Page 159 of The Heart of Winter

Neither of us was willing to back down.

"Fine," I said finally, conceding. "Then we’ll split it."

"Okay. I can agree to that."

Sariel scooped out the meat and sliced it in half on a rock.

It looked so small.

So pathetically small.

Like nothing at all.

Something caught his attention.

He picked up the piece I had bitten earlier, his eyes fixing on the desperate bite mark I’d left in the clam meat.

Our eyes met.

"Fuck! You’re starving, Winter. I know how badly. You should eat the whole thing. I see how much you’re struggling."

"No way," I said firmly. I took my half, shoved it into my mouth, and turned away, heading back to the beach.

"Winter, no! You should rest!" Sariel called after me.

But I didn’t listen.

Wobbling, I walked away, feeling like the ground was crumbling beneath my feet.

I knew that if I wasn’t careful, I’d slip from weakness and smash my head on the rocks.

So I forced myself to focus.

Step by step.

Step.

Step.

Step.

As the ocean came into view, with its merciless gray waves and its icy, foaming teeth biting into the shore, I shivered.

My frozen hell was just beginning.

SARIEL

I spent the next two hours stripping bark and mashing the roots of the grasses I had gathered. It was tedious, and the results were pitiful. I added some lichen from the rocks around the cave, it added a bit more bulk, but it was still almost nothing.

Half a clam had given me no energy.

None. And the entire day before? We had been starving.

I was shaking. My mind kept drifting away.

At times, I just… stopped moving altogether, staring blankly, because I knew there was no point in working at this halfhearted pace.

This was what my attempt at preparing food had become—

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