She shakes her head slowly. “No. It’s just... cold. But not a bad cold, it feels like...”
My pulse races, ice floods beneath my skin. I squeeze my eyes shut, desperate to rein it in.
“Feels like what?” I rasp, the word scratching my throat.
“Like...you.”
The forest goes deafeningly silent at her words—my Kaevûn throbs in response. I clench my fist to keep from pinning her to the forest floor.
She looks up at me, wide-eyed, lips parted. My fingers twitch where they’re cradling her foot in my lap. I stay kneeling in the snow like a devoted disciple at a shrine.
Kaemorin.
Kaemorin.
Kaemorin.
I don’t know how much longer I can pretend that I’m strong enough to wait.
I force myself to release her; anything to stop the mating heat in my chest from consuming us both.
Lumi
He lets go of me like I burned him and turns away.
“Uh...Andrik, what’s wrong?”
The snow between us suddenly feels more fragile than it should, like if I shift even a little, it might crack open and swallow us whole.
My foot still tingles where he touched me. God. He was just checking my ankle to make sure I was okay. What is wrong with me?
“Nothing. Just scouting for animals,” he says after a few seconds, his voice tighter than usual.
Maybe my reaction to the animals was too much. Was it wrong to say the cold felt good?
Worse—that it felt like him?Was that weird?
I bite the inside of my cheek, hard.
Don’t say anything else. Don’t make it weirder.
He still hasn’t turned around. I study the back of him, his stature is rigid... distant.
Does he regret going on this walk with me? Is that why he looked so pained before he let go of my ankle?
“Did my boots stink?”Goddammit. I literally just saiddon’t make it weird.
Andrik’s head whips to the side.
“What?”
“Is that why you had to turn around? Was it my boots?”
As if she can sense my rising discomfort, Bimby flies around my head a few times before settling back in my hair.
He finally turns to face me.
“I-what?” He blinks slowly and then huffs out a laugh. A short, breathless chuckle that steams in the cold.
