Page 78 of Wings of Ice and Steel

Thirty-four

Ariadnne

She was late.

She was never late.

Even in the worst fits of teenage rage she would be the first to the sands.

Ariadnne’s mood was dark as she stalked the corridors. She’d thought about not going at all, consequences be damned, but her restless mind wouldn’t settle. The walls felt too close, the sky too far.

Nieve had pleaded, again, for her to run away while entwined in her arms. Ariadnne had told her she’d think about it, and right now she was thinking about it. Damn the curse.

Melixanthe was already on the sands with Garth, boot tapping as she measured the position of the sun. Ariadnne refused to look at her. Instead flinging a blade, handle-first, at Garth.

‘Let’s go,’ she growled, attacking before he had a chance to raise a brow.

Reckless, her moves lacked her usual finesse as she hacked at him in a storm of fury.

Garth sent her sprawling, skins smarting from his well-aimed kick. ‘Sloppy,’ he grunted, twirling his blade with a shake of his head. ‘Moves like that will get you killed.’

Ariadnne’s eyes strayed sideways to Melixanthe’s face, drawn and grey, her mouth fixed in a firm, unyielding line even as her fingers played incessantly with the carved stone at her throat.

Ariadnne wished she would stop.

‘Isn’t there anywhere else you could be?’ she snarled, unable to keep the venom from her tone.

Melixanthe’s eyes widened.

‘What’s the matter?’ she stepped forward to offer her hand, but Ariadnne swatted it away, ignoring the look of hurt that flashed in her handler’s brown eyes as she scrambled to her feet, chest heaving with betrayal.

How dare Melixanthe go behind her back to rip Nieve from her life?

With an angry cry, she flung the sword at her feet. Unspoken words bubbled across the tip of her tongue, but their release would change nothing. She clenched her fists and spun on her heels. As an added insult, the guard turned to follow.

Walls echoed as she pounded back to her quarters, ears ringing and breath coming sharp. Cutting. Rage, pure and feral, billowed through her. Melixanthe’s drawn face had done nothing but add fuel to the inferno threatening to boil over.

Slamming the door behind her, Ariadnne hoped it broke her guard’s nose. It would serve him right for dogging her heels. She needed space.

A hint of pine still laced the air. Eyes closed, Ariadnne stopped to breathe it in—soothing her beast for a heartbeat. Hot, silver tears pooled in the corners of her eyes.

It was so new and delicate, her bond with Nieve, she had only just begun to learn it, to learn what it was to want, to need, and it was being ripped away.

Five more heartbeats and there was a bang behind her. Her door was flung open and Melixanthe strode in, voice hard as she begun a lecture.

‘Ariadnne—’

Her step faltered as she noticed Ariadnne’s tear-streaked face.

‘Oh. Ari. What’s going on?’

A bitter laugh. ‘You know what’s going on.’

Melixanthe stilled. ‘She told you, didn’t she?’

Ariadnne’s eyes burned with enough hatred to crack stone. ‘How could you? You know how it is for me here. How alone I am. I finally found something, someone, and you—you took her from me!’

‘I’m trying to protect you,’ Melixanthe said, her hands low as though approaching a wild animal. ‘You don’t know what the Guild is capable of…’