We sat in silence for a while, lost in our own thoughts as the sun crept up outside, painting the sky in shades of amber and gold.
"You should get some rest," Rickon said, nodding toward the sleeping bags.
After fighting back yawns for the last several minutes, I agreed.
The temperature had dropped significantly despite the warmth from the wood stove. I scrunched down in my sleeping bag, pulling the thermal fabric tightly around myself, trying to get comfortable on the cushioned mat. Despite my exhaustion, sleep felt elusive.
A shiver ran through me. Whether from the cold or from replaying Rickon's words in my mind, I wasn't entirely sure. The sadness in his eyes had broken my heart.
"Are you cold?" His voice came from nearby.
"I'm fine," I said, even as another shiver contradicted me.
"Ellie." There was gentle reproach in his tone. "I can hear your teeth chattering."
"You can hear that well?"
"Very well. There's nothing for miles except small animals and fowl. We're completely safe." A pause. "May I come closer? My body temperature runs warmer than yours. It might help."
My heart did a little flip at the suggestion. Seriously, I was acting like a schoolgirl. "Okay."
I heard him move, graceful despite his size, and then suddenly he was there, settling down beside me. The heat radiating from his large body was immediate and intense, and I had to suppress a completely different kind of shiver.
"Better?" he asked softly.
"Much better," I managed, hyperaware of every inch of space between us, and how little there was of it.
His breathing was steady and even, a comforting rhythm in the darkness. His scent seemed to wrap around me, something earthy and clean with a hint of smoke from the fire.
"Sleep, Ellie," he murmured. "I'll keep watch."
"You need to rest too," I protested weakly, but my eyes were already growing heavy.
"I will. But for now, just sleep."
As I drifted off, cocooned in warmth and feeling safer than I had since this entire ordeal began, one thought floated through my mind.
It would be so easy to fall for Rickon.
So dangerously easy.
Chapter 10
Rickon
The snow fell in thick, lazy flakes as my wings beat against the sky. Ellie tucked against my chest, her arms wrapped around my neck, her face pressed into the hollow of my throat. Every few minutes, she shifted slightly, and I felt her breath, warm and steady, against my skin. I adjusted my hold, pulling her even tighter against me, one arm beneath her knees, the other supporting her back even though the harness held her steady.
"I'm too heavy," she murmured, her voice muffled against my collarbone. "Your back must be killing you."
I laughed, the sound rumbling through my chest. "You weigh nothing."
"I weigh a hundred and forty pounds—so not nothing," she shot back.
"I could carry you for days." It wasn't a boast. Just simple truth. I'd flown through storms that would tear her Earth airplanes apart, crossed oceans without rest, my wings carving through wind and rain that would have killed a lesser flyer. Holding her was effortless. More than that, it felt grounding, like her weight in my arms was the only thing tethering me to something real and good in this world.
I felt the wind pick up and banked slightly, angling my body to shield Ellie from the brunt of it. The snow was comingdown harder now, coating my hair and shoulders in a thick layer of white. The faint electrical impulse of the cuddwisg helped to melt it away, tiny rivulets of water running down my neck.
Below us, the landscape had shifted from urban sprawl to rolling farmland, then to something wilder. Trees clustered together in dark patches, their bare branches reaching toward the sky like skeletal fingers. I scented water nearby—cold and clean.
