Dismounting, I gathered Kolibri’s bridle by her chin strap, feeling my way up the path with the toe of my boots before I took a step.
A hand found mine, and I almost screamed and leapt back in surprise. But Kye’s fingers wrapped around my wrist, and he pulled me in, tucking my face into the crook of his arm. He leaned close, the brush of snow in his furs rough and cold on my cheek.
“Almost there!” he shouted next to my ear, muffled under the wail of the wind. He took Kolibri’s reins from me, guiding my body into the seam of the mountain trail while he took the side next to the ledge. “Keep going!”
Snow pounded against us in waves.
Slush plastered his hair to his head, the droplets running along the curve of his cheekbones and falling in streams off his chin. He blinked his lashes furiously to shield his eyes.
We galvanized ourselves, pushing up. Kolibri bent her neck low against the storm, angling her long face away. My woolen dress became drenched, twice as heavy as when I’d first put it on. I slipped on frozen slabs, losing my footing, and Kye caught me with a groan, one arm hauling me in close to him.
The fine hair at the back of my neck stood on end.
I glanced up as a white flame cracked across the sky, blurry under the sheath of stark drifts above. Bright enough to blind me, it forced my face into Kye’s chest. A moment later, a sound like a pounding drum vibrated under my skin and along my veins like static on a wire, ringing in my ears long after.
Blinking hard, I waited for my pupils to dilate again. "Was that lightning?"
“We're in a snow storm!” Kye yelled. "Keep going!"
I squinted, and thought I saw two small cabins side by side, the rooflines connecting them in the middle for a make-shift stable. They were dark and empty, butMihauna-blessedly free of wind and snow. Kye yanked the door of the more sheltered one wide, handing me our bedrolls, then slipped back out to tend to Sero and Kolibri.
The cold had nibbled its way into my fingers. I raked my hands together, cursing the bitter air outside, though I was certain nothing would ever compare to the cold of theBrána Do PodsvetiaI’d spent a week plunging in and out of while foraging for food.
Click, click, click.
I shuddered the sound away, unfurling our bedrolls side-by-side over the floor. The door opened and in blew Kye. He closed it with his back, leaning into it until it shut, though the eerie whistle continued outside.
“Aalto-fucking-burn us if we’re not snowed in by morning,” he grumbled to himself, crossing to the empty fireplace and throwing a log in. He bit into the fingertip of his glove, yanking it off with his teeth.
“Wimp,” I said, teeth chattering.
Kye raised a brow at me as he stroked flint into flame, the small fire rousing to life under the call of his fingers. “We can head back if you like, girl from the islands.”
“No thank you, boy from a castle.” I said, ripping open our packs for a frost-bitten apple.
“Good, because I think we’re about halfway.”
“We are?” Taking a chomp out of the fruit, I cut a look at him. “We’re not to the summit yet.”
He shucked off a leather glove, flexing warmth into his fingers. “We’ll go through the pass, not the summit.”
“You know what I mean.” I kicked a fur-bound foot at him, and he caught it with a grin. “We still have a climb. And the trail hasn’t run out yet. Where did the avalanche fall?”
“Ahead, I’m sure. The route down the mountain is steeper on the Calderian side. Shorter. And Winterlight will be closer than the little town in Rivea we stopped in at the base of the mountains. This outpost marks the half-way point. I can show you the sign outside if you don’t believe me.”
“Lout,” I muttered. “I believe you.”
“Good, because it’s written in Rivean and you couldn’t have read it anyway.” I bucked his hands off with the heel of my boot, but he held on, his mouth a mischievous slash of white. “But you would have looked very pretty trying to.”
“Moonlight curse you, let go,” I said, though I could feel my own smile growing, warping my face against my will. Hands wrapped around my foot, Kye sank into his pile of soft bedding. He unclasped the fur around his neck, shedding it with a shake of his arm, the ridge of his shoulder hard underneath. Thenoffered his complete attention to the leather strap that tied the otter pelt around my calves.
“I imagine the storm will hide the smoke from our chimney,” he mused, tugging the fur from my ankle. “But after today, until we reach the Calderian line, I think we should avoid using a fire. I know where we are. And I know the Rivean army is camped close by.” He motioned for my other foot, and I swung it rather ungracefully into his waiting palm.
Outside, thunder rumbled. We listened to the distant growl of the snowy sky, fire snapping softly beside us.
“How many more days until we reach the Calderian line?” I asked, forcing my jaws together to quiet my chattering.
Kye slid my second boot off, wrapping his fingers around my toes and kneading the cold soles of my feet, his brows creased in thought. “Maybe two. If we can avoid another storm and the trail doesn’t run out.”
