Page 113 of Winter Gods & Serpents

I took off my gloves and showed him my palms. There was no need for hiding anymore, he probably already figured out what they were. When the pain behind my back had shifted me to consciousness it had struck an idea. “The pain Empaths inflicts is the mental sort, right?” Though it had taken me three times to cover the pain the empath had caused me, it had worked.

He stilled, his gaze never leaving my palms. Grabbing both my wrists, he examined the blood coated half-moon marks atop. “Physical pain doesn’t make it go away, only substitutes it.”

“It makes it bearable. Nothing hurts much in my body lately.”

His face dressed in devastation when he look up at me. “Snowlin.”

He had just called my name for the first time.

I hid the flinch at the full sound of my name in his mouth, and cleared my throat. “Ingenious, right?”

He didn’t answer only opened his jacket once more, tearing again onto his white undershirt leaving him almost bare. For someone so bothered by scars, he had more than I could count. Though his body was made to have hands running to trace those dents of muscle, how could he blame me. I almost made myself dizzy tracing them. I shook my head at the thoughts of wanting to run something else beside my fingers over them.

He seemed to take notice and rose a dark brow full of question at me. “The fever taking a toll on you?”

I rolled my eyes. “Shut up.” Madness at such young age is concerning, lusting after the sort that called me a beast, sent to hunt me, and then killed my family. I had to see a healer once we went back. It seemed I was worse than I thought.

“Now I am concerned, where is the snarky remark full of lush insults? My pride, my vanity, my roots, my belief have not been wounded yet and the day is growing old.”

“I’ve never insulted your vanity,” I murmured between my teeth. I thought I caught a glimpse of a smile, fever was really taking a toll on me, or perhaps hunger or...just lust. Hells.

He slowly wrapped my palms, lastly putting my gloves on, gently, as if he could hurt me. He didn’t hold long into his curiosity as he asked, “How long have you been covering one pain with the other?”

And just like that, snapped and gone, all thought of him on me.

I was tired of his questions, tired of deflecting them, tired of wanting to answer him and gift him all my truths. “I owe you no answer, Kilian. I understand to you I am…a curiosity but there are boundaries I don’t allow anyone to overstep. Now take us out of here, I want to catch the rest of the Adriatians before heading to Tenebrose.”

He gave me a stark look without pushing for answer like he normally did, but he’d seen too much, I knew he would not let it go.

Did he find satisfaction to see me hurt? Did he like it, finding out how truly fragile my strength was?

Shielding me with his arm at my side, he cautiously lowered the shadows down revealing a clear forest. The dark mist from last night had dispersed completely, not a trace behind. Like a curse lifting, it revealed the brightest and bluest of days I’d seen in Isjord. Strange, unnatural.

Letting out two sharp whistles, I searched the sky for Memphis. Not even a few seconds later she descended down before us, crowing and batting her wings loudly. Gusts of black wind surrounded her while she shifted onto a large cat and pranced towards me, nailing me on the ground, licking and growling softly, happy to see me again.

“Missed you too Memphis, and no, I won’t leave you again. My back is fine, no cause for concern.”

Satisfied with my answers she rose her head and sniffed the air between myself and Kilian. Slowly approaching him, she sniffed his spring air too.

Kilian put a hand over her head stroking her ears, and my heart lurched forward. She was going to make him Adriatian stew. Flashes of many that had dared even breathe near her, torn apart, limbless and drained of blood crossed my sight.

“Don’t,” I warned in panic. “She doesn’t let anyone touch her but me, she will tear into you like venison.”

He blinked blankly towards me, stroking under her neck. To my surprise, she indulged in his caress and licked his hands leisurely, softly purring. Kilian shot an amused glance at me. “You are like your owner Memphis, she purred all over me last night. Would have almost licked me too had I let her.”

“Prick.”

He smiled. Fully smiled, eyes and all. My attention dropped to the ground unconsciously, it felt to intimate to see him smile. I’d never seen him smile. He looked different when he smiled. Why did he smile? He never smiled. I dared look again at him, and the soft smile he wore petting Memphis.

She moved away from him and came to nudge my head with hers. “Traitor,” I murmured before closing my eyes and letting her show me flashes of her sight. Mal and Cai had caught the last five Adriatians and were waiting afront the city hall. Cai must be out of his mind by now, I expect a full telling off when we meet.

Memphis shifted back onto a large eagle and I handed her a button from my jacket to notify my troubled friend of my still breathing lungs.

“The two have the rest of the Adriatians, I suppose we can leisurely make our way back now.”

He wore a reaction between nonchalance and ire. “You must be pleased.”

“Greatly.”