Page 109 of Winter Gods & Serpents

“Correct, but who cares what they say, I don’t care much about the talking part. As long as—” She yelped, interrupting herself at the handful of snow I plopped on her back. She sneered and glared at me, but at least stopped the course of action that sentence was taking.

“So why do you need dark craft carved in your body?” If it was work of a dark crafter, at this size it was no simple magic and one I definitely could not recognize despite all my knowledge on summon magic that they used those for. Summon magic was also much smaller, contained in a halo, usually used from attracting pregnancy to selling your soul to a Eldmoorian crafter and if that was the case, she would be mindless and probably chained to a crafters tower serving stew and tea to them. It had to be a tattoo, a very good one at that.

She frowned almost offended. “Did you just automatically assume I can’t bear through the pain?”

Fairly accused, I had. “So, what is it then?”

She turned away from me. “Think what you will, don’t care enough to give an answer.”

“Round these afront, I need to tie them at the back,” I said, giving her two sides of the bandage.

“Scared of breasts?”

“Forgot your severed relationship with respect.” I leaned over forward rounding it myself and she startled in surprise, as if she had not just dared me herself. Just as I’d thought, she was beautiful head to toe. “I am afraid if you don’t want my respect, I can’t give you anything else since I am not scared of you.” She must be used to teasing and not getting a response. Tying the bandage securely, I pulled the straps of her shirt up to her shoulders. “Now I am terrified.”

“What?”

I helped her pull the shirt back on. “You have a fine pair of breasts.”

She smiled wide, buttoning her jacket. “Second compliment of the day and it’s on my breast. I’ll take it, but please don’t go soft on me, Kilian.”

I wiped her blood away from my hands, cleaning my fingers with snow. “Not to worry, they rather make a man go hard. But your attitude helps maintain the balance.”

She then laughed, loud and warm. “Now he offends my attitude.”

“That I’ll probably never have a compliment for.”

She laughed some more and I stared much more than I’d normally allow myself to stare. I liked her laugh, her smile, and the gold orbs that washed in gleaming light. My eyes always seek her out when she laughs. She could still smile. It surprised me. Someone with the life she had could still smile. Was it genuine? She had told me everything felt like nothing. Was this a forced one? Had I ever seen a real one?

“We need to rest,” I said, pulling myself out from whatever enchantment she was casting. “The mist will take a while to dissolve. Let us hope the lands here need magic and absorb it quick, we could move before dawn.”

“We will be eaten by wolves in our sleep, or worse be killed by your people.”

How was getting killed by my people worse than being eaten by wolves? “Your priorities never cease to surprise me, but nothing of the sort will happen.” I pointed to the wall around us. “Now let’s sleep, if you know what that is.”

She let out a sharp whistle that was completely drowned by the wide landscape and dense forest enveloped by the Malefic.

“The morph won’t answer, the mist is shadows,” I told her. “It looks like smoke but is thick and impenetrable, Memphis would be stuck if she tried to enter and then consumed by it. Alarm her back not to come.”

She blinked in worry before letting three short sharp whistles. “I suppose we can’t make a fire?”

“Unless you see anything we can burn around us, no.”

She surveyed around the empty landscape drowned in snow and darkness, before dramatically adding, “Then we freeze.”

I’d laid down the dead men’s coats on the ground to shield the contact with the cold element. I sat down and unbuttoned my jacket completely and turned to her. “Come here.”

Her eyes shot wide. “What?”

“Body temperature will keep us from freezing, now come here.”

She staggered back a step. “You are severely mistaken if you believe I will do as much as touch you, let alone let you fondle me to sleep.”

“You escaped death thrice today I will not lose you to the cold, get up and come here or I will take you myself.”

She glared silently refusing to do as told, and just as I was about to stand, she got up and walked to me all battle and resistance.

Cautiously she laid beside me. “Will you not burst in hives from having to touch me?”