Page 51 of A Bond of Ice and Glass
Erax doesn’t hesitate.
Heleaps, landing on one of the creatures mid-air. His blade slices through the rider’s chest as the dragon screams and disintegrates beneath him. They burst into ash that floats on the wind in a flurry.
“That’s one,” he grunts, landing in a crouch.
Another shadow-dragon whips Noble with its tail, sending him crashing against the inn before he can move out of the way. The stone crumbles behind Noble. Two wraiths shriek and shatter into dust when he hits the ground, his blades buried in their skulls. His weapons clatter beside him.
“That’s… two,” he gasps out. “Already… beating you… Ha.”
Erax scoffs at him, but there’s a smile tugging at his lips. I can tell he’s missed his friend. I wish Noble had never betrayed him.
I watch them fight, half in amazement, the other half in fear. They’ve completely fallen in sync with each other, slashing and parrying with perfectly timed movements. It’s like a dance they’ve done a million times before.
“Think we’ll survive this one?” Noble asks, pulling his blade out from another wraith.
Erax saves him from being lunged at by two more. He uses his power to incinerate them.
“Not with that technique, you won’t. But I will.”
“Oh, yeah?” Noble ducks from an arrow twisted in shadows. “What makes you think that?”
Erax looks at me then, and my heart leaps.
“Because I have my wife waiting for me.”
Just when I thought he couldn’t make me want him more, Erax saysthat.
But he’s bleeding. His shirt is torn, and the claw marks on his shoulder drip blood down his arm.
“I can help,” I say, glancing at Nymala, my voice desperate. “Let me help them.”
“Youarehelping.” She looks at them bringing down a dragon together. “Don’t you see how he fights for you? Every move, every enemy defeated—that’s all for you. They’rebothfighting for you.”
I follow her gaze to where Noble slides under a wraith.
He slits its neck with a flick of his wrist, then his eyes cut back to the orb.
They don’t land on me. They land on Nymala.
She follows his every move, and for the first time ever, I see her nervous.
She cares about him.
I thought they hated each other.
“I don’t think Noble is fighting for me,” I say.
Nymala blinks at me, her cheeks flushing. She doesn’t say anything.
“Every move? Every enemy defeated?” I quirk a brow at her, turning back to the fight. “That’s for you.”
The last dragon tries to crush Noble under its talons, but Erax shoves him aside and takes the hit himself, slamming into rubble. Noble slashes its underbelly and drags Erax to his feet.
“See?” he pants. “It’s your technique that needs work.”
Suddenly, a whip made of shadow wraps around Noble’s throat and pulls him back. Erax slices him free and then grins down at him.
“You were saying?”
