Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
I t didn’t take long for the cold to become pain. Soon after that, I felt nothing.
Worse than the numbness was the stillness. The unnatural quiet.
Buried beneath the crushing weight of the snow, I couldn’t move — couldn’t shift my legs even an inch.
I didn’t know which way was up. Even if I could have moved, I might have dug until my nails bled and only buried myself deeper.
That was the most terrifying of all.
I was going to die, but not from the cold. I would suffocate under all that snow as soon as the small pocket of air around my face expired.
The devastation was the only thing that quelled the choking terror. Devastation that this was how I would die. Not bleeding out in an alley after a staking gone bad, or even in the clutches of a monster with its blood still hot on my blade.
I was going to die in this cold, lonely grave with no one to hear my screams .
A low noise drew my attention — the soft crunch of snow.
Perhaps the layers that had buried me were settling, but then I heard a series of rhythmic scrapes and crunches.
Somebody was digging.
A savage, manic sort of hope rushed through me, but it was quickly snuffed out by the realization that no one could possibly know where I was. The avalanche might have carried me in its wicked embrace for miles. I could be halfway down the mountain, for all I knew.
But that scraping grew more insistent, as if whoever was digging knew that I was buried just a few feet beneath them.
A dazzling stream of light blinded me as I felt a warm caress — a hand against my cheek. The hand paused and then withdrew, and the frenzy of digging continued.
Daylight shattered the dark despair of my frigid grave, along with blissful, delicious air.
I sucked in a deep breath, the chill burning my lungs. Strong hands gripped me under the arms and pulled, but my body was still trapped beneath the layers of snow.
Cold. It was so cold . The air nipped at my damp, frozen skin, and I became aware of a loud clacking in my ears.
“ Lyra .” The voice was low and familiar, drenched in such anguish and relief that it made my chest tighten.
“Lyra!” My name sounded more urgent this time, with a definite undercurrent of fear.
I tried to speak, but my jaw wouldn’t work. That horrendous clacking noise, I realized, was the sound of my teeth chattering.
“Say something.”
But I couldn't. Not with the spasming in my jaw.
Someone heaved me out of the snow, tucking me against a muscular chest that was deliciously warm. The scent of leather and night covered me like a thick fur blanket, and I burrowed deeper into that chest.
“Fuck. You're freezing .”
Kaden. The voice belonged to Kaden.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I shouldn’t want this. That I shouldn’t feel so relieved to be wrapped in his embrace.
But I was too cold and exhausted to care. Kaden had found me. I was safe.
Safe.
Safe in the arms of the demon prince? Maybe I’d hit my head when I’d been tossed about in the avalanche or been deprived of oxygen for too long. There was no reason for me to feel safe in his presence.
My stomach gave a wild lurch as Kaden swept us into the air. Violent shivers wracked my body as we flew, and I realized I couldn’t feel my hands and feet.
“You’re going to be fine,” he growled, though his voice shook. “We just have to get you warm.”
Warm .
I couldn’t imagine being warm. Couldn’t fathom how even a raging inferno could thaw the frost around my bones.
Mercifully, the flight was brief. A snowy embankment wavered in my periphery, but I tucked my face into Kaden’s chest, allowing the heat seeping through his leathers to warm the tip of my nose.
We landed, and I felt the force of a strike reverberate through his chest as his foot collided with something solid. Ice and snow cracked loudly as he kicked, revealing the concealed entrance of a cave that smelled like dampness and limestone .
Darkness enveloped me once again as he slid through the narrow opening. Darkness so absolute that even my hunter vision couldn’t penetrate it.
Maybe this was death, I thought weakly. Kaden was the Taker of Souls.
Perhaps he would show me mercy, allowing me to live out the centuries in the House of Perpetual Twilight rather than offering up my soul to his ravenous father.
The crunch of twigs or bones underfoot snapped me out of my reverie. Kaden edged his way through the dark passage with ease. As if he’d been here before.
His body shifted as he set me down, and I immediately mourned the loss of his warmth. Frozen stone sliced through the thin bedroll he’d laid me on, and suddenly it felt as though I was dying all over again.
Powerful shivers racked my body, and I was certain my teeth would shatter from the force of their clacking.
Twigs snapped nearby, and I heard the scrape of boots on stone.
A moment later, the warm glow of a flame ignited in my vision, dancing over rough walls and illuminating a domed ceiling.
