Pick which section do you like better for the back
cover for the hardcover:
Option 1:
“I know you, Ilyenna. Know you as I know the
language of the storms, the frost flowers that bloom in the ice, the sleeping
sighs of the bears in their caves. You think of yourself as a healer. But as a
winter queen, you will become a destroyer.”
Ilyenna could only stare at the terrible beauty of
the fairy.
Chriel fluttered her wings. “The powers of winter
will allow you to save yourself and the ones you love. But there is a price.
Before, you hadn’t become winter yet. To do so is to be reborn. And after that,
you’ll never break free.”
“I’ll no longer be human?” Ilyenna asked.
Chriel cocked her thimble-sized head to the side.
“You will give up your humanity. All of it—your memories, your emotions. You
will be shattered, melted down, and reformed into something new.” The fairy
paused, looking sad. “To save yourself and the ones you love, you will have to
lose them.”
Option 2:
The water was so cold it drove the
breath from Ilyenna, sending her whole body into a cramp. Her lungs burned with
fire. Trapped beneath the layer of ice, she slammed into the riverbed before
hurtling into the ice. The water dragged her along its jagged surface—so close
she could see the pale winter sky, the dark trees framing it like lace. She
clawed at the ice, numbly aware of the sting as one by one, her fingernails
were ripped off.
Then, by some miracle, the ice broke
above her. She bobbed along in the water, too weak and cold to fight the
current. She bumped against another sheet of ice, and the water started sucking
her down. Clawing at the icy snow, she bent herself in half over the ice. She
couldn’t pull her legs from the river. She dug into the crystallized snow with
her blue hands, trying to call for help. Her voice refused to work.
This is how I’m going to die, she thought.
