With a flick of a handle, clear, cool mountain water flowed into the stone troughs along the grotto’s wall.
They exited, and Idan spun the immense circle of stone across the entrance for the last time, sealing the flock inside.
The trek back was grueling, through thick, swirling snow and freezing winds.
Sheba clung to Idan with all she had, her fingers numb and her breath hitching in the frosted air.
The distance seemed twice as far this time, and exhausted from wrangling livestock, her stamina bottomed out.
Idan’s arms locked around her to keep her steady as they plowed through waist-high drifts toward safety.
The hut finally emerged from the haze, and with a twist of Idan’s mitt on the lock, they stumbled through the door.
Sheba swayed at the threshold, almost collapsing into him, her reserves drained.
Idan ripped off his goggles, muttered a curse, and grabbed the frozen leather of her collar. He peeled the heavy, ice-crusted leopard hide from her, the pelt hitting the floor with a stiff thud.
His voice resonated in her mind, smooth as dark velvet.
You’re quite the snow angel, salkia, one covered in frost.
His humor vanished as the final layer of synth-fleece fell away, to reveal Sheba’s body racked by violent shudders.
Her honeyed skin was gray, with a glacial translucent pallor, and her lips stained a bruised violet.
The chill, it seemed, had bypassed her gear and settled deep in her bones.
‘I’m close to hypothermia, I think,’ Sheba managed to gasp out.
Idan cursed. ‘Need to get you warm rightfokkin’now.’
He kicked the cloaks aside and scooped her up, strode across the room, and laid her on the bed.
As her jaw rattled with the shakes and her blood slowed to a sludge, he stripped the damp layers from her skin.
She protested hoarsely as he removed them all, revealing her nakedness. He ignored her blushes and murmurings and tuckedher into the bed, burying her under a mountain of hides and furs.
Stepping to the hearth, he tossed split cedar logs into the grate.
The wood ignited into a frantic yellow blaze.
Satisfied, Idan shed his own clothes and gear.
Sheba scarcely registered his movements, lost in the waves of tremors and shakes.
He slid into the cavern of pelts and anchored his body against hers, pulling her head into the hollow of his chest.
Sheba gasped as their limbs entangled.
The contact was a furnace.
His chest radiated with glowing power, and his core temperature defied every law of physics, a stellar energy that hunted the ice in her bones.
He placed one hand on her chest, between her breasts, and the other he slid to cup her nape.
His body throbbed as his heat penetrated her organs, the sigils on his skin pulsed through the dark, casting an amber glow against the underside of the heavy pelts.
Slowly, her shivering began to calm, and the violent convulsions subsided.
