Page 120 of A Tale of Ice and Ash
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The guards left shortly after, not saying farewell and taking the object with them before anyone could ask what it was. Uneasiness filled the space where relief should have been. It cluttered Cole’s thoughts as he took a moment to sit down and review any injuries. Nothing broken, a few cuts on his exposed chin, some definite bruising. The only one of significance was a slash across his cheek. It was still bleeding. He filled a rag with whiskey and tried to clean it.
“Here,” said Eirwen, dropping to his side, “let me.”
“Thank you.”
She dabbed the wound, her touch sending shivers through his skin.
“Will you need to stitch me up again?”
“I don’t think so. May end up with a slight scar though. It’ll be quite dashing.”
“Good looks not ruined forever then?”
“I’d need to remove your head for that. Which, admittedly, is tempting at times.” A smile flashed in the corner of her mouth. “Not right now, though.”
“You’re warming up to me.”
Eirwen blushed. “What… what you said earlier, to the captain of the guard, about your place being here… did you mean it?”
“Of course I did. Do you still not trust me?”
“That’s not it,” she said quickly. “Idotrust you. More than… I was just surprised, that’s all.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why does it surprise you that I want to stay with you? You have that effect on many people.”
“Yes, but…”
“But?”
“It’s different, with you. Everything is different with you.”
The tips of Cole’s fingers reached out to graze Eirwen’s, gently gliding over her knuckles. He slid his other hand underneath her chin, thumbing her cheek. “Everything’s different with you, too.”
Eirwen swallowed, dropping her gaze, her mouth half-open as though tripping on a word.
“Snow,” he said. “When you almost sacrificed yourself, and I saw you lying there–”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Did I scare you?”
He tilted her face towards him.I’d never known a terror like it. I stopped breathing. I felt like I’d died myself. Please don’t ever do something like that again. Please, please, please–
His mind jolted back to the day she went out to pick flowers and never returned. When the Huntsman appeared before his mother, torn and bloodied, Cole knew she was dead before the man had finished the sentence. Whether it was her loss or the sight of what he thought was her blood splashed against the Huntsman’s clothes, Cole wasn’t sure, but all the strength had rushed out of him and he’d ended up on the floor.
In the days and weeks that followed, he felt like sound had been sucked from the world. Music held no meaning. He didn’t play for months. She’d taken something from the palace when she left it that could never be replaced.
He had suspected that that was the worst he would ever feel about anything, ever. But it was worse, now. It wasn’t music she would take. It was light and warmth. Before, he’d managed to move on, her loss an awful storm in the summer of his life. If she left his side now, it would cast the rest of his life into shapeless shadow. There would be no summer again. There would be no seasons at all. Just a twisted, harrowingnothingwhere she used to be.
Everywhere.She was everywhere. In the caverns and the caves and stone and in his soul. Her existence permeated every fragment of his life, a living ghost touching every dream, every want, every desire he’d ever had and ever would.
Do not go from this world. Do not go from my side. Do not go anywhere that I cannot follow.
“Eira,” he started. It was all he could manage, as his face, his body, his entire everything, dropped towards her.
