A Bond of Ice and Glass (Crowned by Wings Book 2) by G. Bailey & Scarlett Snow

Author:G. Bailey & Scarlett Snow [Bailey, G. & Snow, Scarlett]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Midnight Publishing Limited
Published: 2025-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

NOBLE

Ilean on the brick wall and watch my brother step out of Maelena’s room. I can’t help but wonder when Loch began to change into the man he is now. For most of my life, and the little contact I had with him, I’ve pretended the half-witch side to Loch wasn’t real. We have the same mother, and it’s easy enough to only see my mother in him. He looks like her for the most part, whereas I look like my father. I don’t know who Loch’s father is.

It’s always been a secret my parents kept and took to their graves.

But now when I look at Loch, I see the witch side I’ve tried to forget.

Witches are tricky creatures, and more than once, I’ve wished my brother wasn’t tainted by their stain. Now I’m beginning to see Loch for what he is, and I don’t like it. He’s becoming a liability.

He pauses at the door, tightening his gloves and smoothing his hands down his clothes. For the first time in months, I really look at my half-brother. It hurts to see how much he’s changed for this war.

How much the war has already begun to shape us all—breed us into something darker and unrelatable.

Loch has always been strange, even as a boy, but I assumed he grew out of it while he was away. He didn’t. He’s dived into the strangeness; he might as well be drowning in it. My father called him “the bastard-born waste” anytime Loch was brought up, but I defended him. Even if it cost me a beating. I have always defended Loch, and I bet I will to my grave, but…

These last few weeks have brewed something new in me.

Something I never thought I’d feel about my brother.

Doubt. And doubt can plant the worst kind of seeds in you because they don’t just grow. They fester.

I tilt my head at him, keeping to the shadows. He’s taking this too far. He’s messing with Maelena too much. I’m worried he’s going to break her mind and soul, never mind just her heart, before she can help us.

My father said there were no lines to cross in a war, but my mother taught me that lines of the heart and mind should never be crossed. Loch is using magic—he always has done—to twist the lines over each other. It’s changing him. I don’t know how magic works for the witches, but I’m certain that whatever Loch is using is hurting him.

And it’s hurting Maelena, too. I can’t let that happen.

Hurting her was never part of the plan.

I look at his hair. I swear it’s a shade darker, and he stands a bit straighter now too, with a presence he’s never had before. It’s surprising, and the brother I knew is gone now. I have to accept that and stop seeing the weak, pale boy in my mind. Even my men are answering to him now.

They never took him seriously before.

His gloves make a noise as he clenches his hand, and I’m tempted to rip them off.

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