Queen of Summer's Ice (Book 2)

Chapter 25

     The violins have not stopped playing since the morning sun broke through the mountains. It was out of respect for the dead. And because there was no proper burial for those who died in the war when my mother ruled, I am making it my own way - and violins are the way I want to start off this damn day. 

     So when the sun turned the winter sky into an orange hue, this castle, this season will know that I had cared for each and every life. Because they cared for me, fought for me, died for me. One thing that scared me the most - they faced. The idea of death was so unreal for an immortal like me, but it hurt. Lands below did it hurt to see the people around me die. As I laid there in bed, I thought of how many more times I would have to do this. How many times will the violins have to wake me up in the morning? 

     Another five before the end of the year? Ten? I sighed in frustration through my nostrils. 

     "I couldn't sleep either," Ray said in a husky voice right next to me. I turned my body so I could face him better. The sun was hitting his bare back, making him glow like something magical. But his human face - the tiny noticeable wrinkles around his mouth from smiling his whole life, the scars on his hands that never faded, the bruises he still had on his body - he wasn't magic. 

     I brought my hand to his face and caressed his cinnamon colored cheak. "I heard you snoring you liar," I teased.

     His eyes closed, his face turned towards the sun that graced him his colored skin, and he smiled. "I love you so much Evie."

     "And I will always love you."

----

     King Ray was dressed in a white suit that was decorated in dark blue sapphire cufflinks and a matching colored tie. And he held Liam's walking cane with him, which he would place onto the body after every word was said.

     Ray kissed the back of my neck as I stood at the rooms door, wanting - not wanting, to get out. "I didn't know him as long as you did," he said, his warm breath tickling the open skin, "but I do know that he would have rather died a knight than in his bed."

     Another shaky breath for me, and I nodded in agreement. The King - My husband - Ray - was right.

     "Make sure you take the poison out of the cane," was my reply.

     Ray kissed my neck again, "Yana is already wearing it in her new necklace."

     The noise that left me sounded like a snicker, "Who do you think she'll use it on first, Hudson or Alagan?"

     "She'll find a way to use it on both."

---

     There was no delaying it any further. The funeral was happening. Hundreds of people gathered here at the castle for the ceremony. And hundreds more were in their own home burring their dead in their back yards and cemeteries. But here would be the knights who lived at the castle, the knights that had no family, no children to inherit anything. 

     Hundreds of winter eyes from men, women and children of all ages looked up at me. My crepe silhouette dress was white like the snow around me and that was it. No lace, no diamonds, no fancy designs. And down next to the body of Liam was Hudson and Yana. Alagan was hidden more in the crowd with a hood covering his spring like face. I told him to stay inside, but he insisted to be here for it all if he was going to be the new king of Spring.

     The snow fell gently today, I wanted it elegantly beautiful for them all.

     "These knights paid the ultimate price," I said into the crowd of my people, "and that will not be forgotten. Not by you, not by their loved ones, and certainly not by me." I should have been here. I should have saved them. I should have never left.