozen Heart

Not too many things scared Pearly Soames, but to say he was scared now was an understatement. The scene before him was mortifying. From the cliff he'd watched as the girl fell through a sheet of thin ice and his mortal enemy ducking his hands into the water. In that moment when she fell, he'd forgotten to breathe, to move, to live even. He stood frozen as the ice. How could he have let this happen? How could he have been so stupid, so blind?

Karma truly was a bitch…

Peter looked up helplessly at Pearly from his spot on the lake, Athansor the white horse standing a safe distance away. The younger thief also looked terrified, but shook his head as if to tell Pearly that this wasn't what it obviously looked like. But it was clear that his former boss didn't believe him. There was anger in his electric eyes, a rage of anger, the likes of which that Peter Lake had never seen from him. But behind that anger, that rage, there was something that he'd never, ever thought he'd ever see from Pearly. It was sadness, grief. Peter couldn't describe it as anything less than pure heartbreak, rivaling only his own for his beloved Beverly.

That's when the truth became painfully obvious to Peter Lake. Pearly Soames, wicked and evil as he was, had somehow come to care for this girl that Beverly had considered another sister. Frantic now, Peter started to try breaking more of the ice up to get the girl out of the freezing water. Athansor helped by smashing the ice with his hooves, determined as Peter to get the girl out. When the hole was just big enough, Peter ducked his entire upper body into the water, searching for her. At last, his hand found another's and he held it tightly as he pulled.

But even Athansor seemed to know that it was much too late. Peter pulled her out of the water, keeping her close in a vain attempt to warm her. But it was far, far too late.

Cassiel Lorraine Wright was dead.

Pearly even saw it and his blood only seemed to run colder under his skin, turning almost into ice, but burned with his anger and grief. His hands balled into fists, his short nails digging into his palms so hard they almost bled. A part of him supposed it was poetic justice for killing Beverly Penn before her time. But the other, more human part of him, screamed at him for his own foolishness and idiocy. If only he hadn't gotten so angry with her…

NO! No, he didn't do anything wrong! He had every right to be angry, as the girl had tried to make him weak, to make him completely human. It had been her own fault for being afraid! And Peter Lake, well, he was just as bad, if not more so than she. He hadn't tried to rescue her, no. He'd been the one to hold her under! It was revenge, and revenge was a dish best served cold. But even so, the girl's death stung him more than he knew it should've, but Cassie, as he so liked to call her, had reached something in him. It was like she'd reached into the cold, dark recesses of what was left of his heart and filled it with an emotion he didn't dare name. But she was gone and all there was…was nothing.

"Curse you!" Pearly yelled out, "Damn you!"

Peter heard but didn't reply as he placed the girl's body on Athansor's back, crying silently, having lost two people he cared for in such a short time. On the cliff, Pearly reached for his pistol as the white horse rose and flew up. He didn't fire a single shot, as Athansor came back down to the cliff, landing only a few feet from him. While shooting the damn horse would've brought him a small bit of sick satisfaction, Pearly could hardly move now and only found the strength to toss his weapon away. Athansor lowered himself and allowed Pearly to take the girl from his back, knowing that if anyone could give her a proper, deserving burial, it was the one she loved. He took the girl into his arms gently, almost reverently, like she was only asleep rather than dead. Pearly didn't notice the horse take off again, as his world was condensed to this one crucial, and indescribably painful, point.

Pearly Soames' heart, not just his whole world, was cold, frozen, and dead in his arms. In this moment, he was just a man. A man with nothing left to lose…