Page 34 of A Bond of Ice and Glass
“So eager already, huh?”
My blood chills.
“Y-you…” I stutter in panic. “You’re?—”
“Your husband,” Erax finishes. “Your king. Two things they tried to take from me. Never again.”
He takes another step, each one deliberate.
“I told you I’d come for you, Mist. No one in this realm can keep me from what’s mine.”
I shake my head, heart slamming against my ribs, unable to believe what he’s saying.
Unable toacceptit.
“I’m not going with you,” I choke out.
“Oh, yes, you are.”
Erax makes his way towards me slowly, magic curling and hissing around his hands again.
“I’ve come a long way. Bled for you, burned for you, remember? I’m not leaving without my wife.”
“I saidno!”
My own magic explodes out of me.
Sheets of ice splinter across the floor and up the walls like frozen webs, the room turning to frost.
Erax watches it unfold, then murmurs, “Your magic. It’s waking, isn’t it? Freyren is still protecting you.”
Freyren. That name again.
“Get away from me!” I scream.
This time, when he looks at me, it’s not with hunger or awe. It’s with rage.
“I hoped you wouldn’t make me do this,” he says, his voice dangerously low, as more shadows gather around him like blades. “Then again, you never did surrender easily, did you?” A bitter laugh. “I was a fucking idiot to think you would.”
He lifts his hand, his expression twisted between fury and a tinge of regret.
And then Ifeelit.
First in my chest. Then in my blood.
The slow, agonising pain of his magic searing and clashing with my own, trying to smother it.
The last thing I see before I pass out is my husband’s eyes—one gold, one green—and his voice is whispering to me like a promise mixed with a prayer:
“Remember me when you wake up, Mist.”
But I don’t want to remember him.
I want to forget everything. The fire. The blood.
Our bond.
Chapter 11
