I blinked. “What?”
He didn’t stop walking. “If you harbour ill intentions in Nimorran, you’ll freeze to death,” he said. “What I feel right now…it’s the kind of cold that would kill an ordinary human.” He glanced to the side but I knew it wasn’t to see how I’d react. “My body expels heat to fight it,” he added.
I stopped walling, staring at his back, at the dark coat gripping his shoulders, the gloves moulded to his hands. Every inch of himwas covered, and still, he was burning from the inside out just to stay alive.
A twist coiled unpleasantly low in my gut.
“You’re not welcome here,” I said, my voice quieter than I meant it to be. “I felt the cold too, but it’s gone. It let me in. You should be dead if you were an ordinary human. How long have you been here?”
He chuckled, the sound heavy and deep.And mocking.“The days or my intentions mean nothing. Nimorran doesn’t welcome me anyway.”
“Why is that?”
He glanced back again, his smirk lingering longer than I liked. “Too many questions.”
“Don’t think I’m walking into that house while knowing you harbour ill intentions.”
His pause was barely half a beat. “You prefer I carry you, hmm?”
I stopped walking and frowned. “I’m fucking serious. How are you not a normal human? Why is this town trying to drive you out? Do you know I don’t even sleep peacefully at night because I’m always on edge that you’re going to barge in and dig my heart out.”
He stopped and turned. “I plan on doing that to your heart. Digging it out and having it to myself.” He smirked. “But not literally.”
My breath escaped in one long, splintering sigh. I shoved my fingers through my hair, tugged hard enough to sting.
“This isn’t a joke.”
“I know.”
“Really? Because I don’t even know your name.”
“And if I tell you?” He crossed his arms over his broad chest. “No more questions today and you’ll walk into that house and eat?”
I swallowed, darting my gaze to the sky. It made no sense that he cared if I had breakfast or not. But again,a win is a win.I cleared my throat. “Your full name.”
“First name.”
I rolled my eyes with a groan. It’d be hard to make a search with just his first name. “Fine.”
He closed the distance between us in two strides and leaned down to my height, a faint smile ghosting on his lips. “Thrax.”
My brows shot up.What?
“Th-rax,” he repeated slowly, as if savouring the syllables on his tongue. His dark eyes dropped to my lips, voice low enough to stir something shamefully physical. “Let me hear it.”
Thrax.
Thrax.
Thrax.
All of the fucking sudden, it was like I had a massive rock in my throat, making it hard to even swallow. I hated when all his attention was on me because I was incapable of holding or containing the sensation.
“No,” I breathed.
His brows twitched, one lifting in a question as his head tilted.
I raised my chin defiantly. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you say your name. With everything you’ve done so far...and everything you’re still doing, you don’t deserve to be called by one.” Then I stepped to the side with a tight smile. “If you’ll excuse me.”
