Chapter 36 #3
‘It’s beautiful. Truly,’ I tell him, looking at the others in the pile. At least two of them are me. One out on the ice, my dagger sheathed at my thigh and my hand raised as shards of ice hang in the air. The other is only partly done, and I think I’m sitting, but I can’t quite be sure.
After dinner, he goes straight back to it, and I can’t help but think about how Magnus described meditation as choosing your thoughts. Something tells me that’s what Kyor’s doing while he draws: slowing his mind so that there are only the thoughts he wants within it.
I just wish I knew which thoughts he was choosing.
Given how the day has gone, I decide to treat myself to a bath. A full bath with hot water. At least it’s hot when I get into it, but by the time I get out, my teeth are chattering.
‘You’re going to need to keep me warm tonight,’ I say, standing by the fire to ensure I’m fully dry before I dive under the blankets and furs.
‘Oh? Well, I’ll have to think of some fun ways of doing that.’ Kyor grins.
True to his word, the prince gets my body more than a little heated, and when I fall asleep, our limbs are so entangled that I can’t tell where I end and he begins.
Maybe it should be uncomfortable, his knee between mine, his arm beneath my ribs, but it’s not.
This muddle of him and me is my favourite manner in which to fall asleep, which I do remarkably quickly.
My slumber is full of dreams. The earlier ones are less than pleasant, as images of Rottings marching with an army of giant ice wolves fill my mind, but at some point the visions change, and I find myself dreaming of Kay.
Unlike the last time I saw my sister, she’s laughing. She’s sitting on the floor, surrounded by a dozen children and a feeling of love and peace, and as a cold draught threatens to wake me, I snuggle deeper into Kyor, not wanting to lose the moment.
We’ve drifted apart slightly in the night, which is where I assume the coldness has come from, but as I roll over, my eyes fluttering with the waning shroud of sleep, a light catches my attention.
‘Kyor, why in the Gods’ names did you open the window?’ I shuffle up to sitting, not wanting to fully rouse myself, but knowing I won’t sleep until it’s closed. It’s barely open an inch, but at these temperatures it’s enough to make the warmth of the room plummet in no time.
‘The window?’ He groans. ‘What?’
Still barely awake, I pull a blanket over my shoulders, yet as I go to stand, the window opens wider still. The movement is completely smooth and controlled, as though someone is pulling it outwards. The realisation hits. Someone is pulling it open.
‘Kyor! The window!’
Within an instant he’s awake and upright in bed, diving for the sword he keeps under his pillow.
‘Thorn? What is it?’
‘I … I don’t know!’
My heart hammers as I too lunge for a weapon. I reach for the dagger on the bedside table, yet as my fingertips move to grab it, my skin finds something far warmer. Flesh.
‘Someone’s in here!’ I scream, digging my nails into the skin that I still can’t see, while my other hand sweeps out and tries to grab the dagger, but something – or rather someone – knocks my blade to the ground.
‘They want the dagger!’ I yell. ‘Why the fuck can’t I see them?’
‘They’re a shade!’ Kyor is on his feet, blocking the space between the bed and the open window. ‘There’s a fucking shade in here!’
I’ve never faced a shade before. Never even seen one, which, I guess, is entirely the point of their power.
‘We can’t let them get the dagger!’ I holler my command to Kyor at the exact moment that the blade rises from the ground, only to instantly fall again, as if it’s been dropped.
A yelp of pain shoots out from the ether.
Yeah, motherfucker! It’s hot as hell if you’re not the dagger’s bonded.
‘There!’ I point where I believe the sound came from and punch out repeatedly, striking nothing but air.
‘I’ll focus on him; you get the dagger!’ Kyor yells to me.
‘How, when you can’t fucking see him?’ I respond, lunging for the dagger on the floor and almost whooping when I manage to get it. I flip to my feet, dagger at the ready. My grip on it is so tight that my knuckles are almost white.
As fantastic as Kyor’s powers and fighting prowess are, in both cases he needs a target to strike at, and right now he hasn’t got one.
‘Get down!’ I yell to Kyor. I wait a beat for him to hit the deck, and then I send a thousand shards of ice into the air … but they fly uninhibited until they hit the walls.
‘Rose? What’s going on?’ Benny and Ruben sweep into the room, both dressed in very little. ‘What’s happening?’
‘There’s someone in here,’ Kyor snaps. ‘A shade.’ His eyes are still scanning the room, searching for any sign of the infiltrator. ‘Block the door! Benny, can you see anything?’
The two men remain poised as Kyor turns in a slow circle, though my eyes are on Benny, certain if anyone’s going to spot something, it’s him. But then a strike to the stomach knocks me backward, and an invisible force tries to rip the dagger from my hand.
‘He’s on me!’ I yell, grappling with strikes that come at my arms and wrists. My knuckles throb as my grip on the hilt only tightens. ‘Kyor!’ I repeat. ‘You need to get him.’
‘I can’t!’ he shouts back. ‘Not without risking hitting you!’
‘Do it!’ I scream, but as the words fly from me, the pressure releases entirely and there can only be one reason why. ‘He’s trying to escape!’ A mirror smashes and I spin in that direction, only to realise too late it was a diversion.
‘The window – he’s gone out the window!’ Benny yells. He’s right. The open window is swaying slightly.
Kyor lunges towards it and the air goes heavy with static as thick clouds roil above us.
‘No!’ I strike him. ‘You can’t start firing lightning in the palace! Ranveeg will kill you!’
‘Fuck!’ he growls, anger radiating from him, but we’re not done yet. We might be in here. But our wolves aren’t.
Fen! I scream in my head. Somebody tried to steal the dagger. A shade. You need to find them! Follow their scent.
I know, Little Raven! I ran as fast as I could. I heard you through the bond, but…
But? Fen never gives buts.
What is it? I question. Are you all right?
Yes, yes, Little Raven. But I’m outside now. Beneath your window. But there is no scent. No sound. Nothing.
Nothing. My stomach plummets.
Without scent or sound, there’s nothing he can track.
Which means whoever just tried to get the dagger is going to get away, and the fact that they tried to steal it at all makes me think they know a hell of a lot more than we do.