Beside her, the offending ball of snow had broken open, and Kol plucked the frozen rock that had been encased inside. He turned over his shoulder, and the three cousins he expected were looking smug and satisfied, but only for a minute. Dread splashed over their faces as Kol contemplated which of them he would tie up with roots and have dragged below the earth first, and then they scattered.
He would have bolted after them if a noise didn’t shatter his festively fatal thoughts. Piper had covered her face again, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. She sucked in a hiccupping breath, shoulders rounded as she fought with everything she had to keep herself still and silent.
Burial under the earth was too good for those little shits—he was going to turn them into onions first, then bury them, then dig them up,and thenchop them into tiny pieces. But only after he made sure she was all right. “Piper,” he said softly, “let me see.”
“I’m not crying!” she blurted, and that broke the gate, a sob following quickly after.
“Well, actually, you are.” He ran a hand along her arm as gently as he could, prying her fingers away once more.
“No, I’m not,” she insisted, taking another blubbering breath. She wiped at her face, a mistake as blood and tears were both smeared across her cheek. “And if I am, it’s only because eyes water when you get hit in the nose. These are just reflex tears! They’re not because I’m actually upset or anything.”
“Okay, sure.” Kol took her by the elbow as he stood. “But maybe you can not cry inside where we can stop the bleeding.”
She sniffled and winced, standing along with him. “Yeah, maybe.”
Kol tucked his arm around her waist, and she leaned into him, head bent, but when they broke free of the trees, she pulled herself out of his hold.
“I’m fine.” Her voice was muffled behind a glove, but it was hollow and hard.
“Let me just—”
“No. I shouldn’t have come out here in the first place.” Piper made a beeline for the far side of the porch, away from where her older relatives were gathered, and she slipped inside completely unseen.
Kol stood in the yard looking after where she’d gone. She didn’t want his help now, not like she had before, but he wanted to give it. He wanted to march inside, make her sit, wash her face, tell her exactly how he would get revenge on her behalf, but…but it was his fault this had happened, and there would probably be no warmth waiting for him when he got to where she was.
Cold paws pressed against his shin, and then there was a bark that translated toInside!
“You’re already outside,” he told the dog, knowing it was too dumb to understand the difference between the words.
Big ouch!Doc declared through yaps and grunts.Sister, big ouch!
Kol snorted. “Yes, your sister did get a big ouch, but she doesn’t want my help.”
Sister inside! Big ouch! Mate help sister!
“Who?”
Sister mate!Doc scrambled his paws against Kol’s shin.Mate help!
Kol decided in that moment he’d been making it all up and never really understood a single animal’s language, but he did sprint inside the house to help. No, Piper would not be warm and inviting when he showed up, but that didn’t matter, it wasn’t abouthim.
He abandoned his coat and gloves just where he found hers on the banister and went straight to the second floor, knowing just where she would be, tucked as far from anyone else as possible and alone. She stood in the bathroom across from her bedroom, head tilted back, pinching her nose, bloody tissues littering the sink.
“Piper, sit.”
“Wha—”
“Sit.” He shifted her around and pushed her onto the toilet lid, the only seat in the room.
“Kol, I’m fi—”
“Stop talking.” He went for her hands, but she swatted at him. He swatted back, and the two engaged in the most ridiculously gentle slapping match until Kol growled and bared his teeth. “Damn it, Piper, let me help you!”
Piper’s arms fell to either side, and her eyes went so baleful he was sure she would start sobbing, but then that tiny indent formed between her brows. “There’s no helping this, it just has to stop. I’m sure the tree will be fine in the meantime.”
“The tree?” He leaned back, the fact hitting him that the spruce might also suffer from her injury. “The tree will survive,” he said, opening the medicine cabinet and glaring at its very human innards full of words he couldn’t pronounce.
“So will I,” she groused, tipping her head back again and stuffing toilet paper up her nostrils.
