I try to shake it off, but it’s impossible to dislodge.
Thyra takes a slow breath, an inhalation that feels as if she could wrap me around herself at will.
“What you should know about me…”
She opens her eyes, raising them to mine, tilting her head a little so I can see her while I wait for her to continue.
“I won’t ask for help,” she says.
I expect her to say more, but her silence stretches. “And?” Then my forehead crinkles. “But?”
The smallest flicker of a smile passes across her lips. “But I’m trying to figure out how to tell you what I need to tell youwithoutasking for help.”
“That’s a fair dilemma,” I say. “I’m prepared to be patient.”
I am patient.
Always.
Just as an owl will wait quietly for its prey.
“We can’t leave the forest until dawn, anyway,” I continue. “No sane fae travels across the Frost Kingdom during the nighttime snowstorms.”
She arches her eyebrows at me. “‘No sane fae’?”
I grin at her, fully aware of how frightening my smile is—and that she doesn’t flinch. “Snowstorms don’t bother me. Even so, take your time. Tell me something easy.Something?—”
“My feet are cold.”
Of course they are. The cloak isn’t yet fully wrapped around her body, only across her back, and it won’t cover her feet because I didn’t construct it that way.
We’ve remained pressed up against the rock wall, but before I can pull her away from it, she slowly, very slowly, takes a deep breath and says, “You should make my feet warm.”
A command.
Or an invitation.
Not a request for help.
Good.
Even so, I take my time stepping back from the rock and setting her onto her feet.
The moment I pull my hands away from her, the Lethian armor reseals down her side, covering her curves.
Allowing thethud-thudof her heart to fill my ears, I pull the Alak-Teahan garment around her shoulders. The webbing will insulate her against the cold, just as it seals heat into this forest.
I hum as I adjust the cloth to fit her precisely, enticing the webbing to change around her body and encouraging it to form toggles so she’ll be able to slip in and out of the full-body cloak on her own.
As I work, I consider there might come a time when she wants to wear only the cloak and hood portion of the garment, and not the full body suit attached to it, so I sing again, gently separating the material at the shoulders and creating soft latches to keep the two pieces together for now. A body suit, and a cloak with a hood.
She watches me as I toil over the material, perfecting the garment, my hands barely making contact with her form, until I’m satisfied that the cloak fits her perfectly.
During the weavingprocess, I also managed to thin the wadding out so it will be thick enough to keep her warm, but not to hinder her movements too much.
But as for warm boots, the webbing isn’t tough enough to form soles for her to walk on. I’m also certain from the nearly imperceptible vibrations resonating from her Lethian armor that it won’t relinquish its position against her skin. The Alak-Teahan garment will have to be worn over the top of it.
Better that her armor stays concealed, anyway.
