Page 52 of A Bond of Ice and Glass
“I think… I liked you better… when you hated me,” Noble chokes out, gasping for air.
Erax helps him up, but his tone shifts. It drops lower.
“I still fucking hate you. Don’t get it twisted. I just didn’t have the time to kill you.”
“Funny,” Noble says, grinning at him. “I said something similar like that earlier. Maelenareallywanted to kill me.”
Erax stabs the last wraith in the skull. Silence follows, and the shield drops away. Smoke and ash swirl in the wind. I run to Erax.
But just as I reach him, he turns his blade on Noble.
“I warned you what I’d do if you ever touched my wife.”
Chapter 16
Silence echoes throughout the air, and fog seems to roll around them as Erax holds a sword to Noble’s neck, and all of us freeze. The wraiths are dead, Loch is long gone, and the only sound in the cold morning breeze is the inn crumbling. The air smells like death and blood, and my king is ready to make another man bleed.
Erax’s cold, empty voice cuts like a blade through the air. “You are a betrayer. Is this really a surprise?”
“Don’t kill him, Your Majesty! He is an idiot, but he is not evil.”
Nymala runs closer, and I follow her. I blink at her, surprised that she is sticking up for Noble of all people. Did she help Noble get out of the castle? I thought she hated him, but there is a look in her eyes right now that is familiar.
“Noble has made mistakes,” she says, “but I believe he is better alive than dead for what is coming. We all saw Loch then. We saw how far he had stepped into the darkness. He will be as strong as one of your old gods! We shouldn’t be fighting among ourselves, and we should be united against what he has become.”
“And your loyalty is to whom, witch?” Erax asks with a warning in his tone.
“My loyalty is to every good soul left in this world. I fight for the innocent. Not a queen or king.” She shrugs. “No offence, but I do not. I am not lying to you both about that.”
I almost admire her for that. “Is there a way to save Loch? He isn’t evil… he’s?—”
“Lost, Maelena.” Nymala stops me. “If you get a chance to end his life, you must take it.” Sickness rises in my throat. No, he has to be saved somehow. Loch… he is my only friend, and we grew up together. He is good, deep down, I just need to make that side of him shine brighter than what I just saw.
Erax locks his eyes on mine, a silent question. Do I still care about Loch?
I don’t know how to explain that I don’t feel the same way Loch does about me, but I still can’t see him die.
I step closer, walking around the body of a wraith—one of the few that remained—and glance at it for a second. What was once human is warped into inked dark leather-like skin, ridged and spiked, with long claws and sharp teeth. There are still clothes attached to the thing, and this one has armour on it. Familiar armour. Was this one of the soldiers back at Noble’s castle? How did he turn into this thing?
I keep walking closer to Erax with Nymala at my side.
She lowers her voice so that only I can hear.
“For all the kindness I showed you, stop your husband.”
My feet dig into the black blood-soaked grass, and I wrap my arms around my chest. I’m covered in mud and filth. I look nothing like a queen, but Erax? With the sword, with the black blood-soaked armour that clings to his muscular form, he looks every bit the part. His white hair makes him look pure, like he is light itself and ready to bring justice to the world.
“Erax.”
“Don’t,” he growls, but it’s softer than he speaks to anyone else. “Do not ask me not to kill him. I can’t have him leave this place alive when he is a threat to you and me. What he did, whether he’s turned his side of the coin to us now, makes him our enemy. I don’t know what is coming for us, but I do know when he is at our back, we will be fighting a war on both sides. He’s a betrayer to the crown, and he should die for that.”
“He’s also your closest friend, and someone you grew up with,” I whisper into the breeze. “I look at him and I feel what you do, Erax. I feel a rage that is all-consuming because he tried to take your life. He almost succeeded in that, and there won’t be a time when I won’t see that in my mind and want to cry. Revenge is a familiar feeling to me, Erax. It is all I felt for you for so many years, but it was wrong.” Erax is still, and I turn my eyes to the man who nearly killed my soulmate. I almost want to take that sword and do the job myself. But I know his death wouldn’t feel as good as I imagine, and it would hurt Erax, even if he wouldn’t ever admit it. “Noble, this is the only moment you will get to explain your side of this. You didn’t hurt me; you protected me at times. Tell us why.”
Noble locks eyes with Erax. “You are my king and my friend. That is true, and when you took over this kingdom, you righted the things that were wrong, like the mines. But you also swooped in and took everything from everybody that had been there for thousands of years, including my own family. You made a million enemies here and everywhere and never once fought to respect the higher class for siding with you. Not everyone loved Maelena’s parents! Yet you punished us all.”
He pauses, his breaths hard, and the sword stays fixed at his neck. “You can’t erase the history of an entire kingdom and expect everybody in it to wear smiles and be appreciative of you. I was sent to watch you as a child, as a child myself, but I was sent nonetheless to grow up near you. I was glad of it becausemy father was a difficult man, and it was better than being back where I should have been.” Nymala tenses. “And you were my best friend; you still are. That has not changed despite what I did. I still consider you a brother to me, but I did what I had to because you never once listened to anyone but yourself. The kingdom was going to fall into despair and ruin with or without my help.
“I did not build an army against you; I just listened to the higher class, and I tried to stop them. It didn’t work and when I asked you to change things for some of them, give them back land that has been in their families for a thousand years. You said no. That you were the only man in the kingdom to own land.”
