Page 101 of A Tale of Ice and Ash
“About what? You didn’t cause the accident.”
He shook his head. “No,” he said, “but, at the time, I wondered if… if I could have done something differently. I blamed myself for quite a long time. For that, and… for the way I treated you before.”
Eirwen sat down beside him, and laid her head against his shoulder. “I hate your hidden depths,” she whispered, smiling.
Cole grinned. “No, you don’t.”
“Fine, I hate your confidence.”
“Hmm, no, I’m fairly sure you like that too.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“Yes,” he said, moving closer, “but I think you enjoy that most of all.”
He tilted his face towards her. There was barely a fraction of space between them. Their cool breath mingled in the frozen air. She wanted to pull on that teasing, perpetual smirk of his, but as his gaze dropped, so did the smirk, as if melted by the giddy heat of her closeness. A moment trembled in the air, and Eirwen flushed with the same sensation that had gripped her last night, a desire to sink into his flesh, to abandon her own entirely.
A desire.
A desire for Cole.
She pulled backwards, only a sliver, and bit into her apple, grinning at him. “This is a good apple,” she chuckled. “Thank you for giving it up.”
Cole seized her hand and sunk his teeth into the flesh of fruit, licking his lips. “Who said we couldn’t share?” He swallowed his mouthful. “Irresistible.”
“Are you flirting with me?”
“Is it working?”
Eirwen took back her apple, and the hand attached to it. “Tempting as it is to stay sitting by the fire all day, we should probably make a move after we’ve eaten.”
Cole snatched another bite. “If you say so. Where to?”
“I… I want to keep going after Onyx.”
“Are you sure? With your leg?”
Eirwen rubbed her thigh. “I’ve got enough ointment to dull the pain. I can walk fine. I think we can get most of the way to where Merry thinks he’s heading using this cavern– low-risk with the daylight. It’s a long journey back with the tunnel blocked up either way.”
Cole nodded. “All right. Do we have any bread left? We can toast it now.”
∞∞∞
After a meagre breakfast of toast and the remaining slices of apple, they re-equipped themselves, wrapped what fur they could around their shoulders, and set off into the cavern. The snow had fallen thick and heavy during the night, and they swiftly decided to go an indirect route down the backgrounds that was less in the path of the snowfall.
The light made the snow glisten with a bluish hue. Cole could not believe he had ever hated it. Yes, there were times he missed the bustle of Florin, the bright, terracotta cities and the glimmering seas, but how could he have ever thought this land was ugly, this shimmering, icy world?
He would have to return to Florin one day, but he knew he would miss Aberthor.
Eirwen struggled behind him, her leg causing her more trouble than she cared to admit. He held out his hand to help her when the terrain became too rough, but she usually rebuffed him.
“Is it… me you have a problem with?” he asked after the dozenth time. “Or help in general?”
Eirwen blinked at him. “I don’t like relying on people.”
“Why not?”
“Because it makes me feel… less strong.”
