“What do you do?” I ask.
He tucks away his sketchbook. “I am a blacksmith—for the black metal.”
The black metal…
I glance down at the weapons strapped to his thigh, holstered to his hips—and so many of them have that chalky black metal for blades.
He can make those.
It…
It suits him, actually.
Poring over a craft, whether it’s a sketchbook, a weapon, or a cookpot—he is a creative.
I wonder if he made the flecked glass dagger he’s always touching.
Samick asks, “If you cannot care for yourself, why did you not marry?”
My mouth turns down at the corners.
His question hits me, harder than I’m comfortable with.
I shift on the spot, feeling the weight of it.
Because how the hell do I answer that? It’s a long story—but before I can even begin to sort out my answers, Samick stiffens.
Hand buried in the satchel, a stillness runs over him. A tension. It’s like he freezes over right in front of me.
I’ve been with him long enough now to know that it means nothing good.
I flick my gaze to Arwyn.
He’s just as motionless.
Book in hand, a frown creases into his brow, and he stays absolutely still.
“What—”
Samick’s hand shoots out for my face. His fingers pinch my lips shut, silencing me… but in the weirdest fucking way.
My wide eyes flick between him and Arwyn, while Samick keeps my lips pinched shut, but neither of them look at me.
Both slide their arctic stares in the direction we came from, the direction of the bay.
Trees and mossy boulders and distance block my view of the shore. Even with the campfires illuminating the forest, we’re too deep in to see the bay.
Still, the cold warriors stare in that direction.
And they aren’t the only ones.
In the seconds that have passed, most of the fae have completely stilled—and all of them are either looking around the camp or staring out at the trees.
The general is first to move.
Slowly, she rises from a crouch by hot flames. Her sharp chin lifts in the air—and she has a stare so severe that the bay should sink in on itself just to escape the ferocity of it.
I almost smack Samick’s hand away from my mouth.
