“It doesnae matter.” He pointed ahead to the grey clouds billowing in the distance across the mountains. “It looks like there’s another snowstorm coming. Let’s get tae a valley quickly and hunt fer shelter. We willnae want tae be up on the mountains when the snow comes.”
Her mind dwelling on what Kai had said, Ava pulled the fur she wore tight around her shoulders and rode close behind him. As they reached the valley, the snow came. It fell to the earth in great clumps of fluffy white ice. It would have been beautiful, had the wind not been so bitter. It started slow, before the snow came faster and faster, and was soon driving at them in a blizzard.
“Kai!” Ava called to be heard above the wind. “We cannae keep riding in this.”
“I ken. There’s a croft up ahead. I’ve spent a night there before. We’ll find it.”
She buried her mouth in the fur line of her cloak. The whole world seemed white, and Ava couldn’t discern anything in the valley. She couldn’t see the mountains on either side of them, the peaks and trees had morphed together into nothing but greyish shadows.
“There. Up ahead.” Kai pointed forward, though Ava could see nothing. With the ice landing in her eyelashes, her eyes ached and she was forced to close them again. “It’s nae far now.”
Ava started to wonder if she was wearing a cloak at all. She was sodden, her bones feeling as if they were made of icicles.
“Stop, Ava.” Kai’s voice spoke much closer than she had been expecting it to.
She opened her eyes, finding they had halted beside a croft that was sagging so much under snow, it was nigh on impossible to see. Kai jumped down first and led his horse around the back to a small stable. Ava struggled to get down from her own mare, for her body was now so numb. She staggered in the snow, about to fall when a pair of hands caught her around the waist.
“Kai?” she whispered, her voice stuttering in the cold.
“I’ve got ye,” he murmured, his lips much nearer to her ear than she had been prepared for. Her eyes fluttered closed, just wanting to indulge in the feeling of his lips so near. “I’ll always have ye, Ava.” He steered her toward the croft. She leaned against the wall as he took her horse around to the small stable too, then returned. The door opened with one light push and they stumbled inside.
Kai threw logs from a bucket into a fire as Ava shut the door and tried to block up the gaps around it with spare blankets she found folded in another basket.
“It’s so cold,” Ava whispered, dropping to her knees in front of the door when her legs wouldn’t move anymore.
“We’ll be warm soon. Just come near the fire. Ava? Ava?”
She could barely hear his words though. Whether it was exhaustion or the cold, she didn’t know, but her whole body was seizing up as she closed her eyes. Was she tipping toward the door? Falling to the ground?
There was a pair of arms around her, that much was certain, though little else she could make sense of for some minutes. There seemed to be this infernal blackness around her, until she felt a heat on her front. It was so hot it was burning, a great contrast to the cold air behind her. Then something warm moved behind her too. It was someone’s body.
Ava’s eyes shot open.
“Kai?” she whispered.
“Ye’re safe, Ava.” His lips were near her ear again.
Ava blinked, just concentrating on breathing in a level tone as she made sense of where she was. She was sitting in front of the fire that was now burning brightly. Behind her was Kai, his legs on either side of her, so she was leaning against his chest. He had propped the two of them up by leaning against an old chest. She was no longer wearing her damp cloak, only her gown. The cloak was thrown over a hook nearby, drying beside Kai’s own.
“What happened?”
“Ye passed out fer a minute. It’s probably the cold.” His arms came up around her, taking her hands in his own. He rubbed them beneath his palms, making them warm.
“Thank ye.”
“It’s naething.”
“Nay, it isnae. Thank ye, Kai,” she said again, earnestly. He always seemed to belittle what he did, even when he went to great lengths to protect her. She followed her instinct and threaded her fingers with his own for a moment, indulging in his warmth. “Thank ye. Truly.”
“Any time.” His voice was so quiet, it was almost indiscernible, his lips nearly touching the skin of her neck. She held her breath, wishing he would touch her, but then he leaned back an inch, and her stomach quivered all the more for the want of him.
“This gown… it’s wet.” She could feel the fire, but it was not enough to help her when the damp cloth was against her skin. “Ye’re wet too.”
“Aye, it’s me shirt.”
“Kai?”
“Dinnae say it.”
