Page 107 of A Tale of Ice and Ash
She half-wanted to take his hand, but the action seemed too strange, too abnormal, too different from everything she knew. She had never held hands with a person like that. Then again, she had never kissed a person like that, either. She’d never kissed anyone at all…
They’d missed a few steps. Her first kiss shouldn’t have happened in such a state of undress, and to happen with Cole…
Was it him that was the problem, or her? Or was in the intensity of the situation, of everything wound up and unwound in an instant, of her first kiss being fire and water rather than soft and simple?
She shoved it aside. They had a job to do.
∞∞∞
Cole’s eyes lingered on Eirwen’s form in a way they never had before as they carried on deeper into the mountains. Her leg didn’t seem to be bothering her as much any more, and she took the lead with relative ease. He preferred it this way; she knew better where they were going, and he liked being able to keep an eye on her.
Watch her back,Garnet had said. He hadn’t thought she meant it so literally, but he spotted several silvery scars across her beautiful skin whilst she bathed. Her back was too often unguarded.
I will guard your back for as long as I am able,he thought, watching her climb over debris.Until you tell me to go.
He still wasn’t sure what to make of what happened between them. Her body was unguarded, but her thoughts were anything but. She was as closed as an oyster. She was clearly attracted to him –that much was painfully obvious– but he didn’t know if it was more than that.
Hewantedit to be more than that.
He tried not to fixate on the memory of her body pressed against his, how small and fragile and strong she seemed, how all her strength and all her vulnerability quivered in his arms. More than that, he tried not to think about how she told him she hadn’t wasted her first kiss on him, that she’d given him a fragment of a suggestion that she wanted him too.
She was the one who curled up to him last night, but she had done that for him, and it was difficult to tell if that was because she truly cared or because that was just the sort of person she was. Shesaidshe cared about him, but then she had many in her life she cared for.
He didn’t. He’d lost Niamh. He was going to lose his mother, one way or another. Everyone he’d ever cared about was slipping away from him.
“Are you all right?” she asked, turning back to face him.
“Hmm?”
“Your silence is loud.”
How could she be so good at picking up on others’ feelings and so bitterly inadequate when it came to understanding her own? A faint urge to snap at her bubbled up, but he quenched it. It wasn’t fair.
“My usual worries,” he replied. “Also, incredibly hungry.”
“There’s another town up ahead.”
They raided it for supplies. There was nothing edible left to be eaten, so they poured themselves a tankard of ale and Eirwen fished in one of the underground rivers. They were small, bitter things, but they kept the hunger at bay a little longer. It was far from a pleasant meal. They had long since passed out of daylight, and Eirwen shuddered every time a rat scuttled in the blackness, certain it was a shade. They stamped out the fire as soon as the fish were cooked and wolfed down their meagre meal, carrying on into the dark.
They passed a tunnel daubed with markings, colourful depictions of festivals, coronations, a dwarven wedding. Words and initials bordered a section of it, some long since faded away, some still sharp.
All hail Aveline!
Lance and Lorenzo were here
Bob and Aerisha forever
R + T
Ariel loves Freed(which had a sharp line slashed through it and the addendum ‘no she doesn’t’scribbled underneath it.)
Cole couldn’t help but smile at the thought of all these lovers passing through this place, of the tiny piece of them they’d left behind.
They passed into a round chamber, scratched with similar depictions. Some were etched with writing, a tongue Cole was unfamiliar with. He pointed to a section which showed a white creature in robes of gold light.
“I don’t suppose you can read any of this, can you?”
Eirwen shrugged. “Bits.”
