The Snow Vampire by Michael G. Cornelius

for the funds, your father… has agreed that, when she is of age, I will be wed to your sister.”
    Hendrik was right. This I did not understand. I dropped his hand and immediately began to walk away from him, further down the mountain.
    “Ferenc! Ferenc!” Hendrik called, chasing after me. Running, he caught me quickly, his hand on my shoulder to stop me. “Please! Let me explain!”
    “Explain!” I roared. “What is there to explain? This—this—” But I had no words to describe the situation, or how I felt. “You could not have mentioned this sooner?” I finally said, my voice a hoarse whimper of hurt and pain.
    “Ferenc, please,” Hendrik said. He placed his forehead against mine. How I wanted to push him off, push him away from me. But I was powerless to resist him, even in that moment. “You must understand. This is not of my choosing.”
    “Then end it,” I said. “Tell your father you will not do it. Marry someone else.” I paused, panting to catch my breath. “Anyone else. Please.”
    “I wish there were some other way,” Hendrik said. “But what happened with Andros, my dancer…. He boasted of his newfound fortune. Many people heard the tale. Everyone whispered of it. It was a scandal throughout the city. Even with my father’s wealth, no well-regarded young woman would ever think of marrying me.”
    I fell to my knees. I could not hear this. I did not want to hear this. Hendrik dropped to his knees beside me.
    “That is why my father wrote to your family in the first place. To see if there were any eligible daughters. In his mind, as distant relations, your line would prove respectable enough to wed into the family. And out here, no one would know of—of what I had done.”
    “No one would know,” I repeated. “But I would know, Hendrik. I would know!”
    “I know, dearest. Shh, I know,” he said, cradling my head in his arms. The tears flowed freely now, and I did not care if he saw them. “Please, you must understand, I did not expect ever to find you here! You! My beautiful boy, my wish come true…. Please, Ferenc, I would never cause you any pain, not willingly. You must please try to understand.”
    “But don’t do it,” I said. “Marry someone else. Another girl in the village. But not Alona.”
    “I cannot,” he said. “Father would not allow it. And besides, if I do not marry Alona, he will not help your family. You will lose the mine, your home…. You will starve. Your entire village will suffer. And I cannot allow that to happen.” He took my chin in his hands, forced me to look him in the eyes. “After all, now I am married into this family. And I must take care of them. It is my duty as husband.” There was comfort in his words—cold comfort, but comfort nonetheless.
    “It is not fair,” I finally whispered.
    “No, no it is not,” he agreed. “But it is the way of the world amongst those such as us.”
    I sighed, clearing my eyes and my mind. “Then the world is a cruel and wicked place,” I finally said.
    “Oh, dearest,” Hendrik said, cradling me in his arms once again. “I had hoped to spare you that lesson for many, many years to come.”
     
     
    F ROM that moment forward, my life was irrevocably changed. Hendrik became the source of all my joys—the source of my laughter, my happiness, my glee. But I soon learned that wrapped within that joy were a hundred stings and shocks, the constant reminders of how the world would view us if only it knew. Even on that day, that day of our joining, Hendrik sent me back to the village first, to sneak back in unaccompanied as if I had been amongst the searchers all along. It was only an hour later when he returned alone and presented himself apologetically to his father.
    I had thought Uncle Sandor would be furious beyond imagining at the sight of Hendrik, and indeed, he initially was. Hendrik later told me that his father had cursed him on the spot, declaring him to be dead in his eyes. But once Hendrik