Chapter 22
“I’m gonna lift you, Sunshine.”
The words were low and on edge. A moment later, she was in the air, enveloped by the smell of cedar.
Her head landed against a firm chest as she blinked her eyes open.
Stephan had her cradled in his arms, carrying her through a more familiar forest. Snow fell about them in an aggressive torrent, and he staggered through it as if swimming against a current.
The world had been rounded—pillowed and filled, puffed up like a marshmallow over a flame.
“Stephan?” she asked, blinking away disorientation. “How long was I gone?”
“About four hours.”
Four hours. That felt right. At least time had passed as expected.
“I know you asked for space,” he said, “but it started getting dark, and then the wind got strong—”
“It’s okay. I’m glad you came.” And then she burrowed her head into his chest, and he held her closer in response, offering all the heat his body could give.
She was so cold. It didn’t feel like she’d just come from a cottage where a once-screaming fire had blazed; more like she’d spent hours lost in a blizzard.
“What happened? Can you remember? Did you hit your head? I found you passed out against a tree. Weirdest thing was…I could swear I’d been that way before and only found you when I looped back.”
“I was with her. I was with the Baba Yaga at her house.”
His eyes widened, his face awash in disbelief. “The Baba Yaga?”
“Why do you look like what I just said was impossible?”
“Not impossible, just incredible. You’re not the first person I know to speak with one of ’em.
Last year, Rowan got a couple of visits from the Holly King.
And my grandma always swore Birdie’s first husband was one of the other folk.
Birdie won’t say anything about it, of course, but the way she looks when you ask—well, you gotta wonder…
” He scrunched his eyebrows. “But I feel like we’re losing the point a bit here. Did she say anything about the curse?”
“Yes, but…” Hayleigh thought of the bag and shivered again.
“It was nothing but riddles! She said something about debts being paid, and scales needing to be balanced, but not how. I think she was saying I need to bring Goshen to justice for what happened in Eucharist. But how am I supposed to take on a multinational corporation with an army of lawyers?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. Later. Right now, we need to get you warmed up.” He came to a sudden stop, and when she opened her mouth to question it, he shushed gently.
It took her a moment to register what he was hearing, but then a low growl sounded from the trees ahead. Stephan took one step back and then another, and another, retreating the way they had come.
“Is that a dog?” she whispered.
“I don’t think so.”
A wolf emerged from the trees then, its fur silvery gray flecked with white that blended in with their storm-swallowed surroundings, matted with snow that also clung to its whiskers and the tufts of its ears.
Amber eyes glowed, unblinking and fixed directly on them as it stalked forward, leaving a trail of deep, clean prints.
“It’s not leaving.”
“No, it’s not…Sorry about this, Sunshine.”
“Sorry for what…?”
His body flushed with so much heat it was hard to keep touching him, and his breathing went deep and rhythmic as he fixed his gaze on the wolf. Hayleigh smelled something warm and milky, like a new-puppy smell. Her body seized as she realized what was happening—he was casting a spell.
It was totally justified that he do it—her rational mind could recognize that—but rational thought didn’t keep the feeling of powerlessness from clawing at her throat. She knew that if she asked, he would stop, but where would that leave them? They could end up injured, or worse.
She held back the words that would have ended the spell, frozen in his arms as he chanted.
“Hear me now, hear me clear,
Hear my message without fear,
By the power of three by three,
As I do will it, so mote it be.”
He lowered her to her feet before raising his hands and taking a step closer to the wolf. “I’m sure you’re real hungry if you’re out in this, friend.”
The wolf snarled and snapped in response, but Stephan took another step closer.
“You know we won’t make a good meal. So maybe you’re just angry. I don’t blame ya.”
The wolf took a step back, its stance faltering. It let out a low howl.
“Yeah, I hear you. People are dicks. But she and I? It wasn’t us. We’ve never shot at you. Never cut down your wood or took your prey. We’re just passing through.”
And then he was only a few feet away, lowering into a bow with his hand extended.
“We’ve got some meat back at our place. We’ll leave it out for you, but you need to let us go. We got a deal?”
The wolf stared at him. For a moment, it looked unconvinced, but then it turned and slinked back into the trees. Stephan’s entire body loosened, and his breath came out in a great whoosh.
“What just happened?” asked Hayleigh as he reached down to scoop her back up into his arms. He buckled a little as he did but inhaled and kept going.
“My kid cousin, Kel, figured out a spell for communicating with animals.”
“You’re telling me you can talk to animals?”
“Kind of. It makes it easier to get a point across, but they’re still animals, with animal instincts and animal frames of reference. You’ve gotta work to get the point across, and there’s no way it’s gonna happen if you don’t understand the animal you’re talking to.”
“And you do,” she murmured, staring at him in open amazement.
“I’ve got a dog. I know dogs. We’re lucky it wasn’t a mountain lion because I do not understand cats.”
“No one does. That’s how they prefer it.”
