“You just think you’re so clever,” she said up at him.
Reeve bent until his nose nearly brushed hers. “What if I just want to feel those clothes I bought you up close?”
“In that case, I’ll take them off,” she quipped, before she realized her mistake.
Reeve’s nose scrunched, exposing all his teeth in a sharp smile. “Even better.”
“I don’t need help riding a horse,” she argued.
“No, I’m certain you ride with a perfected gait,” said Reeve with a mischievous shake of his head. “It’s your inability to protect yourself currently that dictates you’ll be riding with me.”
“I can protect myself fine,” she muttered coolly, knowing it wasn’t true.
Reeve shrugged. “Alright,” he flicked his hand up, and across the crystal courtyard, at a decent distance from them, a glowing symbol appeared. “Hit that with lightning and you can have your own horse.”
Maeve rolled her eyes and stepped towards the remaining horse, knowing she couldn’t do as he instructed, not without proper stimulation.
The gods must have had pity on her in that moment, because Eryx grinned and said, “Damn. She’s not even going to try,” with far too much satisfaction.
Power sparked to life beneath her skin. She whipped around and pointed two fingers at the symbol Reeve conjured, firing on it with a singular electric bolt of bright blue lightning.
Static clung to the air like glue in the aftermath, erasing Eryx’s smug expression.
But Maeve’s brows pulled together and her lips parted in confusion. She had not hit the target. She missed by mere inches. She looked over her shoulder at Reeve. His arm was raised, Magic still lingering on his fingertips.
“That’s not fair,” said Maeve, her outstretched arm dropping to her side.
“Why did you assume your target couldn’t move?” he questioned. “Do you think out there if someone aims to hurt you, they’ll stand perfectly still and wait for someone to piss you off?”
Maeve wanted to punch him for acting like she’d never been in a fight.
Reeve reached for her arm.
“I don’t need help getting on a fucking—”she began, but the words died in her throat as Magic pressed against her, contorting her body against his as her stomach flipped over.
In her next blink, she was straddling the largest of the three horses, and Reeve was flush behind her. Her back straightened at once.
With a sigh, she said, “Can I at least have the reins?”
Reeve reached beneath her arm as a Portal swirled into existence before them, painting a blurry picture of distorted blues and greens, and snow and ice on the other side. He took the reins in one broad, tattooed hand and pressed his nose against the tip of her ear, his warm breath fanning down her neck.
“No,” he hummed.
His other hand slid flat across her stomach. The bond of Magic between them swirled in warm approval. Slowly and with immense hesitation, she placed her hand over his and relaxed against him.
Heims was colder than she remembered. The freezing assault on her face didn’t last long, though, as Reeve put up a warm shield around them as his Portal swirled closed behind them. Drystan and Eryx flanked her and Reeve on either side, turning in circles to get a full view of the forest surrounding them.
Thick sheets of snow coated the ground in pure white. Evergreen fans of branches and leaves peeked out from beneath shelves of snow, shooting into the sky. The air itself flurried with drops of ice, which bounced off the shield Reeve kept around them.
There was no path. Reeve maneuvered them between trees and around the underbrush as Drystan and Eryx spread a bit farther from them, expanding their line. The expanse of the forest stretched as far as she could see in all directions. And judging by how silent the atmosphere was, she knew they must have been deep in the woodlands of Heims.
“How do you know where they are?” asked Eryx.
“I don’t,” said Reeve. “But they should have felt me the moment we crossed into their lands in the forest.”
“So they are coming to us?” asked Maeve.
“They are,” he answered.
