Court of Ice and Ash: A Dark Fantasy Romance (The Broken Kingdoms Book 2)

FOR SO LONG THE wind had beat against us in the iron cages. Harsh frosts coated the land, and the false king took a great deal of pleasure leaving Arvad’s sons in the elements. I tugged the thin, wool blanket around my shoulders.

“Sol, are you ever afraid?”

Sol lifted his head. The strands of his hair and the ends of the dark beard were covered in frosty crystals. Doubtless I looked much the same.

He coughed. The sound of it ripped from his chest in deep, raspy draws. When it passed, my brother slumped against his side of the cage, and closed his eyes. “Yes. I am always afraid.”

Sol never showed it. He stood stalwart, never bending to the Timoran raiders. He even took a guard’s eye—the reason we were in the cages.

“More now,” he went on. “Because they know how to break me. They have found my weaknesses, little brother.”

“You speak of Tor?”

Sol grimaced and hugged his own pathetic blanket around his body. I did not know if Torsten lived. The moment the raiders discovered him to be Sol’s consort, he’d been dragged away. For a night we listened to the screams.

The next morning, Sol attacked and blinded the guard.

“I speak of him,” Sol admitted. “But my weakness goes beyond him. They know to hurt me with those I love. They’ve taken Herja. Maj. They torture Father in front of us. They lock you in here with me, so I may see you grow weaker.” He hung his head, his voice cracked. “I cannot sleep. I cannot close my eyes for I fear if I do, you will not wake.”

“Sol,” I said, an angry burn in my eyes. “I am nothing. Do not let them use me against you. If I die, then I die. You are the hope of Etta. Fate determined your birthright long ago and you will take it back. But do not weaken your resilience because of me. Turn your heart to stone if you must.”

“Turn my heart to stone? What a miserable existence.”

“Look around, brother. We are living in misery.”

Sol scoffed; one side of his mouth curled. He looked more like our father than me. More proof he was born to be king. “Let them hurt me. At least then I know I still have a heart. I am unashamed to say if you die, then a piece of me dies with you. I love, and they use it against me, true. But I will never regret loving. Not even you, stupid as you are.”

I laughed. Well, it was a sound somewhere between a laugh and hack.

Even still, I could not remember the last time laughter had even been a thought.

The memory startled me awake. A chill on the wind brought back the burn of the frosted winter nights. Someone had placed a heavy fur over my body. I pulled it around me as if the frigid nights of the past would break me once again, groaned, tried to sit up, but the world started to spin.

“Lie back.” A soft voice commanded me. Familiar and gentle. “You lost a great deal of blood.”

“Do not speak like he is not a killer, Elise. How many folk has he slaughtered?”

I rubbed my head, unsteady even in a bed. When had I found a bed? Who was speaking of me?

“Hush. You’re only angry because you liked him and feel betrayed. But that is enough.”

“And you are defending a man who has lied to you and put you at great risk.”

“He saved us, Mattis.”

Mattis? I knew the name. The haze in my skull would not allow me to place it.

“You are blinded because you found him appealing, admit it.”

“Mattis, if you cannot find anything useful to do in here, perhaps you should go elsewhere. Maybe speak with Siverie since wallowing in anger does not seem to be suiting you well.”

Not long after the click of a door broke through my fog. Something cool and wet touched my brow. I tried to swat it away, but someone else took my hand.

“You have a fever,” she said. “Let me help.”

I cracked my eyes. Pale light filled a room. Dawn’s light, and a few candles on a bedside table. Her blue eyes came into focus next; her icy hair was loose and long over her shoulders. I studied her for a moment, ignoring the tightening in my chest, ignoring how her touch healed better than anything.

“Elise.” My voice was dry as sand.

“I’m right here, Valen,” she whispered.

The sweetest sound was my true name from her mouth. We were alone if she spoke it out loud. “What happened?”

She dabbed a cloth over my brow again and sighed. “You insisted on being a hero again and allowed your body to be impaled. It is a habit of yours I rather hate.”

The fog still gathered, but in a moment of weakness I reached out a hand, searching for her. She obliged, resting her brow to mine. Hazy as she was, my fingers found her jaw, her lips. Madness took hold of my tongue, and I admitted the truth before I could stop it. “I have missed you.”

A hot drop splashed on my face. Hells, I’d made her cry. I never claimed to be skilled with women, and clearly, I remained out of practice. But she surprised me. A jolt to my senses when her warm palms took either side of my face and Elise pressed a gentle kiss to my lips.

I’d dreamed of her kiss.

A kiss that unraveled every piece of me. A kiss I ought to run from.

If I had learned anything from the past it was better to hide a heart than give away the ones you loved most.

So, I would run. For her sake.

