Page 145 of Bone Year

“Hopefully not more than a couple hours. It looked like it was moving at a good pace.” He lowers himself to the ground against the wall and stretches his legs out, his head tilted back against the wood.

“That’s the most optimistic thing I’ve heard you say all week.”

“I am full of surprises.”

“Are you?”

“You shouldn’t look so suspicious. It is unflattering,” he says, and I grunt.

“I’m always suspicious of you, Alucard. You’ve given me nothing else to work with.”

I try to slow my body down, but now that we’re not moving, the shivering has gotten worse. I rub my hands together and blow warm air into them. The blanket might as well be a sheet of paper for all the good it’s doing.

“Your lips are turning blue.”

I look over at him. He’s watching me from the wall, his arms crossed loosely, his head still tipped back.

“It’s too dark in here for you to tell what color my lips are.”

“Vampire eyes.”

“That is going to get old very fast.”

“It’s already old. You’re still going to have to live with it.”

I drag the blanket tighter and try not to let him see my hands shaking inside it. “I’m fine.”

“Your jaw hasn’t stopped moving in five minutes.”

“That is a posture choice.”

“That is hypothermia.”

“You exaggerate.”

“You are stubborn. Why do you always try to hide how you feel?”

“I’m not stubborn. I’m a bone year student on a midterm who has been told her entire life that humans are weaker than every other bloodline, and I would prefer not to prove the point on the floor of a hunting blind in front of a vampire who would never let me live it down.”

He looks at me for a long moment, his eyes like molten honey.

“Come here.”

“I’m fine where I am.”

“Damn it, Maelis, come here.”

Moving would mean admitting I want to, and I am not ready to admit that to him or to myself.

“You are going to make me come over there, aren’t you?” Draven sighs deeply and repositions right next to me. I feel the heat of his body instantly and think maybe I shouldn’t have been so stubborn.

He lifts his arm without comment.

I duck under it and tuck myself against his side, my shoulder pressed to his ribs, and his arm comes down around my shoulders and his hand settles on the outside of my upper arm.

Noctis appears at my other side without warning.

He is so big the entire blind shifts when he settles in. He stretches out along the floor, his massive black body pressed against my hip, and he lays his head down across my lap with the deliberate care of an animal who knows exactly how much he weighs. Poppy chooses now to appear and drape herself over Noctis, snuggling into the fur on his back.