Page 9 of A Bond of Ice and Glass (Crowned By Wings #2)

“That one tried to drop a sleeping potion into my drink, and we both know what he would have done if I hadn’t sensed it.

I heard him laughing with his friends about using the witch for a night and sharing me.

I dropped a potion into his drink the next day that burnt off his cock.

” I cough on thin air, and she pats my back.

“Yeah, that’s usually the reaction I get.

Now all the guards are a little fearful of me.

” She sighs like it’s a bad thing. I’d be scared of her too, but he deserved everything he got.

“And Noble was pissed. I had to scrub the outside of the castle for two weeks straight until my hands bled from cutting them on the ice,” she adds in a whisper.

“Still worth it, though. I’d burn all their dicks off if I could. ”

My lips twitch before I laugh, and she joins me until we both smile at each other.

We go down the spiralling staircase in silence, holding onto a thick metal bar that has worn down over time, making the metal silver.

It smells like books the further we go, the musky smell that sometimes makes me think of the forest. Eventually, the rock walls give way to a giant library, spread out for what looks like miles below the entire town, and I gasp at the sight of it.

We’re above the shelves here, and there are rows of them, dozens and dozens of rows, and there must be hundreds of thousands of books.

“You said some books were saved… this is a lot of books.”

“Well, it’s not just your family’s royal books, but books are sent here by common folk and nobles from everywhere.

I’m sure there are a lot of stolen books too, and the funny thing is, there is no history on who built this place and began the library in the first place.

It’s a mystery. This library takes books to store and keep safe from the world.

They don’t care where they are from. Noble’s family are the guardians of books basically,” she explains.

“There’s a lot of power to be had between the pages. ”

“I never was given many books growing up, unless they were for learning or about the king,” I admit.

“But my uncle always tried to sneak me in the odd romance book or the book on magic when I was a teenager. They gave me hope there was more than the doomed future I was given.” I touch her arm as we step into the library and off the stairs. “Has there been any news on my uncle?”

“No,” she says quietly. “I suspect the king has him as a prisoner, along with his daughter, Ambre, who resided in the castle. Noble didn’t manage to get them out with you. That’s all I’ve heard.”

Loch didn’t tell me that. I know he was protecting me, but my uncle is one of the few people I have left in my family, and I need to know.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask her about Freyren…

if she knew who Freyren was in the castle, but I don’t.

I can’t trust her enough to ask unsafe questions.

She is a new friend and I have to be careful what I say.

Nymala leads me past the first few rows of bookshelves, down to a wall where there are tapestries hanging against the stone, seven of them in a row.

They’re not in the greatest condition, and for a moment, all I see is someone holding me against another tapestry, kissing me, demanding me, and I wanted him so badly… I blink and the vision is gone.

Was it a memory? Was that the king? I don’t know, but I don’t like how it makes me feel. The king stole me, took me as his, and used my body. I almost don’t want to remember that, knowing it must have been painful and horrible to experience. Maybe it’s why my mind refuses to remember.

I focus on the first tapestry. “What is this?” I blurt out as I look.

I’ve seen a hundred tapestries in my childhood home, and none of them ever had dragons on them. This one does. There’s a dragon and a witch on her back, the witch’s dark hands glowing silver like the moon. She looks like Nymala.

“That is our oldest ancestor. Witch history can be complicated, but…” She looks at me.

“Our ancestors found dragons first, and the dragons were at war with themselves. Humans had turned the dragons against each other, and there was a great war between the elements they used. Fire battled ice, air battled earth, and on and on, but everyone lost. Crops burnt, homes were destroyed, the sea rose and drowned hundreds of thousands of people, all whilst the dragons battled on. Some were made completely extinct because of it. The witches came in to heal them by using ether, the strongest branch of our magic.”

Ether, that’s the name of the magic she uses, and she shows me it now.

A tendril of it swirls around us both, almost like a firefly, before she clicks her fingers and it’s gone.

“The witches ended up binding themselves and their magic to the dragons to control them. That began an alliance of peace. No more pain, no more destruction, because when dragons are at war, everybody suffers for that. Their wars meant burning and endless death. It wasn’t a kindness to bind them, but it was needed because no mortal or witch standing on the ground is any fight for a dragon in the sky.

Not even the dragonmeyers could control them.

” She sighs. “That’s how it was, and in return, this witch was blessed with immortal life.

But immortal life comes with immortal problems.”

