Chapter 41
The icy wind bit into his cheeks, but for a moment, he forgot the lurking beast of the ball when he stepped out of the house. White flakes, large as feathers, sailed from the night sky and covered the harsh landscape in innocence. Will reached out a hand and watched them gather upon his glove.
“I have not seen that smile on your lips in a long time,” Elodie said as she stepped into the courtyard beside him. Will had assumed she had departed with her fiancé, but there was no sign of the man.
She imitated Will’s gesture, turning her red-gloved hand upward to catch several flakes. Yet as soon as enough had gathered to cover the leather, she grinned and licked them away.
Will laughed in disbelief. Inwardly, he still trembled with anger over what the Red Hand had just revealed, but it faded before Elodie’s radiant confidence. Her eyes held the sparkle of the girl who still dreamed of wonders, mingled with a challenging grin.
“Let us walk for a while,” she said, nodding toward the bridge that vanished into the darkness.
The light from the gateway barely reached the gates, and the gargoyles atop the pillars wore white caps upon their horns.
Without waiting for him, she crossed the cobblestones, the road disappearing beneath a white blanket.
Nearly all the carriages were still waiting.
The ball would not end for several hours.
“You are smiling as though nothing happened,” he said as he followed her. Perhaps he should speak to her about the attack or the Red Hand, but he couldn’t resist the pull inside his chest or the fever in his cheeks. He longed for a few unblemished minutes.
“I love snow.” Elodie gathered up her red velvet skirts with their white pearl embroidery.
She looked as though winter were overtaking the blood, or—as Will realized with a pang—as though it were making way for a wedding gown.
As though she were washing away the blood and would emerge beneath it pure, white, and innocent.
They reached the bridge, broad and solid as it spanned a narrow inlet of the sea, connecting the castle to the mainland. The ocean roared softly below, and although darkness seemed to surround it, the path remained easy to see. Snowy nights were never truly dark.
Elodie tipped back her head, extended her tongue, and closed her eyes.
She knew exactly how she looked. Snowflakes melted upon her pale skin and caught in her black lashes.
Her tongue beckoned, pink and pointed, twitching slightly whenever ice landed upon it.
Will’s pulse quickened, and his fingers dug into his pockets.
Hesitantly, he took several steps toward her.
Snow crunched beneath his boots, and his breath formed white clouds.
“Oh, Will,” she sighed, opening her eyes and turning their silver upon him. “That was the final ball before everything ends.”
“Is it all worth it?”
“We will discover that in the end.”
Will twisted his mouth. With a glance over his shoulder toward the castle, he kept his distance, perhaps because of unwanted observers or because he did not trust himself.
He wanted too badly to reach for her, draw her back to him, and hold her as he had before. He loved it when she was this relaxed.
“Thank you for saving me,” he said instead. Even what he had done tonight would not repay that debt for a long time.
Elodie was the one who crossed the distance between them and stopped before him, gazing up with glittering eyes. “I am not finished with you yet, William Frank.”
Carefully, he lifted a hand and brushed a snowflake from her cheek. “Do not look at me with those eyes…”
“How should I look at you?”
A spatter of blood still clung to her eyebrow. She was an iridescent creature he could never entirely grasp, whose depths remained hidden from him. Yet he longed for the reckless adventure of discovering another facet of her every day.
“I dream of you,” Elodie whispered. The thick snowfall softened the roar of the waves. “Sometimes I feel so lost, and then I ask myself, what would Will do? As though you were my compass.”
Will swallowed. They stood so close that the clouds of their breath mingled.
He should have warned her that he had never found his own true north, that he drifted just as aimlessly as she did. But for someone like Elodie, perhaps his small star in the sky was enough.
Her brows drew together as she wrestled with her own dark thoughts. “Hold me. Only for a little while.”
“Here?” Again, he looked over his shoulder, but the snow hung like a curtain between them and the lights.
It was too risky. Her fiancé was somewhere inside the castle and could appear at any moment. But Will could not resist. Over the months he had spent in Bloodgrove, his moral compass had rusted beyond repair.
