Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
The last bite of the Dalvian sweet sat untouched in Alvara’s sticky fingers. There stood the inn, one she and Pyry had ambled past together one evening years ago.
She had led the group through the gates of Vorianta to a secluded part of the city she rarely frequented, taking only a moment to stop in the first bakery she spotted.
She would have faded if she didn’t get her hands on her favorite Jolval dessert: berry jam sandwiched between two buttery, spiced hazelnut biscuits shaped like snowflakes.
But now, facing the inn, her appetite had vanished.
Frost clung to the evergreen boughs strung above each window, and different beautiful patterns of ice decorated the glass.
Hearty smoke puffed out of the chimney, though not yet from a Jolval log engraved with blessings for good fortune in the coming year.
Those would start burning in a week and continue to do so for all twelve days, and each Dalvian would save a small piece of theirs to start another fire the following Jolval.
It had always been her favorite time of year, even after her mother and sister had passed. She had tried to convince her father to share a festive log, but he had refused and left both their hearths cold and empty.
The reminder of what the celebrations meant, the danger coming for her people—it all formed a large lump in Alvara’s throat.
She tossed the rest of her biscuit into the snow before stepping inside the small building.
“What do you mean you only have two rooms?” Alvara tried to bite back the irritation slithering into her voice.
The owner shook his head. “With Jolval coming, we have Dalvians from all over visiting. It’s two rooms or nothing. One bed in each. Each room has enough space for two people, three if you’re desperate. You’re lucky we even have that, just about every other inn is fully booked.”
And they didn’t have time to waste roaming Vorianta to find another inn to stay at.
Two rooms, and there were five of them, three of which she hardly knew.
Alvara could guess who she would share with.
Sometimes it felt like whatever god was supposed to be in charge of her future had gotten blistering drunk and turned her life into a drinking game.
“Fine.” Alvara slid payment across the counter and grabbed the keys. She approached the rest of the group, dangling the bits of metal in front of them. “There are only two rooms left.”
Two of the councilors looked at each other and nodded, and Boden shifted his feet. “Orme and I can try to find somewhere else to stay.”
Orme blustered about the indecency of being left behind, but Alvara ignored him. She would rather saw her own arm off than share a room with his aggravating presence for even a minute. Boden would have to do.
“As enticing as that sounds, this seems to be our only option. Besides, I’m sure Orme is more than happy to sleep on the councilors’ floor, aren’t you?
” She gave him a pointed look, and he muttered something about Dalvians under his breath.
Alvara popped a sap candy into her mouth as she headed toward the stairs.
However many Kat had given her, it wouldn’t be enough to survive this trip.
When she and Boden made it to their room, they both stared at the bed, neither deigning to break the silence between them.
“I can sleep on the floor,” she finally said and threw her pack against the wall.
“You should take the bed, and I’ll sleep on the floor.” He picked up her bag and placed it on the mattress.
Unlike what others believed, she didn’t need to be coddled like a youngling and would continue to prove them otherwise. “I’m used to the cold here. You’re not. Take the bed before I make you.” She had no idea what her threat even meant, but the back and forth was setting her teeth on edge.
He spread his hands wide. “As you wish.”
It seemed that Alvara had forgotten what dalvi here was like. Tiny bumps covered her body head to toe, and no matter how tightly she wrapped the blanket around herself, it felt like she might as well have been sleeping in the snow.
“I can hear your teeth chattering from here,” Boden said from the bed above her. “It’s quite distracting when I’m trying to sleep.”
She ignored him and twisted away, and the cold floorboards sent a shiver up her spine.
“Please just get in the bed, Alvara. I promise I am more than capable of keeping my hands to myself.”
Her firm stance against showing any weakness had vanished along with her body heat, so she grabbed her pillow and shuffled over. She slipped under the covers and shifted herself away from Boden, as close to the edge as she dared without risking falling flat on her face.
“If you’d prefer this side, I’d be more than happy to move. I know some people have certain ways they like to sleep, and I…”
Alvara moved to her back and glowered at the ceiling. Maybe the floor had been better. At least it hadn’t tried holding a conversation with her. “If I ask really nicely, will you please, for the love of Vitharen, stop talking?”
“Nicely?” He drew out the word. “I’m not sure you’re capable of that.”
