Page 188 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
Her warm breath tickled my ear. With my arms around her waist, I slid my hand beneath the hem of her shirt to trace circles over her stomach. I leaned forward and moved her hair to the side to kiss her neck.
“Thank you for being with me,” I breathed against her skin.
Having her there, unwavering in the past eight days,meant everything to me. The way she knew what I needed. Whether a hug or silence, it undid me and made me fall deeper and deeper in love with her.
Guardians help me, I loved my mate. Deeply, irrevocably, completely.
When Ryenne laughed, Teddy turned to her. Again, I moved her hair to the side to trail kisses from the back of her neck to her shoulder and down her arm. She squirmed on top of me, looking over her shoulder with a soft smile. I leaned up to kiss her lips.
Our friends laughed again, and when I turned to them, I found Alastor solemn and staring at the flames. He’d been a vital part in helping the injured and sick, in cleaning up the mess and helping us start a new harvest of fruits and vegetables.
He did it all without anyone asking him to. He didn’t complain or ask for anything in return.
Not knowing how else to get his attention without drawing everyone else's attention, I poked his shoulder with my skewer. He turned to me slowly.
“Try one,” Teddy urged him.
She stood to grab a marshmallow for him, and after sliding it onto my skewer, she handed it to him. He stuck his marshmallow into the fire, but when he pulled it out, his marshmallow was engulfed in flames. When he simply stared at it, Teddy rushed to her feet and blew it out.
“What did I do wrong?” he asked.
“Not a damn thing,” Ryenne answered. “Tastes better that way.”
He looked at his marshmallow skeptically.
“When it cools down, peel the outer layer off,” Teddy told him. “The inside will be amazing.”
“Or just bite into it,” Ryenne said.
“How can I be in love with such a Neanderthal?” Nate questioned.
My lips twitched with a smile I didn’t fight to hold back. It felt right to smile, to enjoy this moment with the family I’d found, and my father looking down on me.
Alastor was slow and careful in how he peeled back the first layer.
Ryenne snorted. “Wuss.”
Teddy stood again, but this time when she took a marshmallow from the bag, she threw it at Ryenne’s face.
Ryenne gasped. “Who’s the Neanderthal now, wasting good marshmallows?”
“Where did you even find these?” Teddy asked.
“The magician, warlock, miracle worker, whatever, who gave Elias the coffee plants gave them to me when he first got to Colina to help us with everything,” Ryenne answered.
When he finished eating, Alastor turned to me, seeming to wait for me.
In my chair, I shifted uncomfortably but stopped when Teddy ran her fingers through my hair.
“What do you think of Niev?” I asked him. “Do you think it could be your home?”
“I don’t think I have much of a home anywhere,” he said. “I don’t belong in the human realm, and while I appreciate you making sure your people were polite to me, I don’t belong with the fae either.”
“I think you belong with us just fine,” Teddy told him.
The smile he gave her was thoughtful “You all have been kind to me, but I don’t belong in your world, Teddy.”
“Would you want to use the orb to see if there are mages in other realms?” I asked.
