Page 82 of A Tale of Ice and Ash
His face was tight with pain. “We’re not children anymore.”
“You will always be children to me.”
Eirwen gulped, choking down her tears. She clutched Niamh’s hand as fiercely as she dared, crushing it against her forehead. “Please, Niamhy, please don’t go…”
“It’s all right…”
“Stop saying that! This isn’t all right! This isn’t all right at all!”
Niamh smiled. “I wish I could have seen you beat her, after all this. But that wouldn’t have been enough. I would always have wanted to see the next thing, too. I used to dream of dressing you for your wedding,you know, of being there to help you with your first child…”
“Niamh…”
“It would have been an awfully pretty baby. No, it still will be, if that's what you want.You’llhave everything in life that you want. And you’ll have others with you. You will never be alone.”
The tightness in Eirwen’s chest expanded. “I don’t want others. I want you.”
“You’ll be fine, my darling girl…” She turned to Cole. “And you too, sweet prince. You’re a good boy…”
“Niamh!” Cole’s cry was strangled.
“Take care,” she whispered. “Always, always take care, of…”
“Niamh?” Eirwen’s voice was a ghost, a tortured, echoed sound. It couldn’t have come from her. She wasn’t here. This was not happening.
Niamh did not reply. Her glassy eyes stared at nothing.
“Niamh!”
Eirwen shook her.No, no, no, no…
Cole slumped onto the floor, his hand still tangled in Niamh’s. The blood streaked over his face as he placed his head in his hands and shuddered into a sob.
“She’s not gone,” Eirwen gushed. “She can’t be gone. She can’t. Not after…”
I just got her back. Five years. A handful of conversations since.
Not her. Please. Not her.
“Eirwen…” Cole placed a hand against her shoulder.
“No,” she shrugged him away, “no, no,no!”
She punched his chest, struggled against him, over and over until her fists felt weak and rubbery and the breath choked out of her. She fell into his arms, a mass of blood and tears and hands.
There were sounds in the corridor, guards running, calling out.
“You have to go,” Cole said, untangling himself from her grip. It was like something being ripped from her. The frayed edges of where her body had been tied to his ached like shredded flesh.
Her fingers were still coiled in his clothes. “Come with me,” she said. “Don’t… don’t stay here alone.”
Cole tensed beneath her. “I want to,” he said. “I want to go with you. But I can’t. I need to stay. I need to get her to call off the shades and find out what her next move is.”
“I don’t care about that!” she hissed. “She can have the throne! She can have anything! So long as she doesn’t take anyone else…”
“She won’t kill me.”
“What if I’m not willing to take that risk?”