But I kissed her back. Gently. Weakly.

I would run tomorrow.

Elise brushed her fingers over my forehead and pulled away. Thick black took hold again. My body shivered but boiled. Her face faded into nothing, and I fell back into a fitful sleep.

I didn’t know how long I slept. When I woke again, wretched thirst afflicted my throat. I groaned and stumbled out of bed, disoriented. The flicker of candles was enough to know I was in a strange room and strange house made of mossy branches. And I was without a shirt.

My fist curled around the seer stone around my neck. Its power was gone, but it had become an odd comfort.

I needed to find water. My lips cracked at the slightest twitch. A clay bowl sat on the bedside table. No doubt the water used to soothe my fever. I hardly cared and tipped it into my mouth. The taste was awful and gritty, but it served the purpose well enough.

A stitch in my side drew my gaze to a dingy linen bandaged around my waist. A harsh fetid smell burned my nose from the wound. Gingerly, I peeled the bandage away. Dried blood surrounded a wound covered in a putrid, brown paste.

I flipped through thoughts and memories. The prison and the arrow. Gentle hands. A soft kiss.

Elise was here; she’d been at the prison and now brought me here. Wherever here was.

Once the bandage was back in place, I turned to my lower half. My trousers reeked of blood and sweat. I’d like to wash or change into something clean at least. Being in one position for so long, the dirt clung to my skin like a new layer.

I unbuckled the belt at my waist, but stopped at a new voice.

“Oh, hells, please stop. There are things I do not wish to see.”

Blood rushed to my head, chasing away the last of the haze. I looked over my shoulder. Junius sipped from a drinking horn, smirking.

She wasn’t alone. Casper, Stieg, Tor, and . . . Halvar sat against the wall.

“Good to see you out of bed,” Halvar said with a wink. “We were beginning to think you’d resigned to get fat and lazy.”

I crossed the room; the wound pulled when I reached for Halvar, but I didn’t care. I embraced him tightly, laughing. “You’re alive. I wasn’t sure if the ravens would kill you because of fury or because you talked to them so much that it drove them to murder.”

Halvar grinned. Dark circles were under his eyes, but he seemed healthy. “I charmed them. Alas, you were rather slow in your pathetic excuse for a rescue, so I did begin to wonder if I’d be leaving headless.”

Stieg snorted. “They did not rescue you. The girl did.”

“Ah, yes. My guild was too late,” Halvar said. “I nearly forgot a disgraced Kvinna and her Agitator companion did the saving. Perhaps I ought to go embrace them. We know it would be a most enjoyable experience for them.”

I scoffed and shoved him in the chest. “Keep talking, my friend, and you shall find yourself in the prison again. How long have I been asleep?”

“Days,” Tor said. He had yet to smile or show any kind of relief. “They have us in Ruskig.”

I had not been to Ruskig since the raids. The shore here had always been a favorite place of my mother’s, but when the fury walls went up it fell to ruin.

Tor wrung his hands together. He wouldn’t look at me.

“You’re troubled,” I said. “What is it?”

Tor leaned over his knees. “We have, it seems, three new members of our guild. At least in the eyes of those in charge here. I think they should know the truth if they are to serve you.”

“They do not need to stay,” I said. “We have found Halvar. Our agreement is at an end.”

Casper clicked his tongue. “If it’s all the same, I’d rather stay. Where am I to go? Ravenspire has taken everything from me. My lands, my family.”

“We’re blood bonded now,” Stieg said. “We fought together, and bleeding won. That is not something I forget.”

I shook my head and looked to Junius. “You didn’t run.”

“I keep my promises,” she said with a sly grin.

“And your promise is fulfilled.”

“True, but these are dangerous times. Here, I am a fugitive as well as back home. I need to be cautious. You and your lot seem to be the type that know how to be cautious and deadly. I am yours. For now.”

“And what of your husband who will watch the world burn to find you?”

She chuckled and played with the ends of her dark hair. “He will, I assure you. But Niklas is a good ally to have should you ever need one. A guild who protected his wife will not go unnoticed. He is the guild lead of our folk, you see.”

“Will you send word to him?”

Junius dragged her lower lip between her teeth. “I want to. More than anything, but it is dangerous. I fear what will happen if he acts rashly. I will go to him when the time is right.”

I respected the value she held for her husband. Doubtless it was painful to remain separated. “Then we will do all we can to help you return in one piece when the time is right.”

She grinned. “We have a deal. Help me return to my homeland, and I shall help you in the interim.”

“We’ve had these conversations already,” Tor said in a growl. “If they vow devotion, then it is my advice that they know.”

“Of course, if we tell them, and they try to run after learning the truth, we will need to kill them,” Halvar said.

