Page 31 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
George raised his chin in acknowledgment.
“There is nothing for you to make up for,” Everly said.
Her loyalty humbled me, but Everly had always been loyal to my family as was her mother before her. That loyalty was ingrained in her since birth, and while I wanted to argue her point, I needed at least one friend who didn’t question me.
I could understand if they didn’t forgive me. This was an extreme and unbalanced punishment.
“We came with you because you are our friend. It’s as simple as that,” Everly finished, her eyes holding mine.
“Food and shelter,” Brenton added with a tip of his chin as a satisfied grin spread across his face. “You get us food and shelter, and I’ll make sure George never mentions tearing through the veil, plunging the human realm to their death, or exiling us without our magic.” He lifted his smallest finger at me. “Pinky promise.” He winked.
With an amused shake of my head, I pushed his hand down. “Get out of here with your nonsense.”
“Food and shelter,” he shouted when I turned toward the closest clearing to meet Nalari.
“Build your own shelter,” I called back. “There’s plenty of wood.” I waved my hands toward the trees. “Make something useful.”
The trees around me seemed to silence at my approach. I scanned the area, staring at each trunk I passed just in case. If the thunderbirds had made it through and they weren’t as stealthy or fast as the lirio, it’d only be a matter of time until the lethal, tree-like fae crossed the veil.
I climbed Nalari’s leg and scales until I made it to her back. Before I settled behind her neck, she pushed off the ground and took flight.
I bit back my curse and gripped her. “You’d catch me if I fell, right?”
She replied with a dry, “Humph,” that didn’t answer my question.
The cold air bit into my skin in a way the cold in our realm never had. Even the puffs of breath I took seemed harder on my lungs and made me wish yet again my friendshad more of their magic so they could keep themselves warmer.
Blankets and mittens. I’d sew them blankets and mittens from the fabric my mother had given me before I’d left. I doubt my friends would even tease me about my love for sewing once they felt how warm it’d keep them. It was a unique skill set I’d learned from my mother. Something she’d insisted I gain knowledge of before I’d joined the military school so I’d have something constructive to do with my hands rather than simply train for battle. While I’d hated it at first, sewing had become an integral part of me once I'd made my first kill. It was a way to balance the deaths caused by my own hands. If only woodworking had come as easily for me, but anything I’d ever attempted to carve had wound up a mess of wood shavings and horrible angles.
The small hills around us were covered in layers of snow that didn’t melt but continued to pile. It was a dangerous beauty that was vastly different from that of my realm. While this realm’s endless winter came from ours, not only was our temperature not as cold, but with fae in every corner of our kingdom able to use their magic to melt the snow, the snow never had the chance to accumulate as it did here.
I narrowed my eyes on a village at the foot of three larger hills.
“We’ll have to evacuate that village,” I told Nalari. “I doubt the people will be happy with me, but I’m worried about an avalanche.”
“They wouldn’t survive an avalanche,”she agreed.
A sudden strong gust of wind blew, and Nalari beat her wings to keep us steady while I drew myself closer to the back of her neck.
“Don’t get too close,” I said. “We don’t want to alarm them with your presence just yet.”
She huffed out a noise that I’d come to learn was a laugh.
I felt my own smile spread.“Can you imagine what the humans will do when they see you—an actual dragon?”
Another laugh rumbled deep in her throat, and I felt its vibration beneath me.“If the snow doesn’t kill them, the shock of seeing me will.”
Through our bond, I felt her sudden joy dissipate. She pitched to the left, away from the village and back toward the lake. She circled it twice, using her magic to melt the snow where she landed on the rocky shore. Once she crouched down, I jumped off her back, but unused to the unstable terrain, I stumbled when I landed, using my hands to keep me from tumbling. Some of the small rocks pierced my hands and tore through my trousers.
I waved a hand over the trousers to mend the small holes and stared at my palms when they took longer than usual to heal.
“We’re in a strange world, Elias.”Nalari’s watchful eyes fell on my hands.“It may take your magic time to learn how to adapt to this realm. Or it may not come back fully at all.”
“I healed Teddy just fine the other night.”My heart stammered at the thought of her name.
“I don’t know.”She paused to think.“Maybe it was adrenaline that allowed you to heal her, but I’d say it’s a good sign you’ll adapt and get your magic to function here.”
I rubbed my mostly healed hands over my trousers to dust them off.“Does that mean the others’ magic is less than what the Elder left them with?”
