Page 37 of A Bond of Ice and Glass
“I will never promise to not kill that piece of shit. Him and his backstabbing brother. Do you remember what they did? How they pushed me to the brink of death? How I nearly fucking died and had to watch as they tore you away from me? Me and you, Mist, have so many secrets. I think we are choking on them, and I’m fucking done. When you’re ready to learn everything that happened to this kingdom, what the truth is about your parents? Ask me.” He runs his eyes down to my lips again. This time he doesn’t lift his gaze. “Fuck, I can’t wait to kiss you. I’d kiss you right now if you remembered me.”
I turn away from him. “I won’t ask for the truth. You’d just lie.”
He looks right at me, the moonlight highlighting his hair so he almost looks like a god. Something unnaturally perfect and not destined for this world. “You are my queen, and I swear on my crown, I will never lie to you.”
The crown he burned and bled for.
He is a monster, a killer, and I should run away. But I don’t.
I wander into the forest with my king, wondering what I don’t know about my parents.
Chapter 12
NOBLE
Pain spreads through me, stabbing the back of my eyes like hot blades. I groan as I roll onto my side. Smoke fills the air, and something wet trickles down my forehead. Blood. I can taste it on my tongue.
That bastard. That motherfucking bastard knocked me out. How the fuck did Erax get so powerful?
At least he didn’t kill me. I fully expected Erax to kill me for stealing his wife.
Because if it were me, I wouldn’t have let the culprit live.
Goldeye is going soft on me. And the white hair? He made a deal with the dragons. There’s no other way to explain it, that kind of power and transformation. He used to talk about doing it years ago, but I never thought he’d actually do it.
Whatever he sacrificed to get that power… can’t be undone.
Fucking idiot. I hope he regrets every moment of it.
I try to sit up. My vision blackens from the effort, and I cough up blood. Shit. It feels like I’ve been kicked in the chest by a dozen angry horses. Motherfucker.
I fall back down again and close my eyes. Gods above, I’ve been through worse than this. I’ll get through it. I just need topace myself. I focus on my breathing, trying to steady it. My old man used to say if you focused hard enough, you could drown out your pain. What a bloody liar he was.
I try to straighten again. A shadow moves in the corner of my eye.
“Now isn’t this a flattering pose?” comes the dry, drawling voice.
I grind my teeth harder against the pain. And Nymala’s mocking voice.
“I’m not… in the fucking mood,” I groan out, blinking through the haze.
Nymala crouches beside me. Shit, there’s three of her. Three Nymalas. Gods help me.
“Tell me about it,” she says. “You never warned me that saving your ass would be part of my imprisonment.”
She grabs my arm and helps me sit up. I shrug her off, but not before catching the faint sigils glowing on her wrists where her binding cuffs had been. The cuffs are gone now. Probably melted by whatever magic Erax used to destroy my home. She must be bloody delighted.
The witch taps my face lightly with two fingers. “Still alive in there? I’d hate to haul your corpse through the tunnels. I’ve got better things to do.”
“Get. Off,” I growl at her, shoving her hand away.
“Charming,” she mutters, standing and offering me her hand anyway.
When I don’t take it, she grabs my shoulder and yanks me to my feet with surprising strength. She’s so tiny, I could easily crush her?—
The world tilts around me. Smoke coils outside the shattered window.
Right. The castle is burning. We need to get out of here.
