The Frozen Prince (The Beast Charmer #2) - Maxym M. Martineau Page 0,66
I stood slowly. “If I go to Oslo’s Ruins and Silvis’s Ruins, that will make three. It would be hard to deny who I am and have the king believe me if he were to discover I’d been visiting these sacred sites.”
“He’d see it as a bid for the throne.” Kost drummed his fingers against the table. “Noc would likely be executed. And Cruor and Hireath… If he thought we were rallying to his side, everyone would be in danger.”
For the first time since I’d announced my bloodline, a flicker of concern darted through Leena’s eyes. She smothered it in a moment and leaned against the wall, tipping her gaze to the ceiling. “So the way I understand it, Darrien has no physical proof as long as the ring’s magic holds, and we keep our presence in the ruins a secret. Right?”
I took a step toward her. “Right.”
She stared right through me. “Kost was right. You should’ve stayed home.” Pushing herself away from the wall and taking the stairs two at a time, she called down to us without a second glance. “Be ready to leave at dawn.”
“Leena—”
She slammed the door to one of the rooms, effectively ending the conversation.
Red haze seized control of my limbs and I continued after her, each footfall a deafening warning begging my muscles to listen. Control had gone the way of frustration. She was so close. Within reach. I couldn’t let her go. If I did, I’d lose it all over again. Amira and Bowen would come back and beg me to do the thing I’d been fighting since the beginning. Hand outstretched, I reached for the railing to follow her up.
“Noc.” Ozias appeared in a plume of shadows and braced a heavy hand against my chest. “Let her go.”
Someone pulled the strings attached to my body, and I bared my teeth without thought. “Get out of my way.”
“No.” With a forceful push, he shoved me back toward the table. “You’re not acting like yourself. Don’t make things worse.”
I steeled my anger with a slow breath. He was right, of course, but it was so damn hard to control the raging emotions inside me.
“You could’ve told us sooner.” Ozias folded his arms to his chest, eyes downcast. “Calem too. We’re all here for you, Noc.”
The unbridled disappointment in his low tone deflated me entirely. Red receded to a pale mirage, and I swallowed hard. “I know. I didn’t want to burden you. I wanted that life to stay in the ground. None of it mattered until recently.”
“Then you should’ve told us when it mattered.” Moving toward the stairs, Ozias paused at the first step. “I’m not a fan of who I used to be, either. And never once have you asked me to dredge up the past, so I get that. But when it could affect us, we deserve to know. To help. You’re not the only one who wants to protect the ones they care about.” He climbed the stairs without another word, leaving Kost and me alone to sift through the shattered remains of my lies.
Fourteen
The Frozen Prince
50 years ago
The first thing I saw was darkness. A maelstrom of shadows that varied from slate to onyx to sable, all somehow unique. They were gentle in their touch, and I realized I could feel my fingers. My limbs. My body. There wasn’t any pain. There wasn’t much of anything at all. The total and complete silence was deafening and yet comforting. The sounds of war and death, gone. Here there were no whispers or judgments threading low through conversations.
And then there was a pinprick of light—a pale gray that hinted at smoke. It grew until it devoured the expanse, blanketing out the darkness and bringing with it sounds. A rustling of bodies and hushed words. Voices I didn’t recognize and couldn’t piece together through the veil of mist. And then a fiery heat bloomed in my chest, and my heart, which had been still, beat once against my ribs. Searing pain cracked through me like a hammer battering brittle wood. Light blossomed behind my eyes. Again my heart beat, this time with less anguish but more vigor, and more flickers of light erupted in the gray.
The voices grew impossibly loud, and suddenly I could feel. I was flat on my back somewhere, blades of grass tickling my neck. My clothes were damp, as if my body had been soaked at one point and was only now beginning