Lorcan ripped his sword from his back, and his fellow guards followed suit. And, as his stomach twisted, he watched as Thane pulled his own sword from its scabbard, twisting it sideways so that the sharp edge faced the argumentative fae.
The two ice warriors charged toward Thane who stayed rooted to the spot, waiting for the attack.
Lorcan cursed the prince beneath his breath. Thane was going to get himself killed. A flash of pain went through his mark, but he ignored it. He had to protect Thane, even if it went against his true liege’s orders.
As the ice fae’s glinting sword whistled through the air, Lorcan ground his teeth and charged. He got between the attacker and the prince a mere breath before the sword sliced right through Thane’s head. He held up his own sword, blocking the blow. The steel rang in the dead silence of the pub, a clash that forced Lorcan to take a step back.
Instantly, his shoulder ached and pain lanced through his head. Gritting his teeth, Lorcan forced himself to fight through it, but the power of his mark was almost too much to bear.
He wanted to rip off his armor and dig the mark out of his skin. With his nails or his sword, he did not care, so long as it no longer plagued him. Stumbling to the side, he slashed again. He managed to knock the fae back, but a dozen more ice fae had joined the fight. Lorcan and his fellow guards were sorely outnumbered. Still, they fought on, throwing themselves in front of the prince to protect him from harm.
From behind Thane, a youthful fae wearing a cook’s apron suddenly appeared with a small dagger in his hands.
“Thane, watch out!” Lorcan shouted.
Thane whirled. He stabbed blindly at the approaching boy, whipping his blade around just in time. Thane made contact, and his sword slid deep into the ice fae’s body, blood blooming on the white apron.
Everything stopped.
Lorcan’s heartbeat thundered loudly in his ears. Prince Thane of the Air Court, the supposed new ally of the ice fae, had just killed an innocent cook, even if the boy had been wielding a blade.
And all of these warriors loyal to their kingdom had witnessed it.
“Vreis,” Lorcan grunted. The warrior gave a solemn nod. He shoved his sword into the chest of the nearest ice fae, downing him even as the fight had come to a terrible stop. Lorcan whirled to the next, and the fighting began anew. He sliced and parried, killing fae after fae until blood painted the walls of the inn.
After what felt like hours, the slaughter was over. They had lost two of their guards, but the Ice Court had lost dozens. Lorcan shuddered and wiped red spatter off his face as he strapped his sword onto his back, grimacing at the stench of blood and guts that hung in the once-cheery air.
“We will have to destroy the evidence of this fight,” Vreis said quietly as the two of them watched the prince stumble out of the inn and into the night, his face full of shock and regret. “If the Ice Court discovers what happened here this night...”
“They will never ally with the Air Court,” Lorcan murmured. “How will we hide it? It isn’t as though Thane can lie.”
“Their Ruin,” Vreis said. “Tales say it looks as though it burns buildings to the ground. We will set fire to this inn. That will destroy all signs of battle. And then we will never again speak of this night.”
Lorcan grimaced and turned away, his mark pulsing with pain. He followed Thane out of the inn and explained the plan. The prince looked dumbstruck, his eyes wide, his cheeks as white as clouds.
“This is not what I wanted, Lorcan. How did it come to this?”
“A century of war, my old friend,” he muttered. “Death is far more familiar now than peace.”
As the flames engulfed the pub, Lorcan stumbled away, insisting he needed to relieve himself in the forest. He stomped through the snow, holding tight to his shoulder. The mark’s pain was so intense that he almost fell to his knees.
When he was out of earshot of the prince and his fellow guards, he pushed aside his tunic and hissed, “Begone. I am following orders. Nothing good will come out of my letting the prince get murdered on my watch. There were plenty of others to witness my actions. I would be banished from the Air Court, and your work is not finished as of yet.”
He always felt strange speaking to his mark. It was not as though the maker of it could hear him or even see what Lorcan was doing. The mark had a mind of its own, anditdecided when it thought he wasn’t following orders. And, somehow, it could understand him.
Immediately, the sharp pain transformed into a dull ache. Satisfied, Lorcan shoved the sleeve of his tunic over his shoulder to hide the mark, crunching through the snow to rejoin Prince Thane, Vreis, and the others beside the burning pub. Orange light filled the night sky, great plumes of smoke joining the falling snow.
That had been far too close. If the fight had not been so chaotic, Thane would have noticed the sluggishness of Lorcan’s swordplay. It could easily happen again. The further he got into his mission, the more his mark doubted his intentions. The more Lorcan doubted them himself. He would have to be more careful.
Otherwise, Thane would soon realize that Lorcan was not who he said he was. Or worse...the mark would finally make him do something he would forever regret.
3
Thane
Prince Thane had never visited the centuries-old city of Falias, and it was nothing as he’d expected. In the midst of so much ice, he had imagined a dark and dreary hulking mass of nondescript buildings sat amidst barren lands. But Starford Castle sat atop a majestic hill, surrounded by snow-blanketed evergreens, its six magnificent towers topped with ice-blue spires that glowed.
The city itself spilled out on the hills around the castle. Buildings were interspersed with the ancient trees, stone houses with thatched roofs that sagged with snow.Most of the buildings were simple structures, but every inch of the outside walls had been carved with designs—a pair of flared wings on some, a single eye on others, one that seemed to watch him as he moved down the snow-packed street. No smoke puffed out from chimneys. Fire wasn’t needed here. The ice fae didn’t feel the cold.
