Chapter 14
KORMAC
I landed naked in the snow, the cold biting my feet, the tops of my shins submerged.
Naked and human, olive skin and chest hair and a cock of flesh shrinking in the icy conditions.
Kormac again.
I shivered, wrapping my arms around me. Where was I? Yes, I’d returned to Winter, but where exactly? This was a clearing in a forest, and there was sunlight on my back.
Daylight? Sun? Did the sun rise and fall in Winter?
That didn’t matter right now. My only concern was to find shelter and warmth.
My fall hadn’t gone exactly to plan. Yes, I’d been returned to Winter, but not to Valance’s side. I blamed that on my rebellion against the angelus, on everything being so different.
I grew tired of those hellpissing thoughts, of the constant repetition inside my brain telling me things were changed. Fine. I’d received the message. I didn’t need to keep reading the parchment.
A screen. Angelus liked to read things on screens.
No screens here. Parchment and scrolls and quills dipped in ink wells. A land without other technologies, not built for those things. And certainly not instruments built for Kormac’s mind.
Titus was fading but not dying. Would he?
Kormac would die if I didn’t act now, though.
I ran through the snow into the trees, pushing through the burning cold against my skin. Deer scattered. Birds fluttered in fright. I collapsed, the cold too much for my mortal flesh.
Shit. I hadn’t thought this through, made another mess. I’d die here on my hands and knees, my heart already slowing, my breathing too labored with mist puffing from my mouth.
I tried to get up. If I tracked a deer, I could kill it and skin it to wear it for warmth. Only, I had no weapons, no strength to make it happen.
I have to fight…
Over and over, I pushed myself to get up, losing feeling in my fingers and toes, the cold spreading through my body.
I’m sorry, Valance…
What a cruel twist of fate to bring me back here only to stop my journey dead in its tracks. Was this the stars punishing me for denying my true nature?
Would I be hauled back up there to be a ball of light, trapped in my room never to be solid again?
Please…
My face hit the snow as I begged for a miracle.
Please…
Goodbye to Titus.
Goodbye to Kormac.