She gazed up at him in open wonder. How deep a rut had Stephan Midwinter fallen into that such an incredible person could end up in a place where he’d given up on striving for anything for himself?
The line of thought came to an abrupt end as she was racked with shaking—her body’s desperate bid to get her core temperature up.
Stephan picked up the pace, repeating in her ear, “Hold on for me, Sunshine. We’re almost back. Almost back.”
As soon as he had her inside the train, he settled her on the couch and spread the woolly blanket up to her chin.
“Don’t move,” he ordered. “I’m running a hot bath.”
There was a sound of splashing as the tub began to fill. She wiggled beneath the blanket to peel off her wet outer garments and dump them onto the floor in a heap, clumps of snow already melting under the blast of the wall heaters.
The backs of her legs and buttocks were completely numb.
Though they’d lost feeling, when she eased off the couch and onto her feet, she found she could use them.
Standing in front of a floor-length mirror, she folded over the top of her fleece leggings to inspect the skin underneath, terrified to find the black and blue of frostbite.
Thankfully, the skin was red and chapped but otherwise looked healthy.
Stephan emerged from the bathroom, catching her inspecting her rear end. After a moment’s hesitation, he put his hands on his hips, and said, “I thought I told you to stay put.”
She flushed. “I was checking to make sure I didn’t get frostbite.”
“And is…everything okay down there?”
“I think so.” Her cheeks blazed. “It’s numb, but it doesn’t look bad.”
“Good, because there’s a shortage of perfect asses in the world. Would’ve been a shame to waste yours.” He winked and swung his thumb toward the bathroom. “If you want to start thawing out, you can get in. It’s not full, but there’s water enough to warm a butt.”
The bathroom had steamed up deliciously, and her cold flesh soaked it in. Stripping off the last of her wet things, she slipped into the tub and eased back. Finding herself the object of dozens of tiny porcelain stares, she set about turning the angel figurines around one by one to face the wall.
She had almost finished the project when the sudden bang of a tree branch slamming against the roof of the train startled her into releasing the one she was holding. It plopped into the water, and she rushed to pick it up before it sank all the way to the bottom.
There was a knock at the door, and then Stephan’s voice rumbled, “You doing okay in there?”
Placing the fallen angel back in its place, she dipped below the surface of the water and sighed in relief. “Yes.”
“Thawing out?”
“Not yet…Has this ever happened to you?”
“Yeah, a few times when I’ve been out on the mountain too long. It’ll take time, but it’ll get back to normal…eventually.”
“What does eventually mean?”
He laughed through the door. “It means I don’t know. But you’ll get your ass back, don’t worry.”
She sank deeper into the water. “I can’t believe I almost literally froze my butt off. At least I’d fit into my jeans better.”
His voice dipped. “Your jeans fit perfect from my point of view.”
Her stomach gave a little lurch, and she bit her lip, imagining him on the other side of the door and wondering what was going through his mind.
They needed to talk about the kiss. He’d said he’d been thinking about it since the moment she’d walked into his tent, and the idea caused pleasant tightening in her lower belly.
Had it gotten it out of his system, or had it left him wanting more?
“Stop thinking about it,” said the stern voice that always jumped in to remind her when her thoughts were straying into forbidden territories. It talked down the whispering voice, the one that gave voice to impulses she’d been raised better than to heed.
She should have been thinking about curses and corporations and the links between the two, but she was exhausted, and raw with chill. Having spent the last twenty minutes against his chest, cradled like a precious thing, had sent all those base urges rising like cream to the top.
“You got quiet in there, Sunshine.”
She bit her lip. “I was just thinking…”
“About what?”
“About you.” The words slipped out before she could stop herself.
His voice was low and textured as he asked, “Oh yeah?” The door creaked as he shifted against it.
“What did you do while I was gone?”
“Worried, mostly. Went out and got some more provisions. That’s when I got the meat that now belongs to our wolf friend.”
The mention of the wolf brought her back to that moment in the forest. The other thing she’d said she didn’t want had happened—he’d cast a spell, but instead of it transforming him into something terrible in her eyes and driving distance between them, she’d been awed by what he could do, and by the tender power with which he had done it.
The way she’d smelled it coming on had confirmed a growing suspicion she’d had—she could smell magic.
She hadn’t wanted to believe it, but it was exactly the way Stephan and Zaide had described it.
An awareness all her own. She wasn’t a witch, but did it have to do with what Baba Yaga had said? Being a bridge of some kind?
Hayleigh Gray, a bridge between worlds? Whoever would have thought that?
It was all so confusing.
Speaking of confusing—her eyes flicked to the door. It was slightly ajar. She knew she should ask him to close it, that things would be so much less complicated that way. But she could not stop thinking about how right it had felt to have his mouth on her. How alive she had been beneath his hands.
She couldn’t bring herself to send him away, but she didn’t know how to invite him in either.
She might have stayed that way—pinned between impulse and discipline—but in that moment, all the lights went black.