Carefully, Will placed his hands upon her narrow waist, the velvet seeming almost to strangle it. His thumb moved in small circles, and he gently drew her closer until she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Elodie, you should not think of me as your compass. All my thoughts lead in forbidden directions.”
She smiled. “Perhaps you are right. Ever since I saw you hanging half-dead in those chains, I have wondered whether rejecting you was a mistake. Whether the ending is worth denying myself the time we have before it comes.”
Will frowned. “But you are getting married…”
“And still, you were the one who came to help me. My little clan.” She smiled wistfully.
She could not know what those words did to his heart. They were the wind filling his sails and carrying him out onto dangerous waters. Yet he was more at home there. For a rejected child, it was more than he had ever allowed himself to hope for.
“Elodie…”
“Thank you, Will. For everything.” She nestled more closely against him.
“But I mean it. I should have realized it after the harbor district, but when I saw you walking through the crowd tonight… coming to save me…” She pressed her lips together as though trying to hold back the rest of the words.
“Did you not say there was so much you could show me without endangering my virginity?”
“So, another evening of mistakes?” he whispered.
She smiled, and nothing of the stern duchess remained in her gaze. “Let us begin with one evening. Then another, and another, until the full moon rises again.”
Will swallowed his disbelief. Was this not what he had hoped for?
He could ask for no more when he would return to the Capitol after the New Year’s ball.
This was already far more time than he had dared to dream of.
He did not look back toward the castle or toward the narrow bridge high above them between the towers.
Without another moment of hesitation, he seized her and lifted her onto his hips. At once, she wrapped her legs around him. His hands closed around her thighs, red velvet spilling over his arms as she molded herself to him and crossed her feet behind his back.
His pulse thundered in his ears. She was so close, and he held her as though she were his. For one month, in secret, with no future, but he would savor every moment.
Here in the snow, where the flakes swallowed the noise of the ball and the pointed gables and stone battlements looked like trees beneath a winter’s spell, it was easy to dream. Here, he held the version of Elodie he loved more than he feared her.
“Show me how to make good mistakes,” she whispered.
Will answered by capturing her lips with his own.
It still surprised him how soft they were, how sweet she tasted.
Kissing her was like discovering a new world.
He tightened his arms around her back, closing the last space between their chests.
Without breaking the kiss, he carried her the final steps to the end of the bridge and pressed her against a stone pillar.
The night was too dark, the lanterns too far away, for any stray passerby to see them.
Her tongue brushed his lips, asking to be let in, and together they sank into fresh heat. The cold air and unforgiving stone reminded Will of the frozen depths from which Elodie had rescued him with the fire of her body. Back then, he had believed he would never be able to kiss her again.
Her fingers slipped into his hair and freed strands for the icy wind to carry.
A whimper escaped her, and her kisses grew more demanding.
He had spent an entire month longing for those sweet sounds.
He caught her lower lip between his teeth and bit until she moaned.
Her hips moved hungrily against him, searching for something he was forbidden to give her.
Then he heard the wheels of a carriage rolling across the stones.
“That’s ours. Do not let me go,” Elodie whispered. Trusting the driver’s discretion, he carried her the few remaining yards without ceasing to kiss her.
The horses waited, pawing impatiently, and the carriage door swung open before them.
Will struck his knee against the step as he tried to carry Elodie inside, and together they tumbled onto the floor between the benches.
Tangled in limbs, fabrics, and furs, they struggled for balance until they found enough space. He felt her smile against his mouth.
With a jolt, the carriage began to move, and the door swung shut behind Will.
Their kisses continued, hot and deep, while the carriage swayed beneath them. Elodie opened her legs, and Will settled against her.
“Elodie,” he murmured into her mouth. “You awaken something in me. I never knew I could want a woman this much.”
“Show me how a man loves you,” she whispered. Her hand slipped between them and pressed against the fabric of his trousers, stretched tight by his arousal. He froze, and at the same time, his full awareness narrowed to her touch.
“Are you certain?” He searched her eyes for hesitation, but she gazed boldly up at him, pupils wide, cheeks flushed.
“Tell me what to do. Teach me.”
Will swallowed. Desire had long since overwhelmed reason, and so he straightened and drew himself onto the bench.