Page 17 of A Bond of Fire and Roses

Something pulls his attention backwards to the passageway. I glance over my shoulder. The second torch remains lit by the entrance and the doorway is unoccupied. However, Noble’s frown deepens. He throws aside the remaining rocks and wipes his hand down his dark clothes.

“Now, are you coming back with me or are you going to be a pain in the ass after all?”

I’m not ready to go back. I don’t think I’ll ever be when I know what waits for me. It’s just another prison after all, albeit one with a longer leash. But I’m not as anxious as I was earlier. This encounter has somehow managed to help calm me down, and that’s really what I needed. I can’t run away from my fate forever. Not for some time, at least.

I follow Noble back to the passageway. He picks up the torch and leads the way, the halo of light guiding our path down. In the days I’ve been trapped here, I have seen a number of guards come and go outside my room. Noble has never been one of them. He looks too young to rank above them, yet his clothes say otherwise. They are of high quality, and the cloak he draped over me is as thick as the king’s had been. Except, their scents couldn’t be more different to each other. Erax had smelled like fire and roses, whereas Noble is like freshly fallen snow settled over treetops at dawn. Odd considering the other guards’ scents had carried that faintest hint of burning leaves. There is almost something similar about Noble’s scent.

“Is Noble your real name?” I ask.

“Fuck no. You think I’d let my mother call me that? I would have crawled back inside her.”

His reply almost makes me laugh, and blush. I bite my lip and continue to follow him. “Then why do they call you Noble?”

At the end of the passage, he opens the door and waits for me to step through. In the firelight I notice his forehead is creased with a frown. I step over the threshold back into the warmth of the palace. Noble follows me a moment later.

“It’s a long story,” he says, leading the way again. “One for a night when you’re not busy preparing for a wedding and we both have wine.”

My stomach lurches at the reminder. My wedding.

“Where are we going now?” I ask, my breathing quickening as I follow Noble up the stairs to the training wing that is usually full of soldiers learning the ranks. It’s empty now.

“My orders were to bring you back.” He lowers his voice, a playful gleam in his eye, and glances back at me. “Don’t worry, ice princess. The pond remains our little secret for now.”

For now? I nod despite my growing unease, still not entirely sure that I can trust this man. I guess only time will tell if I can. In the meantime, I need to gain as many allies as I possibly can while I’m trapped here. Noble could be a good start.

He takes me back to my room. Four guards stand by the entrance and the door is slightly ajar. There’s usually only one guard stationed outside. My heart drops to the pit of my stomach. What if there’s another tradition, I haven’t heard of that takes place the night before the wedding? What if in this kingdom, your bonding occurs prior to etching your vows of eternity into the stone of fate?

What if it’s all completely different here?

My heartbeat increases with every step towards my room. The guards immediately move aside for Noble, confirming he is of higher rank to them. I can’t even turn my head to look at him when we stop outside. My gaze is rooted on the door, my focus latched on the familiar scent permeating through the gaps.

Noble pushes the door fully open. Erax stands leaning against my dresser, his hands clenching the sides, with his gaze fixed on me. I can barely hear my thoughts over the racing of my heart.

“Remove the cloak,” Erax growls. “My wife does not need it.”

His eyes stay narrowed on me as Noble removes the cloak, revealing my slightly damp body to the cool night air filtering through the balcony window. He closes the door behind him, and all the blood drains from my body as I try not to squirm under the king’s gaze. Now we are alone, and I’ve nowhere left to run.

“Where were you?” he asks after several moments of tense silence.

I lift my chin again, hoping to convey a false sense of calmness I do not feel inside. “I went for a stroll, in the gardens, like you said I could.”

The irony is that I went for a stroll and nearly died, again, like he told me not to. I don’t tell him that.

He scoffs and crosses his arms. “Funny. I sent several guards to the gardens yet none of them could find you.”

“That’s because I?—”

“I might have given you free reign of the palace,” he cuts in tersely, “but as of tomorrow you are to be my wife. I expect to be able to find my wife whenever I have need of her.”

I clasp my hands behind my back, more to prevent myself from clenching them. “And what need did you have of me this night, Your Majesty?”

His upper lip twitches. With what emotion, I am not sure, but it makes my heart stutter and skip a beat, nevertheless. He crosses the room towards me. I consider stepping back but my feet remain glued to the floor, as frozen as the pond had been.

“I think you know what I need, Mist.” His fingers slide under my chin and lift my head, forcing me to look up at him. “I need you to wash that other male’s scent off your body.”

My voice catches in my throat. “I – I already washed today. There’s no need to waste—uughh!”

He swoops me into his arms before I can finish speaking. I grab hold of him to keep myself from falling, painfully aware of his hands on my upper thigh, now sliding over my behind. My body immediately flushes at the contact.

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