Page 52 of Burning Ice
Mirel forced himself to stand on his own. He tore his gaze from Kylix and looked at what he had made. The ice held light like a cathedral window. It had turned the man inside into something holy and terrible. Frost glittered on lashes, on lips, on the thin crust of blood frozen into beauty. A monument of his own making.
Milanov flicked two fingers and the servants moved. The shell was wrapped in fabric and removed with a quiet competence that suggested this was not the first time. Only a wet sheen remained on the marble, running in silver threads toward the drains. It sounded like rain.
"I don’t want to feel like this," Mirel whispered. His mouth tasted like coins. His hands would not stop shaking. He could still smell the breath that had frosted his palm.
"You will." Kylix's thumb traced Mirel’s jaw, smearing a line where melting frost had stuck to skin. "It’s what we are." His grin served as kiss and bite without touching his mouth to Mirel’s. "You were born for it."
"Wise words," Milanov said. "Fear and affection shape faster than discipline. College will broaden him, but you, Kylix, you will finish the work."
Kylix’s eyes flashed, delighted and dangerous. "With pleasure."
Laughter rippled through the chamber. It was soft and wicked and very tired. Zimeon finally exhaled, the sound almost lost under the vents, and gave a small nod as if some number on a private slate had just come right.
Milanov’s cloak whispered as he turned away, already speaking over his shoulder to Zimeon about times and calibrations and a visit to the college registrar. Servants ghosted through, collecting glasses. Helianth accepted a match and lit the gold cigarette without taking his eyes off Mirel. Moargan smoothed his hair with the back of his knuckles as if he’d been dancing and hadn’t noticed.
The room’s pulse fell from worship to afterglow.
Mirel shivered. The cold inside him curled up like a cat and slept with one eye open. He wondered how long it would sleep. He wondered what it would take to wake it again. He hated that he already knew.
Kylix’s hand slid down his arm and found his fingers. The heat of that hold felt like a promise and a trap. He didn’t pull away.
"Come. We’re done here."
Kylix didn’t move at once. Heat gathered in the space between them, patient as a hand. The chamber’s noise slid off his shoulders and went elsewhere.
"Stand," he said, quiet enough that only Mirel heard it. The word held him up better than his legs did.
They drifted toward the doors. A servant stepped in with a tray. The Red Cinder cigarettes gleamed like rubies dusted ingold, small fires waiting for breath. Kylix took one and another, set the second against Mirel’s mouth, and waited.
Mirel hesitated. "No."
Kylix turned the stick in his fingers, considering the ember. "Take it."
He did. The paper was warm already. Kylix leaned close and lit his own off the end of Mirel’s. Heat brushed knuckle, then lip, then the small space where air met breath. The ember flared. Smoke tasted of spice and resin.
"One for me," Kylix said. "One for you."
Mirel drew once. The smoke sat heavy on his tongue and made the world slow. Kylix watched him do it, pleased by the steadiness. He always watched.
"Again," he said.
Mirel obeyed. It curled through his chest, hot and wrong and not entirely unwelcome. Kylix reached up and took the cigarette back, pinching the ember out between his fingers.
"I light. You finish," he said. "Remember."
Mirel blinked, dizzy. The air pressed close. The floor still shone where the ice had run. He kept his eyes off it. Off the shape the servants carried. Off everything that had watched him burn.
Kylix’s hand found the small of his back. "Walk."
He tried. The room tilted a little. He didn’t remember giving him the cigarette back, only Kylix closing his hand around it and folding his fingers into a fist.
"Keep it."
It felt heavier than gold.
"Do you hate me," Kylix asked, "for letting you do that?"
Mirel thought of the frozen man, of the crowd’s applause. The word kept moved through his throat and stayed there. "I don’t know."
