Page 23 of A Kingdom of Sand and Ice (Kingdom of Gods #2)

My mother has sent me on a quest to the land of shadows, and I’m beyond excited. I know Hades comes from there, a kingdom I’ve never visited before. He’s been so distant lately... I hope my arrival will surprise him, perhaps even delight him. To see me again.

I want to see him. I’ll be visiting the wyverian castle. I know the king has three sons, and I’ve heard all sorts of tales about them. But I don’t mind if they’re unkind. I can’t wait to be there, to see Hades again.

Tabitha Wysteria

Kai pressed a gentle kiss to his mother’s brow, letting silence do what words never could. It was the kind of hush only grief could summon. Thick, solemn, and shared between two souls who carried the same ache in different hearts.

‘I shall bring you their heads,’ he vowed softly.

Queen Senka had once been radiant, a wyverian queen of unshakable will and quiet might. But the death of her firstborn had withered her. She was no longer the bloom she had once been, but a dried rose left too long in shadow, every petal curled and fallen away.

Kai had not only lost Haven. He had, in a way, lost his mother too .

And Mal… he still didn’t know. Not truly. He hadn’t pried the truth from Ash. There had been no point. The Fire Prince had offered a clipped recount of what had befallen him after the blade struck, but Kai had sensed the hollowness beneath every word. He’d said much, and explained nothing at all.

Leaving the castle behind, Kai whistled low beneath his breath. A summons.

A heartbeat later, Nisha appeared in the misty sky, a dark winged blur that grew larger with every beat of her wings. Daku trailed behind her like a shadow too afraid to part. They, too, had suffered loss.

Then came Ayaru—Haven’s great wyvern—tearing through the grey heavens, her arrival shaking the ground beneath Kai’s feet.

Her cry, raw and thunderous, was a song of sorrow.

Kai stood frozen as the three wyverns met, their grief crashing over him like a tide, draping his shoulders in sadness heavy as armour.

‘Ayaru,’ he greeted, placing a reverent hand to the side of her flank. The mighty creature bowed her head, her azure eyes dull with mourning. Kai ran his palm over her hide, barely holding back the tears. ‘I miss her too. But we will have justice. I swear it.’

Ayaru’s stare sharpened, a flicker of fire rekindled in her soul. The wyverns answered in unison with a chorus of roars, their voices echoing off the cliffs like a war-cry. For the first time in days, Kai allowed himself to smile.

Footsteps behind stirred the air, and he turned to see Ash standing beneath the arch of the keep.

It was still disorienting to see the once-gilded prince swathed in obsidian.

Gone was the golden regalia of the Fire Court.

Now he wore the black steel of a wyverian commander.

And somehow, it suited him more. The dark plate made his golden hair gleam like molten sunlight, and his horns shone like relics of a dying god.

Honey-gold eyes met Kai’s for the briefest second, before shifting to the wyverns. Without a trace of hesitation, Ash strode towards them.

‘Wait—’ Kai started, instinct tightening in his chest. Wyverns were distrustful, wild. Ash shouldn’t…

But by the time the warning formed, Ash was already among them.

Kai’s eyes widened, lips parting in disbelief.

Ash raised a hand to Ayaru first. Then Nisha. Then Daku. One by one, the wyverns bowed their heads and greeted him. Not with suspicion, but familiarity. As if they’d known him for years. As if he were one of their own.

Kai took a step back, something cold winding around his spine. He wanted to tell himself it was Mal’s scent that lingered on Ash’s skin, nothing more. That it was proximity and memory, not something else. But he knew better.

What are you? The thought coiled in his mind, sharp as a blade.

Ash turned to face him then, and the corner of his mouth curled, just slightly. A knowing sneer.

‘Shall we?’ Ash asked, his voice calm, unreadable as ever. ‘Your army awaits, does it not?’

Kai stepped forward, spine straight, shoulders squared. He would not cower before Ash Acheron. Not now, not ever.

