Chapter 36 - Mask of Ice
Wrenora
Cassmira was antsy when we finally dragged ourselves from the cavern, Callan carrying me through the snow as he had when we arrived to keep my feet warm and dry.
He hadn’t bothered asking. Instead, he lifted me into his arms without warning, a sly smirk slipping across his lips.
He positioned me in front of him as he had before, but this time he had me wrap the cloaks around both of us to keep as much of his body heat against me.
“What are you planning?” I asked as the spires of his fortress rose from the horizon in the distance.
“I don’t know yet.”
“What?” I forced myself forward so I could look back at him.
“Maybe I’ll march in and take my fortress back by force.”
I tried not to glare at him, noticing the slightest lift to the left side of his lips. He was baiting me.
“Truly, Callan.”
“I’ll make the decision when I see how I’m greeted.”
“What makes you think they won’t just kill you on sight?”
He smirked. “If they’re smart, they will.”
“Callan!”
He was smiling in earnest now. I hadn't known how dark his sense of humor was. The more I learned about this man the more I wanted to know.
“If Magdala truly wanted me dead, she could have easily killed me already.”
I watched him for a long time, trying to gauge how he actually felt. He was entirely too good at hiding his emotions behind a mask, so I settled back against his chest and he leaned forward, brushing his lips over the shell of my ear.
“Worried about me, sweet Wren?”
I shivered at the sound, imagining his soft lips pressed to my skin.
“Sweet Wren?”
“It’s a warm weather bird, is it not?” His chuckle rumbled into me.
“If I’m a wren, what does that make you?”
“A cat,” he answered, so swiftly I wondered if he’d had the answer ready.
I was smiling, all the fears of what we were about to do lost in the frigid wind blasting past my face. This man would be the death of me. A brilliant death I went to happily.
Cassmira let out a shrill screech as she banked toward the fortress, ripping the grin from my lips. In a few moments, we’d be navigating our next steps. Whether we’d be greeted with weapons or not was still unknown.
Callan stiffened behind me, and I glanced down at the bailey of the fortress where no less than a dozen rebellion fighters waited with weapons at the ready. So that question was answered. Violence it would be. Without a sword of my own, I was at the mercy of whatever I could commandeer.
If Callan had a solid plan of attack, he didn't share as Cassmira dove toward the front gate. My heart was racing already, and I tried to rein in the fear that always gripped my chest before a battle. I was desperate to channel the terror into defense tactics, taking deep breaths as Callan’s grip on my waist tightened.
He pulled himself free of the cloaks before jumping down and turning to face me. When our eyes met there was something there. Sorrow? Regret? Determination?
“I’ll make this right, Wren. I promise.”
Before I could properly work through his words, he slapped the side of Cassmira’s neck, and she jolted back into the sky. I reached toward Callan with desperate hands, but it was useless.
“Callan!” I screeched as I was slammed flat from the force of Cassmira’s take off.
She trilled in response to my frantic attempts to see past her massive wings. Callan’s armor formed over him, his eyes locked on me until I couldn’t see them anymore. He couldn’t do this.
Fucking Nine Hells, why was he doing this?
“Cassmira, go back!” I gripped her feathers and yanked, plucking a couple of the silvery white tufts from her neck.
But the phoenix continued to climb into the sky, skirting away from the fortress and to the east in the direction of the border to the human realm.
“Fucking go back right this instant, you pathetic excuse for a bird!”
Tears burned across my temples as they were ripped from my eyes. He couldn’t do this. He didn’t need me, but he needed Cassmira. Her strength and raw violence would be required if he was going to take on so many fighters at once.
I glared back at the fortress as a massive spire of ice speared through the bailey and rose toward the sky, reaching past the second story. The power it must have required, the focus. I worried Callan left himself without proper defenses.
“Please, Cassmira! Help him. Leave me here if you must, but please help him! He needs you!”
The phoenix perked up at this, turning her head so she could peer back at me, a knowing in her honey golden eye.
“Please,” I begged. “Please help him.”
Another massive spire erupted from one of the upper floors of the fortress, and I lay flat against Cassmira’s neck, my heart shattering in my chest as tears burned down my cheeks.
I didn’t hate him.
I didn’t want him to die. Quite the opposite. The thread that tied us together pulled uncomfortably, and I squeezed my eyes closed.
Quite the opposite, indeed.