Chapter 33 - Winter’s Touch
Wrenora
Magdala stood in the doorway to the servant’s stairwell, the shadow of someone else beside her.
She was pointing at me as the dark figure emerged, a bow nocked and ready.
I couldn’t dodge an arrow. I only had time to tighten and squeeze my eyes closed, accepting death as the twang of the bowstring met my ears.
The rush of frigid air brushed past me before a ball of ice collided with the arrow in midflight, shattering into chunks of snow and wood. Wind blew the curls back from my face as Cassmira landed beside me, her golden eyes finding me, her beak open as she cooed.
Strong arms wrapped around my middle, hauling me up onto the frost phoenix’s back.
“Fly, Cass.”
I squeezed my eyes closed as Callan threw a barrage of icicles careening down to the last few warriors who’d just come running into the throne room.
He pressed us both flat to the phoenix’s back as Cassmira plunged through the doorway and out into the main hall.
With three strong beats of her wings, we burst through the main doors of the Ice Fortress and out into the frigid winter air.
The snow had stopped, leaving a fluffy layer of fresh white over everything. All I could think of was how beautiful it was, like Callan’s hair.
Callan.
I looked up at him, realizing he’d let his armor melt completely away. My heart nearly stopped.
“The sapphire,” I said as he glanced down at me. “We have to go ba—”
“It’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine. I’d dropped it in the fray. He’d worked so hard for it. We both had. And now it was laying on the bloody ice of the throne room.
“But what if—”
“It’s fine,” he repeated, his voice tight with frustration.
But it wasn’t. I wasn’t fine. My mind was still trying to wrap around what had just happened. The fact that I’d taken the side of my enemy. Humans and elves were working together to overthrow the Frost King, and I sided with his son.
I swallowed my fear, trying to ignore the freezing wind as it whipped around me. I had nothing but my cloak to keep me warm as we plunged into another snow squall that left me completely blind and shaking from the cold.
“Lean into me,” he said as he pulled his own cloak around me as well.
I pressed my cheek against his chest. So warm.
He was so warm. He flinched as I turned and squeezed my arms around him.
As though he knew my thoughts, he wrapped an arm around my back and pulled me tighter into his chest. I needed to be closer.
It wasn’t for warmth. I needed to be closer to him.
All the complicated emotions swirling around in my mind melted away, leaving me with a single thought.
Callan.
“Where are we going?” I whispered, unsure if I’d said it loud enough for him to hear over the wind roaring in our ears.
“Somewhere you can be safe and warm.”
I tried to ignore the intimate way he’d said the words, to ignore the way his body moved with each breath. The way the scent of him tightened around me, all-consuming.
After a couple hours, Cassmira banked hard and dipped toward the ground.
“A little farther,” he whispered. Unless I was mistaken, he pressed his cheek to the top of my head. So gentle and endearing and confusing.
This wasn’t the same warrior who’d killed over a dozen fighters in the span of minutes.
It couldn’t be. He was vicious and cold and killed humans for the smallest infractions.
I refused to admit he was anything else.
Except, I knew the truth. He was broken and lost, and so was I.
He didn’t hate humans any more than I hated elves.
We were the product of a war that neither of us had truly wanted to fight in, but both felt we had to for very different reasons.
Cassmira landed softly before Callan pulled me from her back and carried me through knee-deep snow toward the mouth of a cave partially hidden by a massive tree crusted with years of frost. It was significantly warmer within the stone walls, protected from the brutal winds that ravaged the permafrost.
Once inside, he set me on my feet, taking my hands in his and looking me up and down, fear and confusion in his expression.
“Are you okay?” He took a step closer, and I backed up out of instinct, giving him the space he usually required.
“I’m fine. I’m just cold.”
“Are you sure? I touched you. Are you—”
“I’m fine. I promise.”
He smoothed his fingers up my exposed arms. His hands were so warm I shivered at the contrast between the cold air and the heat of his skin.
“You’re shivering.”
“I’m fine, Callan.”
He stepped closer, and I stepped back again until I bumped into the wall of the cavern behind. My breath caught as he stepped even closer, the warmth of his skin soaking into my own.
“Were you injured?”
“Callan, I promise. I’m fine. I’m...I’m just cold.”
Another step. His hands cupped my face, his fingers far gentler than I anticipated.
Soft touches, like brushing against flower petals.
He closed the distance between us, his nose nearly touching mine before he tipped his face to the side.
The warmth of his breath, the feel of his hand as it slipped over my shoulder and down my arm, sent butterflies chasing through my ribcage.
“I...can touch you.” His voice was a whisper as his lips hovered a mere inch from my own.
“It seems you can,” I whispered.
He wrapped a hand around my neck, his thumb circling my throat. His other hand tangled in my hair, my own gliding down his solid chest to his stomach, smoothing over the ridges of his abs. The memory of him standing shirtless sent heat sinking between my legs.
Was it so wrong to want him?
But it was. This man had killed countless people. My people.
Thick silence fell between us as we shared breath, neither of us willing to break whatever magic held us in its grasp.
“Tell me you hate me,” he said, his voice tight with need and anguish.
There was more pain in those five words than I’d expected. So much sorrow frozen around his heart.
“Tell me you hate me so I can stop wanting you.”
“I don’t hate you. I can’t. I’ve tried.”
He brushed his lips over my cheek as I tipped my face to his, needing more. Begging to taste his lips again.
What was wrong with me? He was an elf. He was a prince. He was...
“Tell me to step away.” The pleading desperation in his voice was agony. “Tell me to stop.”
My breath caught in my throat, because I couldn’t.
“But I don’t want you to stop.”
His lavender eyes grew wide, his throat bobbing as he processed my words. Then he crushed his lips to mine.