Page 76 of A Kingdom of Sand and Ice (Kingdom of Gods #2)

There is a rose with black petals that grows in the Kingdom of Darkness. They call it Nightrose. But what they don’t realise is that it’s one of the most poisonous flowers in existence. It has no effect on wyverians whatsoever. But for the rest of us… it would mean almost instant death.

Tabitha Wysteria

Ash had passed the weeks in a contemplative hush, lingering on the fringes of the wyverian camp like a phantom of fire and shadow. While the soldiers paced like caged wolves, their unease at Kai’s absence twisted into barely restrained impatience, Ash remained still. Ever silent and ever watchful.

They wanted blood. Vengeance stirred in their veins like smoke in the lungs, and they feared it might dissipate with the morning breeze if they waited too long.

But Ash, perched outside the tent beneath the silvered canopy of strange wyverian trees, merely watched the branches sway in an otherworldly calm, as if untouched by war or worry.

Each day, Kai’s closest companions approached him, sometimes in groups, sometimes alone. They asked after their commander. Was he safe? Should they go after him? Was it time to act ?

Ash dismissed them with a single gesture, his hand slicing through the air like a blade of wind.

And when they changed their question, when they pleaded to fight, to strike now before resolve soured into doubt, he offered the same cryptic reply, ‘Not today.’

Wyverians, for all their courage and might, kept a wary distance from Ash.

There were few things that unsettled their kind, but the man with the ancient eyes and the quiet knowing stirred something deep within them, a discomfort they could not name.

His presence was like the lull before a storm, his silences louder than most men’s cries.

All except for one.

Adriana dropped down beside him on the damp grey grass without a word, mirroring his gaze to the horizon where the trees danced softly in the breeze.

She joined him each morning, her presence as steady as the rising sun.

And though Ash had told her, more than once, that he preferred to be alone, she never truly believed him.

‘No one enjoys being alone that much ,’ she’d said with a smirk.

That morning, they watched Cronan and Keir circle the edge of camp, Keir bounding ahead with restless energy, leaping and goading the hulking wyverian beside him to move faster. Ash’s lips twitched, though only slightly.

‘How about today?’ Adriana asked, as she always did, her tone more hope than expectation.

Ash did not answer at once. He closed his eyes, listening.

Not to her, but to the world itself. He had long ago surrendered to what he had seen.

The path stretched ahead, inevitable as the turning of seasons.

He had glimpsed it all in fire and ash, and yet it did not frighten him.

For at the heart of it was one person. One soul he would burn the world to protect .

He was about to shake his head, to repeat the daily ritual of refusal, when he paused, his ear catching something in the far distance. A sound barely there, like thunder beneath the soil. The low groan of earth disturbed. A shifting.

Then the rumble grew.

Ash’s grin was slow, stretching across his face like a secret finally revealed.

He knew that sound.

It had begun.

‘Today,’ he whispered.

Adriana gasped beside him, her breath catching like a match struck in the dark.

It did not take long for the camp to still. One by one, heads turned, breath hitched, and every sound fell away at the sight of the figure emerging from the shadowed veil of the trees.

A creature unlike any other. One of their own, and yet, something altogether different.

Ash felt the collective gasp ripple through the wyverians like wind through dry grass.

There, striding barefoot across the forest floor, came their princess.

Her purple eyes, alight with fire, locked on the world ahead like a blade drawn from its sheath.

She moved like a predator. Graceful, alert, and brimming with intent.

But the moment her eyes found him, something within her softened. That sharp edge dulled, and another emotion broke through the surface like sunlight through cloud.

Relief.

She no longer walked, she ran. Abandoning all warrior poise, she crossed the distance between them with the urgency of a storm. And Ash, who had counted the minutes of her absence like a man stranded at sea waiting for the tide, opened his arms .

The moment she collided with him, he held her tightly, fiercely, as though she might vanish again if he didn’t. He breathed her in—earth, smoke, wind. The scent of wild things and untamed skies.

‘You’re b-back,’ he breathed, voice cracking.

‘I found my way back to you,’ she whispered, her smile radiant, joy gleaming in her eyes like starlight caught in water.

