Page 13 of A Bond of Ice and Glass (Crowned By Wings #2)

“ C ome on,” Noble says, taking me by the wrist. “Let’s leave here.”

I can only nod, worried if I do manage to speak, it might be something I’ll regret. How could Lochlan do such a thing?

I keep my eyes on him as Noble leads me away. Once more, Lochlan is crouching in front of the bars. I have never questioned him. Never doubted him until now. But now that doubt coils in my gut.

I don’t know what’s real anymore, like the mist in my dream is fogging my mind.

Before Noble takes me out of sight, I catch a strange light enveloping Lochlan. It glows silver-blue at first and then darkens, bleeding into black as if the shadows have twisted around him. There’s a flare of red inside it—and then screams.

Screams so deafening that I freeze in my tracks.

“You gave – your word!” a prisoner screams out.

Lochlan’s reply comes so calmly, so coldly, that bile rises up my throat again.

“I said I’d end your suffering, which I’m doing.”

Noble’s grip tightens on my arm, the only sensation I can feel over the sinking of my heart.

“Let’s go,” he growls, dragging me away.

My legs move with him, but it doesn’t feel like I’m the one doing it. It’s like I’ve been ripped out of my own body and forced to watch everything take place from above. Did I really just see that?

My best friend killed someone.

No, not just someone. Several of Erax’s soldiers whom Lochlan promised to help. Instead, he just killed them all. And he used magic to do it!

Since when could Lochlan use magic? And why did he never tell me?

My boots echo up the stairs behind Noble, every step too loud, too gut-wrenching. I can’t believe what I just saw. I feel like I’m going to be sick.

Noble holds the door open for me. I stare at it, unable to move, but I don’t need to.

Noble practically drags me through. I blink up at the brighter lights and clench my hands into fists, squeezing them until I feel pain from my nails digging in.

Anything to just feel something. To remind me that this is real. That I’m not dreaming this time.

I’m vaguely aware of Noble’s hand still on my wrist when he pulls me forward.

He leads me through the halls and up several stairways until we’re inside a large private room.

The maps on the walls, the books spilling over stacked shelves, the relics hanging like tapestries everywhere, oddly remind me of Noble.

It must be one of his rooms in the other wing.

He nudges me towards the sofas nestled around the fireplace. The dark emerald leather looks like liquid under the sharp gleam of firelight. They look like they could swallow me up and drown me if I sat down on them.

For some reason, that thought snaps me back into reality.

I pull away from Noble, my panic suddenly rising until words pour from my mouth. Words that don’t make sense, apart from?—

“What the fuck? What the fuck !”

I head for the circular window across the room, overlooking the gardens below. Digging my nails into my arm, I pace back and forth, trying to make sense of what just happened. There must be a reason he did it. Maybe he didn’t think I could see?

That would just make it worse. The fact he’d wait for me to leave before killing them is more sickening than if he’d done it in front of me.

The Lochlan I knew wasn’t capable of killing.

He certainly wasn’t capable of sounding so blasé about it.

And the Lochlan I knew? He’d never have gone back on this word like that…

But he didn’t go back on it.

“I said I’d end your suffering, which I’m doing.”

He just tricked the soldiers into thinking he’d put an end to their suffering, not their lives.

And the magic? That wasn’t ordinary magic. That was dark ether magic, the kind that rotted you from the inside the more you used it. Unless…

“Was it Nymala?” I stop and turn to Noble, who hasn’t moved from the doorway, his eyes on me. “Did she use her magic to kill them?”

The slow shake of his head makes my stomach clench.

I start moving again, my steps growing more frantic with my panic. What more is Lochlan keeping from me? What more did he lie to me about?

“Did he get this power after the convent?” I ask, pausing again.

Another shake, and I dig my nails deeper, cutting through skin. So, he’s had this power all along and never told me? I start pacing again.

“I’d rather you didn’t wreck my new floor with all your pacing,” Noble says after a moment, nodding to the sofas. “Come sit.”

I shake my head at him, as if my pacing will make sense of everything. As if it will drive the fear out of my body. Did we both gain power at the same time?

“Sit, Maelena, or I’ll make you.”

I stop, not to obey him, but to glare at him. “Do you have magic, too?”

“No. But I have other ways.” He nods to the sofa again. “Just sit down and I’ll make you a drink. It’ll help.”

“I don’t need one.”

More like, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep one down.

