Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,86

way. Always looking down his nose at everyone else. Zoe starts screeching like a barn owl every time she’s forced to share a class with him.”

Zoe glared at him.

“With good reason,” Ken hastily amended. “Nottingham being her fiancé’s mortal enemy and all.”

“For the last time, he is not my fiancé.”

“Father said the Nottinghams dabble in the darker magicks,” West said. “But Uncle Hiram seems to think they’re all right.”

“His castle’s pretty isolated,” Ken pointed out. “Heck, the whole country’s been isolated. I don’t think he knows much about what goes on beyond his borders anymore.”

“Well, I’d rather not start pointing fingers,” Zoe said. “Not without evidence, and no matter what the Dame said.”

“I want to go faster,” Alex said abruptly. They had left the woods and were now riding across wide plains, the snow piled nearly as high as their horses’ knees. He pointed at something in the distance. “That’s a village, isn’t it?”

“We need to be careful, Your Highness,” Zoe cautioned. “We don’t know what’s in there.”

“Of course I know what’s in there!” Alex exploded. “It’s a damn village! There’ll be people in it!”

“Alex!” Tala admonished.

“We’ll take a look if you’d like,” Zoe agreed. “But be careful where you put your horse’s hooves down. Loki told me earlier that they’d seen evidence of tra—”

Alex leaned forward and dug his heels into his horse’s sides. The startled stallion bolted forward, straight on toward the hill.

Ken swore furiously and took off after him, Loki close behind. “Stop!” the boy commanded, in a loud strident voice, and Alex’s steed obeyed, halting abruptly in its tracks and remaining perfectly still.

“That fool!” Zoe burst out furiously.

Both Ken’s and Loki’s horses had caught up to Alex; after a minute, Ken was leading them back to the group. Alex’s horse was obedient, but its rider was fuming. He tugged hard at the reins, trying to turn back, but the stallion refused to listen.

“What are you doing?” Zoe snapped.

“Don’t take that tone with me,” Alex shot back. “I’m your liege! You’re supposed to obey me!”

“Sure. But until we reach Lyonesse, we’re in charge. Your safety is our responsibility, and that includes deciding where and when to move. Look around you, Your Highness. What do you see?”

“An open field. Snow on the ground isn’t going to kill me.”

“No, but what’s been lying underneath the snow will. Loki found baited traps near the woods. There’s not a lot of animals here anymore, but that doesn’t mean people have retrieved their snares. Your horse could have stumbled onto one and broken its leg. Worse, it could have thrown you off, or even trampled you to death if it was spooked enough.”

“The villagers are my subjects,” Alex seethed. “They’ve waited twelve years for me to push back this winter.”

“Your High—”

“They’re my subjects!” the prince shouted. “I’m supposed to protect them! We were all supposed to protect them! I’m not going to let them wait another hour more!”

“Alex!” Tala yelled.

The boy stopped; his breath came in rapid bursts, his eyes dilated. “I can’t do this,” he spat out around gritted teeth. “I can’t… Being here in Avalon, seeing what she did to my kingdom. The destruction, the complete apathy of nearly everyone else outside of it, the absence of everything that I remember…I can’t.”

“Your Highness,” Zoe tried again. “I understand, but we have to make sure you—”

“Maybe if you’d used the time you spent dating a Locksley to come up with a better escape plan instead, we wouldn’t even be in this mess,” Alex snapped.

“That was uncalled for, Alex!” Tala burst out while Zoe looked shocked.

Alex turned away, stalking toward a nearby withered tree. The firebird poked its head out of the bag, watching him leave before turning beseeching eyes toward the group.

“He’s still not taking being in Avalon well, I’m guessing,” West said.

“I’m sorry,” Tala said. “I don’t know why he’s being an idiot.”

“It’s okay,” Zoe said quietly. “He hasn’t set foot here since he was a child, and it’s giving rise to a lot of emotions he might not be ready for yet.”

From the direction of the tree came a long howl of frustration and anger, followed swiftly by a loud bone-cracking thump.

Tala groaned, struggling to get off her horse. “Look, let me talk to him. I’ve known him longer, and he’ll listen to me. I hope.”

“Thanks,” Ken said. “But you’re staying,” he informed the firebird, who looked primed to follow.

The firebird scowled and bleated.

“Hey, don’t take that tone with me. You might be some legendary creature of myth, but