Page 50 of Kingdom of Chains

Exhaling, he dragged his bedroll a good distance away and gestured to it. ‘You go ahead.’

‘I cannot take your bed.’

‘I have a fire to keep me warm, remember?’

They lay on their backs, him beside the fire wrapped in his cloak and Isabel four feet back from it huddled beneath the blanket. The St Clare people, clearly used to sleeping in these conditions, were already asleep.

As the temperature dropped, cold air seeped through the blanket, and Isabel’s teeth began to chatter.

‘You’re too far away from the fire,’ Blackmane said quietly.

‘I will be fine once I fall asleep.’

He turned on his side and looked at her. ‘How do you expect to fall asleep with your teeth clanging away in your mouth?’

It felt like he was closer when he was facing her like that. She had a strange urge to reach for him. ‘Will you lie next to me for a minute? Until I am warm?’

He blinked at her in the dark. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’

She opened the blanket to him. When he did not move, she held it open, waiting, her shivers growing as the small amount of warmth she had generated was carried away by the breeze.

With a resigned breath, he crawled to her, covering them both. The warmth from him was instant and better than any fire. He was so rigid at first, but when her legs found his beneath the blanket, he began to relax.

‘I am so sorry about what happened to your family,’ Isabel said.

‘Don’t be. You didn’t kill them.’

‘But to lose everyone…’ His face was mere inches from hers, his warm breath hitting her skin every time he spoke. ‘What were their names?’

There was a spell of silence. ‘My parents were Kinnat and Domangard, but people in our village called him Dom.’

‘What about your siblings?’

He was tensing up again. ‘Morna and Tolly.’

‘Older or younger?’

‘Morna was older, Tolly younger.’ He swallowed. ‘Now go to sleep.’

She studied his face. ‘You do not like to talk about them.’

‘My dead family? No.’

‘Why?’

‘Because they’re dead.’

She noted his clipped tone. ‘And now you’re angry.’

‘Because you’re supposed to be going to sleep, and instead we’re having this conversation.’

She waited a moment before asking, ‘What was your sister like?’

He was quiet for such a long time that she thought he was not going to answer. ‘Morna was always the loudest person in the room.’

Isabel smiled at that. ‘And were you always the quietest?’

He nodded. ‘My mother always said it was because I did not stand a chance against her in social settings.’

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