Aurelia looks up and over her shoulder at him, but he’s watching me like…
Like I’m the threat. Toher.
My chest tightens again, and Thorin clears his throat. It doesn’t break any of the tension like he probably intended it to. “Obviously, we have a lot to talk about, but it’ll have to wait until we get back to the cabin. It can’t be here.”
I look around one last time before Thorin helps me to my feet and we start looking for a way back to the cabin. It’s not easy since there’s snow everywhere and we’re not geared up to traverse it at all. It’s also spring now. I can tell by how warm the air feels rather than the bracing cold. The last time I remember being awake, it was still winter, if only for a few more weeks.
None of us speak as we walk back, and I keep waiting for the girl to go her own way but she follows us all the way back to the cabin. Thorin and Khalil also seem to be overly familiar with her, but all it does is send my anxiety through the fucking roof.
And I don’t remember a thing.
Honestly, that surprises me. Seth is always a pissy bitch whenever I take my body back. Usually, I don’t mind it, but this is the first time I’ve ever wanted to remember.
I have to.
I need to figure out what this girl is doing here and how to get her gone for good.
EZEKIEL
This is weird,” Aurelia whispers. Her brown skin is still ashen from the avalanche, but most of the color has already returned to her cheeks and neck. I try to ignore the way they flush with heat each time our eyes accidentally meet. “I mean… This isweird, right?” she presses when no one else says a word.
Khalil, who is sitting between us like a barrier, grumbles something to her. Thorin sits on Aurelia’s other side, and I wonder who those overbearing assholes are protecting: Her or me? Either possibility makes me want to roll my eyes.
Do they really think I’d hurt her? I’m not Bane.
Or do they think I’m so fucking fragile that I can’t handle one girl?
The four of us are huddled in front of the wood-burning stove in our living room, trying to get warm. I’m pretty sure we’re all past that now, but no one knows what to do. No one knows what to do about this. About us. Aboutme.
It feels like I’m the outsider.
I’ve gotten used to waking from a split and having no idea what day it is or what’s happening. It’s still jarring as fuck, but it helps if it happens in a safe space, where I’m surrounded by familiar faces—neither of which happened today.
First of all, I’m pretty sure I died.
I place a hand over my chest to ensure my heart is still beating at a rhythm that won’t triggerthem.
Too fast and it wakes Seth.
Too slow…Bane.
I’m forever straddling that fine line, knowing my emotions rest on an explosive hair trigger.
Thorin and Khalil were vague on the details of what happened earlier, only explaining that we got caught in an avalanche before insisting we get back to the cabin.
Seth, what did you do?I ask the alter, reaching out with a mental probe.
Once again, he doesn’t answer.
Radio fucking silent like a petulant fucking asshole because I woke up and ruined his fun.
I need him to tell me about her.
Aurelia.
Any hopes that she was a passerby were dashed when she followed us into our cabin, and from the looks of it, she’s made herself pretty comfortable here.
What the fuck is going on? Why won’t anyone tell me?