We move to the next one. “Many called her a goddess, and now the witches still pray to her.” I look at the second tapestry where it’s a wedding between the witch goddess from the previous tapestry and a man. “She met a human king, and she fell deeply in love. Until it went wrong.”

We move to the next one, and this one is different.

The king is on a throne and he’s frozen into ice, and the witch goddess is hovering in the air above him, her hands outstretched, blue waves of magic flowing out of her body, but her expression?

It’s one of hate, of pure anger and heartbreak.

I can barely look at her pained face for more than a few moments.

“The north was never our true home. Our true home was far to the south, where the dragons came from. But we can’t live there anymore because it’s completely turned to ice.

That prick king cheated on his goddess wife, even when she gave him an immortal life.

Even when she gave him everything . She killed her lover, and her screams turned everything to ice and inadvertently killed her people.

The dragons saved some of the witches, but most of us were wiped out.

It has taken generations for the witches to grow back the numbers we have today. ”

The next tapestry is a frozen kingdom with nothing but ice statues of people and dragons. “Is that the forgotten kingdom, then?” Below the city is a nest of frozen eggs, hundreds of them, and they are coloured like they are dead. My hand itches to touch them.

“Yes.” She blinks in surprise. “How did you hear of it?”

“One of my maids used to sing a nursery rhyme to me and the other kids. It went like?—

“Oh, be fearful young child when you go to the north, for in the ice is a king and queen frozen in time. Oh, they took their hearts and crushed their kingdom in their pain, and stole their children’s voices, which will never chime.

Oh, the forgotten city, oh the lost souls, never dance in the ice, or you might be lost to the song too. ”

My cheeks brighten as she stares at me. I can’t believe I just sang that. “I’m sorry, I’m not a good singer like she was?—”

“No, it’s just my father used to sing it to me, and I’ve never heard anyone other than him sing it.” She blinks. “Maybe your maid knew a witch who sang the rhyme and she copied it.”

I smile at her, but my smile disappears as I suddenly feel a wave of sickness crawling up my throat, and my blood feels like it turns to ice.

I grab my stomach from the intense pain that follows, and my knees give in as Nymala reaches for me.

Nymala makes a bucket appear in my hands with a click of her fingers, and I throw up straight into it.

A cold sweat comes over me as she holds my hair back, rubbing my back, and eventually the pain goes along with the shivery feeling in my blood.

The room is still spinning when she clicks her fingers again, and the bucket has vanished.

I’m too wiped out to even marvel at the fact she can do that and how useful that magic must be.

Nymala sits on the ground with me, and I can’t read the look in her eyes. It’s more than a concern… it feels like she wants to tell me something. She instead clears her throat. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” She clicks her fingers again, and a hot cup of peppermint tea on a sweet flower-painted silver tray appears in my hands.

“Don’t tell anyone I can do that. My power is meant to be dulled and nonexistent with this on.” She taps the chain. “Only Noble can remove the chain to use magic. He wouldn’t like it if he knew I could use magic anyway. Nothing like my full power… but little tricks here and there.”

“Thank you, and your secret is safe with me,” I admit, and I feel sorry for her again. I wonder if I can ask Loch for more free time for Nymala.

“As for you. Sometimes, when powerful magic is used on mortals, they react badly like this.” She waves her hand over me.

“Oh, the magic used to heal me, to make me better after the king hurt me?” I nod. It makes sense. “How long will this happen?”

Her shoulders are tense. “I’m still figuring that one out.”

I sip on the tea with her in silence, and just as I’m done, we both hear footsteps. I turn around to see Loch and Noble walking towards us, deep in conversation. The tea disappears from my hands, and Nymala winks at me.

“Why are you on the floor?” Noble asks as Loch rushes over to help me up.

“Oh, I thought I dropped my earring, and we were looking for it, but?—”

“It was in her hair the entire time.” Nymala smoothly finishes my lie.

Loch doesn’t comment as he tugs me up, and my eyes fix onto his wrist, the bit of it that isn’t hidden by his gloves and long jacket, and his veins look black under his skin. What in the gods is that?

I go to ask, but Noble completely takes over the conversation. “We are travelling to a prisoner camp tomorrow. We have captured Erax’s men, and we need them to give us information. You are his queen and can command them.”

“Or kill them if they don’t listen.” Loch nods, but my stomach drops and aches. I’m happy to be getting out of the castle.

But I’m not sure I can be the queen they want me to be.

They continue talking about what I’m meant to do, how I’m meant to be, and the entire time, all I feel is pure dread.