Page 137 of Season Warriors & Wolves

“You offered to kill her?”

“Yes.”

She raised a smug brow at me. “You did it?”

“Of course not. No one that hurts my people just simply dies.” I put a finger to my lips and threw her a wink. “I lied.”

Something screeched above us and everyone’s attention turned to the skies, watching Jayre circle around the heights of our mountains before settling on top of a castle tower. The massive thing had pinned its stare on me across the distance while it rested. It didn’t take long for Memphis to return, too, cowing as she shifted from an eagle to a massive cat.

My bonded nudged my leg and I bent down to pat her head. “Well done, M.”

“Where did you send them?”

“To confirm what I was just told. A sea snake is still a snake. Sometimes even more venomous. Why would I believe anything she said. Right, M?”

My animal rolled her eyes, leaving me stunned and gapping. “Excuse me?”

“It was the metaphors,” Nia said, pulling Thora away further into the street.

“Most definitely,” my sister agreed.

I sat back in the seamstress’s settee, already blind by the white fabrics scattered just about everywhere while Thora curiously hopped from one to the other, inspecting the bejewelled cloths between her fingers. “So pretty,” she murmured to herself, her round eyes widening and glistening.

“Should I buy you some?”

She spun to me. “Why would I need it?”

“For when your day comes.”

She shook her head. “I will never get married.”

I surveyed my wedding ring, running a finger over the daisy. “Twas what I said.”

Her smile was soft like our mother’s, and it hid so much behind it like hers had. Why did she hide from me too? “You deserve it. All of it.”

“So do you,” I said, brushing a bit of hair from her face and she flinched. My hand curled into a fist, shaking as I tried not to dig my nails in my palm. What had I done? “I’m sorry.”

She pushed her hair back and smiled at me again. “Nothing to be sorry about. I didn’t…didn’t mean to do that.”

“Do I scare you?”

Her eyes went wide. “No. No, Snow, you don’t scare me.” She quickly took my hand and clutched it between hers. “See, I'm not scared. Nothing scares me, really.”

“Beside badgers.”

A little sneer pulled on her lip and she glared at me. Our resemblance was uncanny, and it made me smile. “Bully.”

I pulled her to me and wrapped my arms tightly around her. “Should have been there to do it years ago. A bit of sibling bullying gives one character.”

Her hands curled on my jacket. “Eren did a pretty decent job.”

“Eren, a bully?”

She sighed. “A little mean one. He wouldn’t let me talk to boys until I was sixteen.”

“Who says you can talk to them now?” I kissed her cheek and pulled back to cup her face. “You are so little.”

“Am not.”