‘How do you know that?’ Kai asked, his voice clipped.

Ash only shrugged, offering no answers, no explanations.

He never did. Instead, he moved with graceful ease towards Daku, who lowered his great head to allow the drakonian to mount.

Kai masked the jolt of surprise that coiled in his chest, though his heart beat a little faster at the sight.

It shouldn’t have looked so natural, Ash astride a wyvern, as if he belonged there .

‘Is your father not joining us?’ Ash asked, voice light, but the words struck.

Kai’s fingers twitched. He wanted to lash out, to demand why Ash insisted on asking questions when he already seemed to know the answers.

But instead, he bit down on the frustration, sealing his lips.

He could not afford to let the bitterness slip, not when looking at the drakonian prince already pained him more than he cared to admit.

‘You’re angry with me,’ Ash said from where he sat atop Daku, his voice drifting like smoke through the chilled air.

Kai said nothing, busying himself with adjusting his grip on Nisha, pretending not to have heard.

‘I remind you of her.’

‘Shut up.’

‘No,’ Ash went on quietly, almost thoughtfully. ‘That isn’t it. You’re angry b-because I didn’t sa-save her. She should ha-have lived... and I should ha-have died.’

Kai clenched his jaw so tightly it ached. ‘No. That would have killed Mal.’

Ash’s gaze turned inward, lost in some imagined version of the past. ‘But deep down,’ he said, voice like cracked glass, ‘deep down, even though you know it would ha-have destroyed Mal... You still wish it had be-been me.’

Kai didn’t answer. He couldn’t. Instead, he gave Nisha a swift pat, the silent signal to take flight.

Her powerful wings unfurled, slicing through the air with ease as they lifted into the grey sky.

But even as they rose, he could feel Ash’s golden eyes boring into his back, those eyes that had seen too much and still remained unreadable.

Kai tried to shove the images away of blood-soaked halls, the silent stillness of the drakonian castle, Alina’s lifeless form lying within it. His sister too, gone. He had failed them both. Had not protected them when it mattered most.

How could the world still turn? How could the wind still whisper through the trees or the moon rise with such indifferent grace when Alina and Haven no longer breathed? It was wrong. The world should have halted in mourning.

A white-hot rage bloomed in his chest, raw and consuming. He would not rest until the rot had been carved from the kingdoms. Until Hagan’s head lay at his feet, severed by Kai’s own blades.

The wyverns descended atop a hillcrest, wings kicking up the dust as they landed.

Below them, stretched out across the valley like a sea of shadows, lay the wyverian army.

At the sound of the great beasts’ arrival, soldiers turned their faces upwards.

The nearest bowed low, their heads dropping in reverence.

Beside him, Ash drew in a breath sharp with awe.

‘How many?’ he asked, his voice laced with wonder.

Kai smirked. ‘Thousands.’

Beneath the hilltop, a sprawling camp had been erected.

An ephemeral city of tents and fires, flickering against the encroaching dusk.

In a matter of days, they would march, though more still were arriving with each passing hour.

Not only soldiers, but citizens, ordinary folk with vengeance in their hearts and blades in their hands, answering the call to resist the witches.

For in the Kingdom of Darkness, all were trained to fight from youth, a realm carved from stone and steel, forged in fire and resilience. A kingdom of warriors.

King Ozul had ridden north, summoning more of their kin to the cause.

‘The women,’ Ash said, noting the many wyverian females clad in midnight armour, sharpening blades, raising tents, their movements fluid and purposeful .

Kai’s smile was proud, unwavering. ‘You’re not on drakonian soil any longer. Here, everyone fights.’ He dismounted Nisha, giving the wyvern a fond pat before gesturing for Ash to follow. ‘Come. There are some wyverians I want you to meet. We move as soon as the rest of my army arrives.’

Ash fell into step beside him, his golden gaze drinking in the sheer scale of the camp.

Wyverians of all ages moved with silent purpose, even youths barely fourteen bore the hardened expressions of those who had already tasted loss.

