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“Come on, Kai-Kai,” Ere sing-songed in a childish taunt, “come play with us!”
Kai stalked closer, enduring a smattering of snowballs as he approached. It looked like he was simply trying to walk around them, for he didn’t look their way, keeping his head down.
But then, why dismount from his horse? Why not simply ride away?
Eir watched avidly to see what he would do. Would the brusque earth dragon shut down the fun, ignore them, or join in?
She couldn’t imagine himplaying.He was a big, bad, berserker. Surely he wouldn’t indulge in children’s games.
She could see everyone from her vantage point still atop her horse.
A few children were hiding behind boulders and bushes, others chasing each other in the open and scooping up more snow. Sorin stood to the side watching bemusedly like a supervising parent, and Ere had completely devolved into one of the younglings. The only difference was his great height and deeper voice. But the infectious grin on his face, the mischievous sparkle in his eyes—they were just like the children’s.
She’d been so caught up in the beauty of Ere’s incandescent joy that she missed Kai’s movement out of the corner of her eye—
Until three giant snowballs hit Ere’s face one after the other, with so much force that he staggered off his feet and fell with flailing flair to his ass.
“Ha!” Kai crowed back in his booming voice.
“Don’t start what you can’t finish, you overgrown lizard!”
“Lizard! Lizard!” the children chanted, squealing and snorting madly in a renewed bout of laughter.
Apparently, that was the rallying cry that started a snowball war.
Ere and a few of the children on one side; Kai and the rest on the other. Sorin stayed out of it until Kai knocked Ere completely off his feet again, leaving the other man groaning piteously on the ice.
Then, Sorin retaliated with his own barrage of snowballs against Kai, dead set on retribution. The two males battled it out, their snowballs ever increasing in size. Ere, having recovered from his state of shock, his face red from the cold and the hits, spurred his mate on and rallied the children to turn on Kai too, forcing the warrior behind a sparse covering of bushes.
Kai used his broad back to deflect Sorin’s nonstop, unerring hits, but Ere and a couple of children were sneaking around the sides to ambush him.
That was when Eir’s legs and feet developed their own minds and made her dismount her horse. Before she knew it, she was gathering up the grandfather of all snowballs and drawing her arm back for a mighty throw.
Smack!
Right on target, Ere went down again on the icy pond. The children who’d been ganging up with him scattered for cover, shrieking with fright and uncontrollable laughter as Eir methodically advanced upon them.
With single-minded determination, she picked off anyone who dared to throw a snowball at Kai. She might have used smaller snowballs with the children, but she made sure they always hit their mark andsmartedenough to deter.
At some point, Sorin had stopped throwing at Kai, focused more on helping Ere to his feet. The children ducked and hid, losing their nerve at the sight of a rather frightening Valkyrie with unerring aim and unsmiling face.
“We surrender! Oh mighty maiden!” Ere cried, waving a scrap of white linen in the air.
“You win!”
Had she?
Eir looked to Kai, who was shaking the snow off his body like a wet dog.
He was grinning widely, fire opal eyes flashing, when he surveyed his opponents, big and small.
Briefly, his eyes met hers. And though the grin melted away, the crinkles around his eyes remained.
Yes, Eir thought as she stared bemusedly at this man. So beautiful to her he made her dumb.
That smile… That look…
It felt like she’d won the greatest prize of all.
