Page 42 of A Winter Courtship
“No. I didn’t mean it like—”
“You’re the one who betrayed me.” Lutoth yanked his wrists from Ulrich’s grasp. “I did everything I could to prove that you could trust me. Everything. But you are the one who let me down.” His voice cracked.
“I know—”
But before Ulrich could finish the sentence, Lutoth was out the door.
Ulrich ran after him. “I didn’t mean it like that.” But when he reached the door, Lutoth was gone.
ChapterTwenty-Six
Lutoth didn’t pause. Didn’t draw breath. He just fled from the smithy. His bare feet flew across the snow, barely touching the ground. The wind rose, lifting to meet him, to carry him, propelling him onwards.
The pain of Ulrich’s denial urged Lutoth on.
The cold whipped across his face. The snow stung his cheeks. The trees flew past him as he dodged them, putting as much distance as possible between him and the smithy.
Away from Ulrich.
He is a friend.
Lutoth thought Ulrich cared about him. He thought they were building a life together. He thought Ulrich might even love him. But Ulrich had never even told his father about Lutoth. He could still see the shock and horror on Ulrich’s father’s face.
A friend.
Ulrich, it seemed, wanted to keep Lutoth secret. He’d felt Ulrich jerking away from him as if he couldn’t stand to have his father see him so close to Lutoth.
What had Lutoth done to deserve that? Why was Ulrich ashamed of him?
He could see the lace, sliding from around Ulrich’s neck, falling amongst the ash, dirt, and slivers of metal on the smithy floor.
Lutoth let out a choked noise.
A friend.
Lutoth reached the base of a cliff and flung himself at it, his hands and feet clinging to the rock as he scampered upwards. He moved faster than any oread. A gift from his sylph heritage.
But Lutoth had oread heritage too. And it was because of that that he’d wanted to live in Ores. That was why he’d wanted to build a home. To stay put amongst the rocks and mountains that surrounded the village. He wanted to make a life there. To have a place to belong. With Ulrich.
But that was not to be.
He kept climbing, muscles straining as he climbed higher than the trees. The snow fell and fell and fell.
A fucking friend!
The higher Lutoth climbed, the stronger the wind blew. Even an oread would struggle to climb in this gale blowing through the mountains. He pulled himself onto the top of the cliff, gazing out over the mountains and the trees tossing in the stormy, gusting wind. The snow swirled around him in a flurry of white.
Don’t fly away with the wind! Not like your mother.
He tilted his head towards the sky, squeezing his eyes closed.
Why couldn’t he escape her? What could he do to prove he wasn’t her? It was she who’d left his father. Not him.
Yet it felt like he was always paying for her decisions. Even Ulrich couldn’t let it go and Lutoth had never betrayed him. Ulrich had never even met Lutoth’s mother! Still, she cast a shadow over Lutoth’s life. He couldn’t escape her. No matter how he tried.
Maybe Ulrich had never told his father about Lutoth because he assumed Lutoth wouldn’t be around long enough. Perhaps he thought Lutoth would just leave one day.
Like your mother.
