Page 157 of Winter Gods & Serpents

“What about that idiot?”

She bit her smile down. “Will he not rage?”

I nodded. “Yes, but contrary to the others he has not stopped being cautious and against your father.”

She’d calmed, I saw it in her steady raising chest. She pulled both my hands down. “Don’t do that unless you intend to kiss me. It gives me some terrible dirty thoughts.”

“I will keep it in mind.” I said, taking a step back. It gave me the same dirty thoughts. “Anything else I should be weary?”

“Yes,” she said quietly, rampaging through the pile of documents beside the maps. “Keep clothes on at all times. Seeing you naked once had me bothered enough.”

“Let me know if you need a hand.”

She shuffled through some paper. “It is fine, some is in old Ysolt, code I think.”

“Not with that.”

Without even turning she hit me with a carved black horse paperweight. “Klaghne.”

I caught it mid-air before hitting me. Her obsession with throwing objects at me was concerning, but adorable. Hovering over her I set it back down where it was. “I can read old Ysolt if you need that sort of hand too.”

She blinked madly. “How?”

“Perhaps I thought I could impress an Isjordian princess?”

“Funny.” She exhaled loudly, muttering something in Calgnan under her breath. “That pile over there.” Suddenly she paused, something had pulled her satisfaction. She read and re-read it till I heard voices approaching us.

I took the documents from her, putting them down how they were before grabbing her and fading us out in the forest again.

The little vixen sprawled in the snowy ground, arms crossed and staring towards nothing, pinched deep in concentration. I extended a hand to help her stand, drawing her attention back to reality. She stared at it and then up to me before she slapped it away and stood up on her own.

“If I give you my hand, you will take my whole arm. Everyone seems a lot into taking more than I give lately,” she added, brushing snow from her clothes.

“Is that why you have been so evidently upset with Nia, because she took more than Your Highness allowed?”

She inched so close to me that I had to look down to meet her fiery yellow flames. “Why I have been so upset, Kilian, was that despite all, despite everything she relied on and confined in you of all people, with not only my secrets but,” she stopped, probably contemplating whether she wanted me to know, “my weaknesses and fears, which I had given her because I love her, because I trusted her to care enough to keep them to herself. What she asked of you did not upset me. What did, was how she underestimated my feelings and therefore me, without even taking the first step to open up to me.”

Hurt—she was hurt by Nia, not just angry with her as I thought. I did not like seeing her hurt. I moved my hand to tuck a floating piece of hair covering her eye but retreat warily aware I should not be doing it. Why was it so hard to keep my hands of her?

“Speak with her, even though she did just what you said, she never meant to. It was something else that drove her to, as you say, ‘backstab you’. Silence has never been a good mean of reconciliation because there is no communication and where is no communication there is misunderstanding and injured hearts.”

“Well don’t you have the right words at disposable,” she murmured, crossing her arms indignantly. “I will, just not now, I do not want my angry mouth taking over my upset head and worsening the situation. Angry me is usually the vilest in the room. Last person I wish to be vile is Nia. I am not…good with people, it will take me some time.” She took one heavy breath and ran a hand through her hair, combing it in frustration.

This is why she was avoiding her, to not say things she did not mean and not hurt Nia, she was letting her feelings stew to calm before she did. How frustrating it was not knowing and fighting to uncover her truth, being able to read emotion had done more damage than good. I had forgotten to read others without my magic.

“Snowlin Edlynne Krigborn.” Her head snapped up at me, blinking rapidly. “How are you so odd?”

She flinched, putting a hand over her chest. “My pardon, the full name caught me by surprise. Do you think you could summon me to command like some eudemon? I’m an ybris darling, not Golgotha’s creature.”

Her joke made me throw my head back in laughter.

“How did you know my middle name?”

“I know about you more than you think.” She raised her brows in question, so I took the challenge. “Edlynne is your grandmothers name, last Queen of Olympia. Also named after Edlynne the third guardian of Caelum, warden of dawn, the upper heaven of Nubil. The name is also passed from generations, it is your mother’s middle name too. Olympians believed the guardian descended at dawn and visited women of the kingdom to train them, it is the origin of Skye warriors, a legendary squadron of highly trained Olympian female warriors. The first Skye is your ancestor, she carried the name down and now you have it.” I knew much more. Enough that I could write a book about her. No, I could write a book about those eyes alone. One full of poems about her lips and how soft I imagined them to be.

Her mouth parted open. “I am the odd one?”

“Yes,” I said, moving the wind billowed hair out of her eyes. “Very odd. The oddest.”