Page 125 of A Sword of Ice
The door clattered as it closed, while King Ashera’s footsteps echoed through the cavernous room. He walked steadily, as if he had not just dealt a cruel punishment. As if there had been no price to his malevolent magic at all, save for the blood that pooled on the stone floors.
Valerio could not watch the king leave. Still he waited, and as soon as the cruel bastard was gone, he dropped to his knees. His pants soaked through with Uric’s blood, and his friend did not stir at Valerio’s proximity.
His eyes raked over his friend’s broken body. At the pale flesh stained with blood, his skin flayed open in violent slashes across his back that looked like the spread wings of a bird without feathers.
He was almost too afraid to touch him, afraid he would hurt him further.
The ends of his hair were matted crimson and curling against his cheeks. It was for the hair that Valerio reached, pushing it away from his cheeks to find Uric’s eyes already opened and staring at the prince.
Valerio suddenly felt angry. “You fool,” he spat, unable to control his fury. “Why are you always doing such foolish things?”
A hoarse chuckle escaped from Uric’s mouth. The sound was bitter and entirely without humor. “You know why.”
It was in those words that Valerio felt his heart clench in a pain he never thought he would feel. As much as he wished they had not been spoken, they had been, and there was no turning back once it was said. He almost wished he could place the blame on Uric’s pain, on the gashes flayed open against his back that were making him delirious.
But he had expected this for quite some time. He had dreaded the day it would come.
The day he would have to hurt his one true friend.
The truth must have reflected on his expression, because Uric’s eyes darkened even further, and he let out a mirthless laugh. He moved, grunting as he rolled.
“Do not—”
Valerio’s words were useless because Uric rolled to his back anyway, a sharp hiss of pain pushing past his clenched teeth.
“Your wounds…”
“Fuck my wounds,” Uric whispered the words, but they savored bitter and dark. Valerio knew what they really meant. He was good at reading the silence between the spaces of Uric’s lies and gauged the truth easily enough.
He ran a hand through the ends of his hair, only to realize they were stained with his best friend’s blood. Blood that smelt as sharp as Uric did, with the softest undercurrent of vulnerability. It was a perfect scent to sum up what Uricwas.
As sharp, defensive, and deadly as a blade. But once you cut yourself to get past those defenses, you found something newer beneath that. Something you would never expect to find for an Obsidian Court Fae.
Something he would rather die than show.
Yet hehadalmost died. Rather, he had suffered a great deal. What Uric did not seem to comprehend, was that by offering himself in place of the prince, showed more than he could ever know.
The king had realized it. He had known it for years now. Valerio did not doubt that his bastard of a father had been lying in wait, searching for the perfect opportunity to somehow expose them both, to take his anger at Valerio out on someone else.
And because Valerio cared about Uric, that made the Fae the perfect whipping boy.
And because Uric was in love with Valerio, it meant he would martyr himself every fucking time.
“We should get you to Ryker.” Valerio eyed Uric warily as the Fae forced himself to a sitting position. He flinched and hissed at every tug and strain his movements caused against his backside. “He will heal you quickly…”
“No,” Uric cut in, in a voice that made Valerio blink with surprise.
Uric was never one to deny the Prince of Seelie what he wished. That did not mean Valerio was ever demanding; he never felt as pompous as other royals. While Uric did not hold back from voicing his displeasure sometimes, or his wariness of certain situations, he never outrightdeniedhim.
“Your back—”
“Will cause Ryker unnecessary pain and arouse questions neither of us need to answer.” He stood to his feet, his hand grasping for his discarded shirt as he stood to his full height.
Valerio stared up at him from his kneeling position and watched as he methodically began pulling on his white shirt, only to soak it through with blood. It plastered against his back in a way that must have been painful, but Uric was careful to keep his expression as inscrutable as always.
He raised his arms and flicked back the long length of his silver-white hair, causing blood to fly and hit Valerio’s cheek. It made him realize what position he was in. The pressure registered in his knees a moment later, and he was all too aware that they were both covered in blood.
Valerio slowly got to his feet, his eyes never once straying from his friend.
