Page 12 of Ice Bound

"Neledrim!" Her jaw was chattering enough that she could only stammer his name. She stopped, turned, searched. There was nothing around her but endless white and gray. Even her own tracks seemed to be filling already. Tears gathered in her eyes, her cheeks so cold they burned.

Her next step sent her tumbling into the snow. She would never find him. Something icy gripped her heart and squeezed. There wasn't enough strength left in her to get back on her feet.

Snow had begun to accumulate on her shivering body when she saw a dark shape nearing. She almost laughed. It was like the night Neledrim had first come to her home, when she had spied him in the blizzard, an indistinct figure approaching through gauzy curtains of snow.

The figure became clearer as it neared. A pale cloak trailed behind the man, waving like it was cloth but glittering like it was woven of delicate ice. His clothes were dark, simple, well-worn. Her gaze moved up from his chest, over his broad shoulders, to his pale white skin and blue-tinged lips. Around him, large snowflakes seemed to hang in the air, turning lazily. Barely perceptible ice patterns ran over his skin, ever-changing.

Neledrim. She knew that face. Knew those multi-hued eyes, sparkling now even inabsence of sunlight. This was not the face of any man, but it was a face she knew well.

"Anna," he said, his voice soft. It seemed to ride the wind to her ears, and even as she heard it, the storm calmed around her.

She tried to say his name, but it was little more than a whisper. Her eyelids, too heavy to keep open, slid shut.

Strong arms wrapped around her, lifting her from the snow and clutching her to a solid chest. Her throat and lungs burned with each inhalation, protesting against the cold. She was able to force her eyes open for a moment, catching a glimpse of his face, framed by his dark hair.

When they closed again, she surrendered to the darkness.

* * *

Anna awoke in a sweat. She was being crushed, a great weight atop her, stealing the breath from her lungs. It was only a moment before her eyes adjusted. She was looking at her fireplace from her bed, draped in every blanket she owned. It was a stark change from the snow, the biting winds, the chilled, groping fingers of winter.

Neledrim.

She had found him. Or he had found her.

It was clear now. He'd been the stranger in his stories. He had saved all those people. Had saved her. More than a man...and he was gone. That was how his tales always ended. He rescued someone from the cold and disappeared.

She couldn't hold back the sobs that bubbled up from her. Didn't try to. Her eyes stung, her chest ached. She had known the hurt of loss, the lingering pain. She hadn't wanted to go through it again. All her efforts to avoid it had only made her long for him all the more.

And she was to blame. She had pushed him away.

Burying her face in the blankets, she let out a wail to put the wind to shame, filled with pain and loss. The pain she should have released for Lily and Davis. For her old life, which she knew now was gone forever.

"Anna?"

She went still. The voice had been so soft that it could only have been a trick of hermind. She’d wanted to hear it so badly that she'd conjured it up. Though her limbs were heavy, she sat up, turning to look behind her.

He was sitting beside the bed, as far from the fire as he could, his skin still pale, lips azure, eyes radiant. She could finally see him for what he truly was, and he’d never been more beautiful to her.

She heaved the blankets aside and leapt across the bed, wrapping her arms around him and pressing her face to his chest. Her breaths were short, sharp. Neledrim embraced her, a hand moving into her hair.

"I thought you were gone," she said.

"I was," he replied. "And I thought you were, too."

Anna lifted her face to look up at him. She raised a hand, touching the smooth skin of his cheek, cupping his face. "You are the stranger in the storm."

"Stranger no more."

"You were right. I blamed myself. Davis couldn't take the cold and grew sick, and Lily after him, and I couldn't save them. I couldn't save my baby girl, couldn't protect her. So I made this place my prison. My punishment for not being strong enough."

"And now that you see it, it cannot hold you," he told her, brushing bundles of curls out of her face, wiping away the tears.

"Take me with you." Her voice was so small to her own ears, so desperate. He was the stranger, a wanderer. Not even human. What need would he have of her? "Save me from this place."

"Anna..."

Neledrim leaned down, placing a kiss atop her head. The coolness of his lips seemed to spread throughout her, tingling, not at all unpleasant. Slowly, the room began to feel warmer than it should.

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