A deep whooshing noise draws me from my spiraling thoughts, and when I look up, I’m surprised to find Rhune hovering right in front of me, a grinning Willow clutched tightly in his arms.
“See! I told you he was up here.” Rhune twists mid-air, then slowly lowers his body to the ledge next to me. Keeping Willow in his lap, his wings curl around her small body, blocking the snow flurries and protecting her warmth. When he’s certain she’s protected from the cold, he turns his attention to me. “Willow was worried when she woke up and you were gone. I thought it was best to show her you were alive and well.”
“I wasn’tthatworried.” Her cheeks heat the most delicious shade of pink. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t get eaten by an ice wyrm.”
“Did you have another nightmare?” My chest clenches with worry as I take in the dark circles beneath her eyes.
She shakes her head, a gentle smile tipping her lips. “No nightmares. I actually slept great. It’s just when I woke up and you weren’t there, I convinced myself something terrible had happened.”
My heart swells as I reach over, cupping her rosy cheek in my palm. Despite the cold, her skin holds a lovely warmth where the blood has risen to the surface, and I want nothing more than to lean in, to feel all of her naked heat against my body.
I shake away those thoughts, pulling my hand away and forcing it to my lap. Willow is Rhune’s mate, and it would be wrong for me to hoard her to myself in that way. Not to mention the fact that we nearly died and have lost our home. Truly, my obsession with Willow is the last thing I should be thinking of.
Though, as the cycles go by, it gets harder and harder to ignore.
I glance at Willow’s profile, and my chest clenches with longing. I wish to hold her like that. To feel her warmth against my heart.
“All you had to do was ask,” Willow says, grinning as she climbs out of Rhune’s lap into mine.
“I… didn’t realize I’d said it out loud.” I wrap my wings around her small frame, pulling her in close. “But I am honored.”
She snuggles up to me, and we all watch the ocean some more. After a while, Willow turns her head, her eyes narrowed in a knowing gaze. “Something’s on your mind. You’re far too quiet.”
“You being a worry-wort again?” Rhune asks, turning to me with wide, innocent eyes.
I stifle a laugh. “It seems like Willow’s been teaching you some more useful human words.”
He nods, his mouth spreading into a wide grin. “She has. So far, I’ve learneddouche canoe, that’s bananas, YOLO, and…”He brings a finger to his chin, thinking hard. “Oh! That’s right!” He clears his throat, placing his hands on his hips in his best impression of Willow when she’s being sassy. “Talk to the hand.”
To my surprise, Rhune leaps up, stretches his hand palm-out toward my face, then does a pivot and begins sashaying in the opposite direction.
Okay…
I glance at Willow out of the corner of my eye, and my confusion increases when I find her clutching her stomach in a fit of silent laughter.None of my research on humans ever prepared me for this…
“You know he’s not going to stop saying those phrases now, right? Most likely incorrectly and out of context.”
Her lips curl in a genuine smile. “I know. It’s cute how excited he gets, though.”
“Alas, it is.” I breathe a laugh, sharing a conspiratorial grin with Willow. I lean close to her ear, whispering, “I’ve never seen him this happy, you know. He finally seems like he… like he has something to live for. And it’s all because of you.”
Her face flushes, and she turns her gaze to the horizon, suddenly very interested in one of the icepips flitting along the shore. “I don’t know what it is I did to make him so happy. I’ve been a little bit mean to him, actually.”
I shake my head with a knowing grin. “You still don’t understand. You will, though. In time, you’ll realize thatyoumake him happy. Just you, being you. There is nothing else.”
“Nothing else of what?” Rhune plops down on the edge, inching closer so he’s within arm’s reach of Willow.
“I was just telling her how happy she makes you by being herself.”
Rhune looks at me with wide, excited eyes. “You do! Every little thing about you is utterly perfect, from the tippy top of your head down to your toes, inside and out. Just being around you brings me joy.”
She blushes, her heart thudding loud enough for both of us to hear. The ring around her pupils glows bright red, seeming to glow with the emotion thrumming within her. “Rhune, I?—”
Before she can finish, a group of icepips fly by, their shrieking calls drowning out whatever it is Willow was going to say. As theflock veers toward the open water, one of the members breaks off, soaring in a sweeping arc back toward the cliffs.
Is it… is it heading towardher?
The icepip circles high above, shrieking its call to the heavens and flapping its shimmering frost-colored wings. Then, to my utter surprise, it swoops down and lands on the top of Willow’s head.