“Yeah, you do.” Noble walks over to a cabinet and opens it. Several glass bottles reflect the light. “You look like you’re about to be sick. And frankly, you’re making me feel that way with all the bloody pacing. Just sit for a moment, alright?”

I watch him open a half-empty bottle and pour amber liquid into a small glass.

My legs shake as a sudden fatigue sweeps over me.

From my power or from what Lochlan did, I don’t know.

But Noble is right. I do need to sit for a moment.

I settle down onto the sofa nearest the fire, hoping the warmth will erase some of the chill from my bones.

“Is this your study?” I ask, looking around the room again.

Above the fireplace sits a nook in the wall, filled with books, and above that rests a giant stag’s head. The fur is as white as the snow outside, and its eyes are gold, as if they’d been glowing when they were alive.

Noble follows my gaze for a moment. “My father’s,” he says. “I don’t come here often. This was the nearest room.”

He hands me the glass. I don’t sip it immediately, like he does. I keep my eyes on the stag, but I’m aware of him dropping down next to me, with his arm draped over the back of the sofa, close to my neck. It feels weirdly comforting.

“You saw him do it too, didn’t you?” My voice cracks the silence. “The way he just… killed those soldiers… like they were nothing.”

“They weren’t nothing. They were criminals,” Noble counters. “Even if they weren’t the ones who gave the orders, they followed them. Burned a village to the ground, like Lochlan said, without caring of the people inside. Loch wasn’t lying about that.”

I sip the drink. The liquid burns down my throat.

“Did following orders mean they deserved to die so cruelly?”

“Depends on the orders,” Noble says. He runs a hand through his blond hair and shrugs. “They would’ve died soon, anyway. If we let them go—which we couldn’t—they would’ve frozen out in the snow. In a way, Lochlan spared them a slower death.”

“So it was mercy?” I shake my head at that, laughing bitterly. “Lochlan lied to them.”

He lied to me . Noble doesn’t say anything about that though.

I take another drink and savour the sharp taste. Although it helps settle my nausea, it doesn’t soothe the pain behind my eyes. Or the way my body trembles, heavy and drained, like something’s been carved out of it.

“I just didn’t know he could be like that,” I whisper, more to myself than anyone. “I’ve never seen Lochlan act cruel before. Like he was… enjoying it.”

I glance at Noble. His jaw tightens as he looks away into the flames.

“Seeing your own people suffer changes you. For Lochlan, coming home and witnessing the pain our people went through… He’s vowed to do whatever it takes to avenge them.”

I take one long sip, finishing the drink. “Do you really believe that?”

He looks back at me, his eyes glowing in the firelight. “I want to.”

I nod and watch the fire dance against my glass. Noble falls quiet too. The odd crackle from the fire, the wind whispering against the stone windows… It’s strangely relaxing. Or maybe the alcohol is starting to have an effect on me.

Either way, I welcome it. I need it.

“You alright?” Noble asks, jolting me from my thoughts.

I glance at him—at eyes so like Lochlan’s yet so different.

“No,” I answer honestly. “Since coming here, I feel like something is missing from me. Like there’s this cold, empty space inside that nothing seems to fill.

Not even this power, or whatever it is the gods have cursed me with.

I should be so happy to be free again. But I can’t help but feel there’s something wrong.

All I seem to do is sleep and forget things. ”

Noble doesn’t say anything at first. He finishes his drink and sets the glass on the table, then crosses a leg over his knee, his ringed hand placed on top of it. A ring with a dragon on it that looks familiar to me but I can’t place.

“You’ve been through a lot,” he says finally.

“Lost more than most do in a lifetime. But grief doesn’t follow rules.

Neither does power. Sometimes they hit us when we’re least ready, and it feels like we’re about to crack under the pressure.

But the gods don’t give us more than we can handle.

My mother used to say that to me. Figured there’s gotta be some truth to it. ”

I rest my head against the sofa and look up at the painted ceiling. Noble’s arm presses against me, close enough that I can still smell the dungeon stench clinging to his skin.

“Do you think that’s why they gave me to Erax?” I ask, voice above a whisper. “To break me?”

In the corner of my eye, Noble looks away from the fire, at me. He watches me for a moment before answering.

“I think the gods brought you together to change you both.”

I trace the stag on the ceiling, grazing in a field. The leaves attached to its magnificent horns gleam gold in the light.

“I didn’t need to be changed,” I say, my eyes burning. “I needed what Erax took from me.”

My family. My home. My kingdom.