Page 13 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
Rather than trace her fingers across my face as I’d hoped, my ear twitched when she touched the pointy end.
“Your ears?” She ran her finger over it, making it twitch again.
Her face paled, so I gripped her elbow in case she fell.
“Your teeth were—are . . .” She gripped the sides of her head, and I could scent her fear. “Are you?—”
“Elias,” I said before she could finish her sentence.
Her fear of me made my gut twist. I needed to ease her anxiety and let her see I wasn’t someone she should ever be afraid of. Eventually, I’d tell her about me, but at that moment, I didn’t want her worrying about what I was until I knew she could handle it. With her skin a sickly color after everything she’d endured, I figured all she needed to know was my name.
“Call me Elias.”
A gust of cold wind hit my back. Unsure who had followed me through the veil, I conjured my sword and swung around as I pushed her behind me. My sword sang, as did my friends’, as we prepared to protect Teddy.
Uncle Hudson lifted his hands and pushed the tip of my sword down. My friends fell to a knee in a show of respect for our highest commander.
I reached behind me for Teddy, and she clasped onto my hand, her fingernails digging into my palm.
“Nephew.” It wasn’t just his disappointment that hit me, but dread—real, actual fear. “I told my Guardian you didn’t. You wouldn’t. That they were all mistaken.”
He held my shoulders, and when he bowed his head, I rested my forehead on his.
“I had to,” I explained. “She was gravely injured. Had I not come. . .” Unable to think about it, I shook my head.
He sighed a heavy sound that echoed in my chest.
“And now?” he asked, his tone accusatory.
He stepped his mountain of a body back and pointed at the glass windows at the front of Teddy’s store. Holding on to her, I moved toward the closest window, my friends crowding around us on either side.
She gasped, squeezing my hand harder. “Is that. . .” She shook her head before looking back at me through serious eyes.
“It’s snowing,” George said, his voice resigned.
Uncle Hudson nodded with a grim expression on his face.
“I think something is wrong with me, Elias. Even before the fridge fell on me, I saw you. Just these small glimpses, and now, poof, here you are. A walking hallucination that I can feel, hear, see, and smell.” She gripped the sides of her head, her cheeks going impossibly paler.
I wanted to tease her, tell her she could taste me too, but I held back. While I was ready to have all of her, she barely held on to her new reality.
“And now it’s snowing.” She pointed outside, where snow fell in a heavy sleet. “In March.” She took a step back. “It rarely ever snows here. I mean, we get a pretty good winter storm once a year, but this. . . this isn’t happening.”
Eyes wide, she ran to the door and threw it open. Once outside, she lifted her head to the sky and huffed out a disbelieving sound.
I grabbed the blanket she’d left on the floor, and when I reached her, I put it over herhuddled shoulders.
“This isn’t real.” Her voice quaked, her breath coming out as a billow of white smoke. “You aren’t real.”
I held her to me, her body shivering against the cold wind that ripped around her. Regret filled me as she shook in my arms.
“It’s real,” I said softly and pressed her hand against my chest so she could feel the beat of my heart. “I’m real, Teddy.”
“I should be home with Ryenne,” she said.
My stomach twisted with a jealous knot.
“She brought tacos, and we were going to talk about her secret boyfriend.” She peered up at me, her eyes wide and watery. “Instead, I think. . .” Her lips tugged down in a frown.
