Page 26 of A Bond of Ice and Glass (Crowned By Wings #2)

S ilence 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 because my 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. ”

I didn’t know any of this.

“You didn’t do that to be cruel, but it was a cruelty, anyway.

When I took Maelena, I knew I was not going to let anything happen to her, and I hoped it would just make you listen, make you see what the higher class needs of you.

When I tried to kill you, I never set a single one of those bolts through your heart, or your head, or your neck.

Not near any of the arteries I knew would kill a man.

I am a trained soldier, Erax, and if I wanted you dead, you would have been dead.

I could not bring myself to do it, even if that was the plan my brother suggested to free this kingdom.

I still couldn’t do it, and I had a secret plan to make a deal with you for Maelena. Your death was not my plan.”

He flicks his eyes to me. “When I first met you, I thought you were spoilt, rather annoying and very naive.”

“Do you want to die?” Erax snarls, pushing an inch closer to his neck and a line of red drops down.

Noble continues. “I thought he was going to control every inch of you and make you into nothing but a vessel to carry his child, but that was far from the truth.

You became so much more than that, and I respect you not just as my friend, but my queen.

If you choose him as your king, then so be it, but you are the ruler this kingdom needs.

“The minute that I got back to the castle, Loch took over. He used dark ether to get into the mind of every single one of my soldiers. The many that are lying dead around you—they were once my soldiers. I knew their minds were gone. I could see it, but I didn’t know how to stop it.

My brother…” Noble’s voice cracks like ice.

“He started controlling everybody in the village too. Children were silenced, babies didn’t cry.

His paranoia took on a whole new level. His new spies were all watching me, watching Nym, at all times.

I knew I’d made a mistake, that my brother was playing a game that was far different from the one I was.

He wasn’t meant to have any control; he wasn’t meant to intervene other than to be her friend.

But he hasn’t just been living with the nuns, playing innocent, as you can now see.

The witch side to him… something different is going on.

I will help you get to the bottom of it, but you do need me. ”

Nymala sighs. “It’s true. I sensed the minds of many of them turning very quickly to death and rot.

They were watching my every move and reporting to Loch.

He was watching you too, Maelena.” A shiver goes down my spine.

Loch, oh, what have you done? “Noble tried to protect her the best he could within that castle, even from his only family. He tried to stop her from killing those soldiers and Loch making her do it.”

Erax’s eyes flicker to mine with fury because I did not tell him about that.

I hold his gaze, hoping he understands why and drops it for now.

He slowly turns back to Nymala who continues.

“The witches are going to side with Loch. He has an in with them that I do not understand, but he definitely does. He has markings that I’ve never seen before.

” She shakes her head. “I’ve been away from the witches’ court my entire life, and we all need Noble going forward.

He’s a dragon rider, and his family has links to the Witch Queen.

She may be more open to communication with Noble there. ”

“If it were my choice alone, you’d be dead, but you’re very lucky that I’m married, because there’s such a thing as asking my equal in this realm for her opinion before an execution,” Erax finally speaks and looks at me. “Whatever your choice is, my love, I will do. My sword is yours.”

I walk up to them, stand at Erax’s side, looking at Noble first. “My mother used to do something called Queen’s Mercy.

The servants used to say the Queen’s Mercy was all that ever saved my parents kingdom from total ruin.

” I softly place my hand over Erax’s on the sword.

“I will never forgive you, Noble, but you can earn back your life by fighting for us. You will bleed and earn your life back.”

I glance at Erax as he lowers his sword. Noble sucks in a deep breath of relief before he goes on one knee and lowers his head. “Your Majesties, my dragon is yours. I ride for you.”

“You ride at the back, and you stay out of my fucking sight!” Erax snaps at him. “I will never trust you, betrayer. You’ve just been lucky today.”

Noble is smart enough to stand up and go to Nymala, who glares at him.

“You’re a bigger idiot than I thought.”

“There I was thinking you liked me with your whole ‘don’t kill him’ speech,” he mutters.

She huffs and purposely moves a few steps away from him.

I’m tempted to smile at the pair of them, but I hear it.

Or sense it. A dragon is near. I turn around as I hear the flap of wings, the air being cut as a powerful force flies right towards us. Nymala gasps, holding her chest.

“Is that Cyrsí?” I ask Erax, who wraps his arm around my waist.

He kisses the side of my head. “No, but she’s on her way. This is the ice dragon that lives in the lake. I’m not sure I told you about her.”

“I’ve seen it before,” I whisper to him, looking at Noble, who must remember that day in the lake where he once saved my life.

Now my debt to him has been paid.

The ice dragon flies around what’s left of the inn and lands with a thud right outside the forest. It’s huge, probably the biggest dragon I’ve ever seen, surpassing even Cyrsí in size perhaps.

The dragon is covered in blue scales that are chipped, old and weathered, with scratch marks down its wings like cracked ice.

This dragon has fought a fair share of battles and somehow lived to tell the tale.

There is a rider, someone I don’t know, but she is a witch. She has markings on her face like Nymala’s, but there are other ones, icy-looking runes on her arms. Her long black hair is in a tight braid, and it moves in the breeze as she slides off her back, and she runs straight at us.

Erax frowns at her. “This is the witch who helped me find you. We made a deal, and she became a rider. The first witch rider in centuries, and the second female rider known to the histories—after you. This dragon is a queen and has a strange connection to her.”

A witch dragon rider? A queen dragon?

She runs straight past us and crashes into Nymala. The two of them start crying as they embrace each other.

“What just happened?”

Noble looks at me. “Nymala thought her twin was dead… and it seems she was not.”

As we watch the sisters weep, something cracks in the air around us. The ground shudders beneath my feet.

No one else seems to feel it. But I do. It's like the realm itself is waking up, and the shadows rising with it have my name written on a blade. Something dark and powerful is coming, and this time…

We have to be ready for it.