Page 17 of Our Dark Winter Wish

‘I thought you preferred me on my back.’

‘Or on all fours!’ Archie calls over just as he does an impressive spin on one foot.

How the fuck has he managed to be so good so quickly?

We get a few feet onto the ice and stop. She grips me tightly, still looking at her feet.

I rest my finger under her chin and lift.

‘I said head up, Pixie.’

‘Yes,My Lord.’

I lead her further onto the ice and give her all the tips and pointers I can think of.

‘Bend your knees. Keep low. Glide each foot outwards and away from your other foot. Slide, Pixie. Gentle and sure.’

‘Gentle and sure…’ she whispers, biting her lower lip nervously as she nods.

She starts to move, giggling and yelping at every bit of movement. But I have her. She’s safe.

‘You do this often?’ she asks.

‘Not of late. No. But I did many years ago.’

‘Tell me.’

She stumbles. I keep her up.

‘I watched a young girl skate once. A very long time ago. It was in her dreams but so vivid. She enjoyed it so much. Then, when I was trapped in this witch’s body all those years ago, I thought I would give it a go. I went to a lake, attached some bones to my shoes, and off I went.’

‘Were you good?’

‘No,’ I laugh, shaking my head. ‘I was awful. Never mind the fact that I was new to being shoved and sealed inside a serial killer’s skin suit, ice skating is tricky.’

Dorian slides past us on his front, face down and swearing as Archie glides past us going backwards.

Show off.

Pixie is looking up at me with a sweet little smile.

‘What?’

‘It amazes me that one of the first things you did when you were made human was to try out something that made a little girl so happy in her dreams.’

She certainly did enjoy to skate. It was her ultimate happy place.

‘How come you watched her dreams?’ she asks.

‘I watched hundreds. Thousands of people’s dreams. Even more of their nightmares. It’s all I did for a long time. Before…’

‘Neve,’ she finishes. Her gaze falls. ‘My mother. Who trapped you and the others.’

‘An act that led us to you, Pixie.’

‘A poor consolation prize for all the pain her actions caused.’

The painwecaused because of her is what she means. The witches we slaughtered. The blood and devastation we left in our wake.

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