My voice sharpens, and I inject a hint of my Lethian power into my words, the energy coming readily to my tongue now. “Nara. Go.”
The wolf’s ears flick back, and she jolts forward, propelled by my Voice.
She quickly breaks into a run, her head lowered as she races through the stormy night, heading northwest, a path that will steer us clear of the nearest tower.
No healer can help Thyra now. She was already beyond any healer’s help before I carried her across the border.
I hum once more into Thyra’s ear, but this time, the wind whips away the sound. Her hand threatens to claw at my heart again, her legs trembling around my body. Her whimper tugs at my hearing. Not a good whimper.
I detect every cadence of emotion in her soft cry, interpreting the smallest notes in her voice. She’s confused and desperate, but worse, her mind is wandering.
She’s approaching delirium.
If I could panic, it would be now.
Calmly, I return my mouth to her ear, determined to focus.
This storm will not silence me.
Soft as the opening of a flower—a sight I’ve only seen across the border of my kingdom—I hum another note, this one more soothing than those before.
I sense its power, the way it curls across the shortest gap between her ear and my mouth and will hook around her mind.
Her tension eases, and the threatening shivers abate.
Off to our right, the silhouette of a Frost Tower becomes visible. Beyond it, farther east, is a village. One of many. While my palace sits near the center of my kingdom, villages have sprung up over time in a manner dictated purely by survival. Homes are clustered around the underground hot springs that run far below the surface, situated where those springs flow closer to the surface, and the steam can be harnessed for heating.
Our destination is far enough away that the distanceis a threat to Thyra’s survival. Certainly, if I hadn’t forced her back to her body, she wouldn’t have made it even if I’d gone straight there.
Now, the Alak-Teah is her only hope.
Over and over, I hum into Thyra’s ear, keeping her balanced on the precipice of a crash. Pleasure unfulfilled while her body remains alluringly close to release.
All while I fight to stay sane, pulling from my desires without quenching any of them, a challenge that drives me to the brink of disaster, over and over again.
The wind and snow intensify the farther north we travel, but Nara pushes on. Any other wolf would collapse from the effort, but not Nara. She was born in the wild and survived against all odds.
Still, she can’t run forever.
Neither will Thyra hold on forever, her breathing thready, her moans far weaker than before.
Somehow, she manages to whisper against my cheek, the first words she’s spoken since she demanded that I make her warm. “What are you doing to me?”
“Keeping you warm.”
It’s a half-truth.
I’m keeping her alive while I carry her into danger.
Chapter Twelve
Thyra
Treacherous heat radiates through my body, pooling between my legs, making me want more.
My need intensifies with every softly hummed note the Frost King sings into my ear, his voice as sweet as syrup, as warm as the ocean on a hot day, and as yearning as a breeze slipping between palm fronds.
He pulls my focus from the terrifying snowstorm trying to beat us down and obliterate us.
