Page 4 of A Requiem of Fire and Ice

I sit on the ledge with my leg propped up and my arm resting on my knee while I look over the kingdom. Everyone calls it Flesh. Perhaps it’s the spikes adorning the mass of stone walls encircling the kingdom, and on those spikes are none other than the heads of traitors that give the kingdom its name. Every night, I walk past them and remember their deaths, mainly caused by my knights or myself.

A sudden, high-pitched, wailing cry echoes through the castle grounds, snapping me out of my thoughts. Lowering my gaze to two men cowering on the ground, I watch them clutch their wrists and writhe in pain. Soon enough, they will stop seizing up and gaze at each other with newfound love for someone they never knew existed.

A tether, as their hearts become bound as one.

What a sad and fucking pitiful sight to witness on this smoke-filled night.

Soulmate? No, it’s more like collateral. Tethering is nothing but a death sentence. A liability. A way to realise that your life isn’t the most valuable. You cherish that other life, or else yours will fall without understanding how.

But it benefits me nearly all the time.

With an exhaled breath, I run my fingers through my red hair. A shadow moves beside me, and Astin drops, his hands on the ledge, looking like a frog ready to leap. His silver eyes cast out, overlooking the scorched gardens, and a grave expression tightens on his face.

He is wearing what he often wears when on duty: a long grey coat, a button-up black shirt, and dark grey denim jeans.

My time here overlooking the kingdom has ended.

“We’ve got orders,” Astin says as he rises. “King Ragan wants us to move out. Alad has given me the coordinates of where he wants us to head.”

“Who are we after?” I persist, already disinterested in the idea of orders without details.

“A fire elemny snuck his tethered elemny into the Kingdom of Flesh.” Astin eyes me as he says, “They’re a water elemny.”

As I rise, an irritable sigh escapes me. “It’s not as if they can forget. Everyone who enters the Kingdom of Flesh signs in at the gates to keep the king and queen protected from a sudden assassination.”

“Very well. Let’s get this over and done with,” I say.

Astin grimaces. “King Ragan wants to create a spectacle out of this. He aims to put on a show this weekend to warn any elemny of Flesh that if they break the rules, they will face the death penalty.”

I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. He wants this televised. Perhaps he will even broadcast it to all of Eraminia. There’s nothing the king wouldn’t do to display how powerful and in command he is. If he wanted to, he would order me to burn an entire kingdom.

It wouldn’t be the first time.

“Only us,” I declare. “Let’s leave the other knights on their vacation. There’s no reason to call them back soon for something so trivial.”

“You’re right.” Astin stares at the darkened streets and says, “Besides, I don’t want those lovebirds around so soon. It’s been peaceful in our quarters without them.”

I grunt my response before stepping off the castle. The black overcoat I wear flaps in the decaying wind.

It doesn’t take long to get where we need to go. Astin is an amazing tracker, and it’s likely the reason I have kept him alive—and the fact that he fucking kills any elemny deemed better than he is at his job.

A tracker this good is a rarity.

He is also the only one I can tolerate being around. Astin doesn’t annoy the fuck out of me.

In the outer reaches of the kingdom, near the entrance to Flesh, homes boast large acres of land. My nostrils flare at the smell of shit. From the corner of my eye, cows graze what little grass there is. They look starved compared to the livestock in other kingdoms.

Flesh lacks the lush grass found in the other kingdoms. Burnt, barren ground as far as the eye can see because fire elemny are hot-headed, uncaring of property, belching smoke from their arses and erupting in fits of roaring flames.

Astin pays attention to the wall. A trickle from our water source flows through the metal bars. We exchange glances before Astin lifts the bars off the wall. They’re loose.

Huh. They must be around here. Close enough to use one of these houses for cover.

Astin scans the inside of the tunnel while I check my surroundings. I wander down the street, focusing on each dried-out lawn until I spot something unfamiliar within Flesh. I crouch low to the weeds sprouting at the edge of someone’s yard. Their blue petals are delicate against my heat. Red lily weeds grow in Flesh, not blue. Blue lilies are common in the Kingdom of Storm, where water elementals live.

I open the gate and enter the yard. As I do, I scan the dead grass. Yet whoever lives here does a respectable job of concealing whomever they’re hiding—but not from me. Small patches of scorched grass seem tactically flamed out rather than resulting from a fire elemny enjoying the sight of flames on dry grass.

Stepping onto the veranda, I rap my knuckles on the door. Echoes shudder from inside, as if the entryway is hollow. While I wait, Astin roams around the side of the yard.