Stieg’s eyes widened, until Halvar barked a laugh and slapped him on the back.

There would be consequences of bringing three strangers into our guild, into the truth. Their lives, or ours, could be put at risk. Even more—trust was hard won. I had some trust for them, but more needed to be proved.

Casper yawned and scratched his trimmed chin. “If you’re going to tell us you’re the Night Prince, we already know.”

“Is that all?” Stieg asked. “Now I’m disappointed. I was hoping for a new secret.”

I gaped at Tor and Halvar. Tor appeared ready to slaughter. Halver took on a more delighted and entertained look.

Junius cleared her throat. “Pardon, but who is the Night Prince?”

Casper gestured at me. “Valen Ferus. A Bender. One who can break the earth, my foreign lovely. The last one on record if I’m correct. Centuries ago, this land belonged to his line. Do your Alver folk live long lifetimes?”

Junie nodded.

“As do Night Folk. I wish we could say we simply outlive the tyrants of Timoran, but they keep breeding more. But he is the true heir to the throne.”

I held up a hand for silence. “How . . . how did you know?”

“Your fury,” Stieg said as if it should’ve been obvious.

“I told you it would give away too much,” Tor insisted.

“I do have a question,” Casper said. “Where have you been, Prince Valen? Why leave us to suffer so long?”

I hated that they thought we had abandoned them. They knew the truth, so they deserved an answer. With the help of Tor and Halvar we told them everything. The curse. The journey to be free of it. What became of my family. Tales of Elise Lysander, the rogue Timoran princess.

“Why keep the truth?” Stieg asked. “Tell folk who you are, and they will stand with you.”

“I must avenge my family. To do it, Ravenspire must not find out, or they will send all their forces to end my line for good. So, you will continue to call me Legion, understood?”

Casper and Stieg shared a look, but in the end they both agreed. Junie studied me in a new light.

“What is it?”

“You have no need of my opinions, but keep in mind I come from a land with four regions, each with their own brutality against Alvers. It seems much the same here. If you are ever able to do more, I hope you will. You and your people seem to have suffered enough.”

“I am not standing idly by. I plan to turn Calder’s people against him. Watch them tear themselves apart. I do not need a crown to do it, and the people are rising without me. I will merely open a window of opportunity. Perhaps it is fate that another takes the crown at long last.”

Stieg wrinkled his nose but didn’t argue.

“So that woman you took the arrow for freed you?” Junius asked after a long pause.

“She did,” I admitted. “We parted ways because she does not need to take part in my revenge.”

“I understand that, but I’m confused what has changed? She fought and lost it all to free you, so why trap you now?”

“Trap me?”

“The wound in your back must be painful if you have not even noticed,” Halvar said. He rolled up his sleeves. Two silver bands were on his wrists. Tor revealed his. Stieg. Casper.

Junius chuckled and lifted her hands. “I’ve told them time and again these do nothing against mesmer—my magic. But they are rather pretty, so I’ll keep them.”

My eyes fell to my wrists. Bindings locked on each wrist.

My blood was heavy with the pulse of magic keeping my fury blocked. Halvar was right, I hadn’t noticed. The fever had burned so harshly, I’d not realized the ache likely stemmed from my fetters.

I stumbled back, heart racing. Wretched, violent memories of being bound and trapped in Ravenspire, in the quarries, turned my stomach until I leaned over the water basin and retched.

My mind spun in suffocating panic, anger, in a need to survive.

Trapped.

Blood pounded in my skull. I leaned over the bedside table, my lungs burning in harsh breaths.

Tor gripped my shoulder. “They will not keep us here. I swear to you.”

I despised my weakness. “Tor . . . I can’t—”

“They will never take you. Not again.” He leaned into me. “But I would ask you something. If they were to . . . take me back, be the man to end me, Valen. Before they get a chance.”

The horror of the request makes me want to retch again, but I nod. “If you promise the same. I wish to die with honor, not in a cage.”

“All right, enough. Hells, before we leap to killing pacts,” Halvar began, “I think we need to keep our heads here. I was with Elise, and she did not seem pleased about these bindings. I don’t believe it is her idea.”

“Yet we are bound. She knows more than anyone what being a prisoner would mean to us,” I said in a kind of growl. I’d long forgotten my skin was clammy and dirty, was passed caring I wore nothing above my waist. I stomped to the doorway and ripped it open to a busy, moving town.

She’d soothed me in my illness, while keeping me hostage.

I hated her.

I hated her so much I thought I might love her. And I hated that even more.

“Valen.” Halvar hurried to his feet. “Where are you going? We don’t know who’s out there.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I’m going to our captor. Elise Lysander will soon know what a mistake she has made.”