Gods, all she wanted to do was sleep, but it had been years since she had shared a bed with someone, and Boden’s sweltering frame plucked at her memories. “You’re like a blazing hearth,” she said, though she was unable to stop herself from sidling a little closer to his warmth.
“And here I thought you preferred silence.”
“All I’m saying is if you need to take…” Was she really about to invite him to undress? “Uh…layers off, you can.” Layers? Gods, it was like she had never interacted with another person before. “I’m speaking like I’ve never shared a bed with a male.”
Boden rolled to his other side and propped his head up on his hand with a smirk. “Do tell.”
Burn her to ashes, had she just said that out loud? She had clearly spent too much time alone in an empty house over the past few years. Her cheeks burned hotter than a valo sun, and she stuffed her pillow over her face. “Just kill me.”
Boden chuckled. “I don’t think so, because then all my entertainment would be gone. If you’d like to talk about all the times you’ve shared a bed with another male, be my guest.”
“Please just go to sleep so we can pretend this never happened.”
“I’m not sure if I can, I’m wearing so many layers it might be difficult.”
Alvara lifted the pillow and scowled at the joy brightening his features. “Don’t make me regret not choosing Orme. Just keep to your side of the bed, and we won’t have a problem.”
“Would you like me to fetch him? If he’s your preferred partner in bed—”
“Go to sleep before I smother you with a pillow.”
As the peace and quiet settled into the space between them, the heat of Boden’s body lulled her into sleep. She had almost forgotten they were sharing a bed.
Almost.
Alvara followed the path by heart. It had been too many months since her family had all gotten together, and she couldn’t wait to see them. Especially Eloisa.
Before her lay a weaving trail of…was that blood coming from the door? No. It couldn’t be.
The gods-awful stench of fading suffocated her as she stumbled through the crimson-stained snow and fell to her knees on the house’s slippery floor. Her parents. Their bodies. She couldn’t stop screaming.
Blood. It was everywhere, gushing so fast it swallowed every floorboard.
“Alvara?” Eloisa’s gentle voice turned Alvara’s head, and she breathed a sigh of relief at her sister’s perfectly healthy frame. At least she had been spared.
Alvara opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. A dagger, King Einar’s dagger, appeared in her hand and jerked toward her sister’s chest.
No, no, no.
She pulled back with all her strength. She wouldn’t let this cursed weapon take a precious life.
The blade ignored her protests and ripped a hole in Eloisa’s skin, spilling her blood down the front of Alvara and soaking her to the bone.
She tried to move as her sister’s body slumped to the ground, but she was trapped in place. The stickiness. The smell.
What had she done?
Ice shot out from her body in every direction and covered the ground in gruesome crystals. Her family’s life force that would never again run through their veins.
“Alvara!” A strange voice called for her, but she could only stare at the faded bodies of her family. At her own bloodstained hands that still fed the frozen cage of her own making. A guttural scream ripped out of her throat, and a blinding warmth wrapped around her.
“ALVARA!”
She jolted in bed, still screaming. But it all stopped when she noticed where she was. And whose arms held her.
Boden’s body heat had kept her own temperature from plummeting too low, the steady beat of his heart slowing hers to a normal pace. This was not how she had ever imagined or wanted the night to go.
But his touch, however uncomfortable, had likely been the only thing that could have pulled her out of her nightmare. This one had been worse than usual. Ice crystals covered the room, sparkling in a way that would have been beautiful if not for the fact that she could have killed them both.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Boden held on for a few more breaths before releasing her from his embrace and leaving the now frosty bed to rifle through the room’s dresser drawers.
“Does it happen often?” he asked as he handed her a blanket.
The material scratched at her skin, but she wrapped it around herself anyway. “Would you consider every night often?”
“Yes, I think most people would.”
Her nightmares were something no one knew about, not even her father.
To share it with Boden, who had already learned much more about her than she would have ever liked…
“I’m sorry I woke you.” Alvara tucked herself back into bed, not sure why she bothered with the covers when they were stiff as a board.
“I find calming my mind before sleep helps, deep breathing. All of that nonsense.” The mattress squeaked as he moved away. “If you’d ever like to talk—”
“Goodnight.” He was the last person she wanted diving into the inner workings of her mind.
Something unsaid hung in the air between them, but thank Vitharen, he chose to leave it alone. Though Alvara felt a touch warmer, as if he had scooted closer to her side of the bed.