No fear darkened their eyes, only fierce resolve.

They were out for blood, for vengeance. For Haven, their fallen princess, their would-be queen.

‘I know you told the king, but—’

‘Kage is safe,’ Ash interrupted softly. ‘He’s with Bryn Wynter.’

Kai gave a nod, then led him towards a larger tent, its flaps stirred by the evening breeze. Three figures emerged from within.

The first was a mountain of a man, broad as an ox with arms like tree trunks. Ash had clearly never seen a wyverian of such stature, which made Kai want to snort.

‘This is Cronan,’ Kai said.

The towering wyverian grunted, offering no more than a curt nod. Kai moved on to the next, a slender man with wiry limbs and a deceptively delicate frame. Kai, however, knew better than to underestimate any wyverian.

‘Keir,’ Ash said before Kai could make the introduction.

At once, the trio stiffened, the air taut with surprise.

Ash’s attention turned to the final figure, the youngest of the three.

A young woman, yes, but unmistakably the most dangerous.

Kai had sensed it the day he had met her, just by the way she stood, the way her eyes watched everything and gave nothing away.

‘And you are Adriana.’

The three stepped forward, poised as if ready to strike. Kai swiftly raised a hand, halting them.

‘Don’t do that again,’ he muttered, clearly annoyed. ‘You’ll scare my entire camp.’

Ash simply shrugged, the ghost of a grin tugging at his lips. ‘Do they frighten s-so easily?’

Adriana stepped forward, twirling a strand of inky black hair round her finger. The gesture stole the breath from Kai’s lungs, so like Mal’s. It struck him squarely in the chest, the ache of her absence crashing down in waves.

‘Yes, Kai… I thought this was the most feared army in all eight kingdoms,’ she teased, poking him squarely in the chest.

‘Maybe it’s Kai who’s pissing himself,’ Keir added with a laugh.

Kai cast a glare towards Ash. ‘See what you’ve done?’ He rolled his eyes. ‘I trained with them in our youth. We were in the same unit.’

‘Now we serve him ,’ Keir said mockingly. But Kai saw the truth in their eyes—loyalty, respect, unwavering trust. They’d follow him into the mouth of death without hesitation.

Kai snorted. ‘I don’t see you complaining when you’re given the best of everything.’

Keir raised his brows. ‘Best of everything? You mean cleaning your piss pot? Adriana, is that one of your great privileges?’

‘I’ve never done that.’

‘Wait, what?’ Keir’s expression morphed into comical disbelief. ‘He’s asked me to do it at least a dozen—’ But comprehension dawned, and with a feral cry, he launched himself at Kai’s back, trying to throttle him.

Adriana doubled over with laughter. Even Cronan rumbled with amusement.

Once the chaos settled, the group made their way inside the tent. Before following the others inside, Kai turned to Ash, his expression shifting to something softer, quieter.

‘You claim to see everything—the past, the future. I’ll never ask you anything again, Ash. But tell me this… do we win?’

Ash remained still, his gaze drifting to the interior of the tent.

The flaps fluttered in the breeze, shadows cast by the flickering torches dancing like ghosts on the walls.

The chill in the air clung to his skin. Though draped in a thick jacket gifted at the castle, Kai knew the cold was probably seeping through the seams of his black wyverian armour.

Drakonians were not made for this kind of wind, this persistent northern bite.

His silence spoke volumes.

Kai’s jaw tensed. ‘Fine,’ he said, eyes hardening. ‘Then just… tell me they’ll be safe. I can’t lose anyone else.’

Ash looked at him then, really looked. ‘Loss,’ he murmured, ‘is the cost of living.’

Inside the tent, the trio had already taken their places around the table. Cronan sat unmoving, while Keir and Adriana bickered light-heartedly as they arranged maps and notes.

Kai’s fists clenched. ‘I don’t want any more of it.’

Ash stepped closer, his words soft but unyielding. ‘We all die in the end, Kai. It’s just a matter of when .’