Looking around, I saw that we were alone, and my stomach clenched at the possibility that the others had not survived.
Faeries were practically immortal, but I couldn’t see how anything could survive being buried indefinitely under frigid packed snow with no air and nothing to eat.
And Adriel . . . I didn’t know how indestructible his kind were. Had he been killed in the avalanche?
Outside, a dismal wind howled against the opening of the cave, causing the firelight to flicker .
A minute or perhaps an hour later, I felt a scorching hand against my cheek. I whimpered at the light touch, which was almost painful against my skin.
“Dammit. You're hypothermic.”
I wanted to say something — needed to ask about Adriel and Sorsha — but I couldn’t make my mouth form the words.
I was so tired. Simply heaving air into my lungs seemed to take great effort.
How easy it would be to succumb to the darkness. To stay right here in this cave until my body stopped fighting for this wretched existence.
Eventually, my heart would give out. My flesh would rot, and my bones would mix with the bones of mice and the small, scared things that scurried over rocks and twigs.
But then Kaden’s hands were on me again, his fingers gently working the top button of my leathers.
I groaned at the prospect of having my only source of warmth removed, but I was too tired to protest more than that.
Kaden kept going, shucking off my jacket, then the long-sleeved woolen shirt I wore beneath, and finally, my fur-lined leather pants. I was left in nothing but my underthings, cold air racing over my skin and compounding my misery.
“F-f-f-fucking c-c-cold,” I managed.
“You aren’t gonna like this, but it will get you warm,” he said.
I didn’t have the energy to ask what he meant, but then I heard the pop of buttons and the sound of more clothing hitting the floor of the cave.
He slid in behind me, crushing me against him, and I felt a rush of incredible heat as my back slammed against his chest.
I moaned. Kaden’s body was almost hot to the touch, and that delicious charred-cedar scent of him felt like taking shelter from the storm.
With his arm locked around my waist, I could feel every inch of his strong, solid warmth. He pulled a heavy fur blanket over us, and I nearly cried at the pleasure of that incessant chill falling away.
Kaden buried his face in the crook of my neck, and his hot breath elicited another moan, raising goosebumps all over my skin that had nothing to do with the cold.
Eventually, the feeling returned to my hands and feet, and my teeth stopped chattering. Soon the ache of the cold faded from my extremities, and the stupor of hypothermia softened to a pleasant drowsiness.
But then Kaden shifted behind me, and I felt something long and hard pressing into my backside.
I went utterly still as warmth bloomed between my thighs, and I was suddenly aware of the way I was nestled in the crook of his hips and how little clothing we had between us.
One of Kaden’s warm, calloused hands was splayed across my belly, and he had a leg hooked around my topmost thigh. His legs were taut and muscular, covered in coarse hair that made my skin prickle.
And if that hardness pressing into my lower back was —
I couldn’t think about that.
I inhaled deeply, drinking in the smell of him. That leather-and-night scent was everywhere , and yet, it wasn’t enough.
My thoughts ran wild as my awareness went to every place our bodies were touching .
I wanted the flimsy fabric separating us gone.
I needed to feel him skin on skin. Feel every inch of him in and around my body.
And that hand . If he shifted it a few inches lower . . .
My core ached at the thought of what those long, skilled fingers might be capable of. At the memory of those lips on my skin.
How they might feel between my legs.
No. I was in dangerous territory. What had happened between me and Kaden had been a lie — his way of manipulating me and gaining my trust so that he could use me to end his father. What he’d done just now had been for my survival. Nothing more.
And yet, he was searing and hard against my back.
The body didn’t lie. Kaden wanted me just as much as I wanted him, and that knowledge sent a dangerous liquid heat surging between my legs.
Unbidden, I rolled my hips against his hardness and felt his arm tighten around my waist.
I froze. If I remained very still, I could pretend that it had been an accident. Pretend I wasn’t aware of the effect I had on his body. But if I moved again, there would be no mistaking my intentions.
Then his hand twitched against my stomach, his thumb making light circles over my skin. My lips parted in a soft sigh, and my hips began to move, my backside pressing into his hard length until he was nestled between the curves of my ass.
A low, masculine groan rumbled down my spine, stoking the fire that raged within me until my core ached with need.
“ Lyra, ” Kaden rasped, my name a low oath on his tongue. “ You do that again, and this is going to become more than just warming you up.”