He cradled her face, tracing the contours as if reacquainting himself with a sacred map. She was changed—fiercer, freer, somehow even more breathtaking than he remembered.

‘I missed you.’

And she smiled, truly smiled. That rare, unguarded smile that belonged only to a chosen few. His heart swelled, his chest aching with the kind of pride and wonder only love could summon. He drew her into him once more, clutching her with reverence.

But then, he felt her body stiffen.

He loosened his embrace, stepping back just enough to see her eyes. No longer soft, but wide with recognition. Her stare was fixed beyond his shoulder, and when he turned, he found Adriana standing there, watching quietly.

Of course.

It had been months since Mal and Adriana had seen one another. But the tension that coiled in Mal’s spine was not born of distance or time. No, Ash knew the reason. Adriana had once been Haven Blackburn’s closest friend.

Mal didn’t speak. Her breath came shallow and fast, her attention caught somewhere between memory and grief. Ash kept his hand gently at her back, grounding her, reminding her she was not alone. Tears welled in her eyes, silent as falling ash.

‘I'm sorry,’ Adriana whispered, tears clinging to her lashes like dew on a winter bough .

In an instant, the two women collapsed into one another’s arms, their sobs mingling in the hush of the camp.

Ash stepped back, giving them the quiet dignity of space.

He might have slipped away entirely, leaving them the solace of shared grief but Mal, with a swift shake of her head, stopped him.

There was too much to say. Too much that could no longer be left unsaid.

She would sit with Adriana come nightfall.

For now, there were more urgent matters at hand.

Ash led her into the central tent, the one they used for council.

She entered with quiet assurance, not needing to be told where to sit.

He watched, unable to keep the smile from his lips, as she strode to the head of the table and draped her long limbs over the armrests, as though she had always belonged there. Because she had.

Adriana darted off to gather the others.

Ash took a seat opposite her.

‘Why so far away?’ she asked, her brow arching slightly, her displeasure evident in the subtle tilt of her voice.

‘So I can see your face,’ he replied, his voice soft, almost reverent.

Mal blew a stray lock of ink-dark hair from her cheek, the gesture so instinctively her that he let out a low laugh. The sound seemed to ripple through the air, drawing her attention to his lips and for a moment, the world grew quiet again, caught in the tension of that look.

Before anything more could pass between them, Adriana returned, Keir and Cronan close behind. Mal rose to embrace them, her smile radiant, catching the light like a flame in the dark. Ash watched her, storing the image away in some secret chamber of his heart, hoping to carry it with him always.

‘Where is Kai?’ she asked the moment she sat down, eyes fixed on the entrance to the tent, expectant, waiting for her brother to appear.

The others turned to Ash.

‘He will return to us s-soon,’ he said calmly, though his words earned a chorus of muttered grumbles. ‘He had his own path to walk.’

Mal’s eyes narrowed. Not with anger, but with that particular brand of sharp curiosity that always emerged when she suspected she was being told less than the whole truth.

He knew the look well. She wouldn’t press him here, not before the others.

But when they were alone, she would ask and he would answer, as much as he could, without disturbing the threads of fate that still had to weave themselves into place.

‘Tomorrow,’ Ash said quietly. ‘Tomorrow, we enter the wastelands.’

‘What about Kai?’ Adriana’s brow furrowed as her voice cut through the gathering tension.

‘He’ll be waiting on the other s-side,’ Ash replied, his tone steady, though his stammer clung to the edges of his words. ‘Once we c-cross and reach my k-kingdom, Kai will meet us there. I intend to use the chaos as a veil, enough of a dis-distraction to reach the Red Guard.’

‘Why tomorrow?’ asked Keir, lounging with one foot propped on his chair, as though the weight of the conversation did not press upon him.

Ash inclined his head towards Mal.

‘Because of her.’

All eyes shifted to the wyverian princess, confusion knitting brows across the room.

‘Because now,’ Ash said softly, ‘she knows what sh-she is.’

Mal’s jaw tightened. Something danced in her eyes, an emotion too complex to name, too fierce to be shared. Ash’s smile curved with quiet certainty as the others rose to leave, heading out to make ready for what lay ahead.

Mal remained, reclining in the high-backed blackwood chair, her expression sharpened by frustration.