Page 106 of A Tale of Ice and Ash
Chapter Seventeen:
King of the Shadows
Cole had been missing for over a day, and no one knew where he was. The initial assumption was that he was in the company of a woman. Bianca had learned the hard way that using the Mirror to spy on her son was rarely a good idea, but he had never, ever been gone this long. She was growing frantic.
He would not do this to her without good reason. Something had happened to him.
She marched back into chambers and threw open the curtain around the mirror.
“Show me my son,” she demanded.
The Mirror’s face appeared briefly, and then twisted into smoke. No, not smoke, steam. Cole was in some kind of bath house, although she’d never seen one lit so luminously before.
Hewastangled in the arms of a woman. Awkward as the image was, the knot of fear in her stomach started to unwind… until the steam dispersed.
“No,” she breathed, “it’s not possible.”
Her son was with Eirwen, waskissingEirwen.
“Mirror!” she snapped. “This… this cannot be!”
“I assure you, my queen, this is as you see.”
“Then– then he’s under a spell! That wretch has cursed him somehow–”
The Mirror whirled, checking this for her. “The prince is under no spell. At least, none of magical origin.”
“What do you mean?”
“She could always have seduced him the old fashioned way.”
Bianca’s chest heaved. Of course. Of course that was it. She had powers like that of her own, the power to make men do whatever she wanted. There was no way Cole would willingly betray her. He’d been tricked, hoodwinked, manipulated. He would not be the first man to fall for a woman’s charm. There was no way he knew what he was doing.
“My Queen?” the Mirror prompted. “What do you wish to do?”
Bianca thought for a moment. Clearly, the attempt with the cursed armour hadn’t worked. She needed something absolute, something there would be no escape from. “Give me something that will utterly destroy her,” she said.
There was a flash of a smile. “As you wish, My Queen.”
∞∞∞
Eirwen had no idea how long they floated for, kissing and touching until her body felt numb. She had no idea why they stopped, or why she could still feel traces of him all over her even after she’d redressed. Her whole body was blushing. She could barely look him in the eyes as they resumed their journey.
“Snow,” started Cole.
“Um, yes?”
He ran a hand through his hair, looking curiously nervous. “I… I don’t know if I crossed a line and you’re regretting it, but… I don’t. I’m sorry if you do, but kissing you… it wasn’t a mistake. Not for me.”
“It… it wasn’t a mistake for me, either.”
“Oh, good,” he said, his shoulders dropping. “Was it… was it a… a one time thing? What happens in the Dwarven Underground, stays in the Dwarven Underground sort of thing?”
Eirwen looked down. “I’m… I’m not sure.”
“Right,” he said. “I… I would be open to more experimentation in future, if… if you wanted to become more sure, one way or another.”
Eirwen grinned. “I’ll bear that in mind.”
