Page 49 of A Bond of Ice and Glass
“I never wanted to hurt you,” Noble whispers back.Liar. “And Loch doesn’t want to hurt you. He wants tocontrolyou. Possess you. I think the ether is driving him nuts. He’s past saving now.”
A loud bang splits across the inn. The wooden beams tremble, as if the land itself is being torn apart, and smoke roars through the windows in black gusts. My fingers and toes feel numb, but I know it’s not from the cold.
My magic writhes beneath my skin, wild and angry.
I need to help Erax.
I push Noble outside as fast as I can. The moment the fresh air hits me, Erax turns, and his face twists in rage. His eyes burn on Noble.
“I told you to protect her!”
“A little hard to do that with her knife at my back,” he answers dryly. “And the inn falling apart.”
Erax glances at the building. The entire roof and front wall have been ripped off.
The wraith screams like a dying cat. Erax slits a knife through one of the wraith’s throats. The creature shrieks before it explodes into ash. “Where—is he?!”
Another dragon lands on the ground. Except this shadow is bigger, darker, with glowing red eyes. The shadows seem to snap and twist around it like they’re a living, breathing thing. Lochlan slides off its back, his expression calm, while fire dances dangerously close to his skin. He walks through the flames like they’re nothing. The shadow-dragon behind him snarls but doesn’t move, like it’s been chained to him.
“Maelena.”
His voice is soft again, so like Lochlan, that it hurts to hear my name on his lips.
I turn my knife to him, but Noble steps in my way. Erax is already moving. His fire bursts in a ring around us, crackling so hot it scorches the ground.
“Say her name again,” he warns, slow and lethal, “and I’ll rip your tongue out through your dick.”
His voice is low, shaking with barely contained rage. He steps forward, just once. Enough to make the ground crack under his boots.
“She doesn’t want you,” he growls. “She choseme. Not because I made her. Not because I fucking lied to her. But because she wanted me. Not you.”
Fire coils up his arm like a serpent, hissing and cracking.
“Look at you. You’re no threat,” he sneers at him. “You’re just a parasite with a fucking god complex. You’re unworthy of her and always will be.”
Loch just smiles at him. Even his smile looks like the old Loch, but there’s something different about it. Something dark and vicious.
“We don’t need to fight. Just leave her alone,” Noble says, snapping Loch’s attention to him. “You’ve hurt her enough. This wasn’t part of the plan.”
“Neither was you betraying me, Noble, and yet you did,” Loch drawls at him, hate poisoning his voice.
He lifts his hand, and Noble flies backwards into the air.
He slams into the inn with acrack, groaning as he slumps to the floor. I instinctively run towards him, but Loch’s hand snaps up again, and my feet stop moving. Shadows creep out from the ground and wrap around my ankles and legs, rooting me down.
“You don’t belong to them, Lena. You were mine. You still are.”
My magic stirs inside me, angry and writhing. I try to summon it, but the frost just melts through my fingers. It’s like he’s suppressing my power.
“You feel it, don’t you?” he says, smiling hopefully at me. “That burning in your chest? That pull to be with me?”
“I feel only betrayed by you. How could you do that to me, Loch? I trusted you!”
A bright flash moves in the corner of my eye.
“Let her go, you void-kissed snake.”
Nymala.
