"Not happening."
"Kye."
He didn’t look at me. “I don’t care if you can talk to the Aalto-fucking Solstice Fairy.” He looped a second rope over Sero’s back and I grabbed his hand, forcing his eyes to meet mine.
“I have a better chance of making it through. I can do things you can’t. I can hear cracks in the ice or the sound of shifting snow. I can smell things on the wind that won’t reach you. And I’m the better navigator. I know directions—you have tothinkabout east and west. But my body knows where it's been.”
He squeezed my fingers and let go. “Good. You can use all that as you’re following me.”
“You’re heavier than I am. What if you misstep and fall through—”
“Leihani.”
“—Where I would have stepped and merely felt ice crack?”
“That's what Sero’s for.”
“What if—"
He grasped my shoulders calmly, though his fingers dug into my furs. “Just let me. Just once.This once, let me protect you.”
“What do you mean,thisonce? When have you done otherwise?”
“Every time,” he hissed, as though astounded I’d even asked. “Every time. Every time you've needed me, I've let you down.”
“What?” I spat the word breathlessly into the mountainside, throwing back my hood to accommodate the surge of heat in my skin. “What are you talking about?Whenhave you let me down?” My gut twisted at the words—did he actually believe them?
“Take your fucking pick,” Kye glowered. “When I knew something was wrong with Naheso and didn't figure out what until after he attacked you. When I left you on the island to be kidnapped. When I searched the captain’s cabin and the brig on theAspire, but was evidently too stupid to check the cargo hold.” I shook my head, reaching for his hand again. He caught my wrist instead, holding me at arms’ length. “Oh, there’s more,” he laughed humorlessly. “I'm not finished.”
“I don't care about what happened in Calder.”
“That's a lie,” he ground out, “and we both know it.Somethinghappened between the time we said goodbye on Neris Island and when I saw you standing in my tower four days later. Something that made you hate me. Something you think about daily. I seeyou fixating on it, a woman weighing whether to fight or flee. It’s a plague on you, but it’s fucking torture for me.”
“I’ve told you,” I deadpanned. “I can seduce. That’s why Thaan took me from the islands.”
Kye dropped his hands to his sides with a muffled slap. The metallic heat of his temper poured over me like a livid tide. “That’s not it. There’s more. There is a reason, Leihani, Thaan didn’t want me to remember things.”
We glared at each other, ignoring the hair in our eyes set adrift by the wandering wind. The press of cold snow around our legs and feet. The distant scent of smoke from the camp. Sero snorted, lifting his nose to blow warm air impatiently over us, but Kye’s gaze remained locked into mine.
I swallowed, turning my cheek as I bit into the soft leather of my glove, pulling it off to dip my fingertips into the snow. He followed with apathetic reluctance. Quietly, I called to the water.
A line broke through the heavy drift where I cleaved the crusted snow in two. I warmed it and it melted wider. Until it was broad enough for a horse to walk through. It groaned under the pressure of my rift. Ice fractured at the bottom, quiet under the packed snow. I melted that, too.
Together, we studied the bare rock where hard powder had covered moments before, now unearthed and dry.
Kye exhaled long and rough, golden eyes fluttering closed. The scent of heated iron flowed freely from his chest, and he slowly began untying his rope harness.
He pulled off his hat and sank to a knee before me, weaving the rope around my legs and hips in quiet fury.
“I don't know why I’d need it if I'm clearing away snow,” I said.
“Fucking humor me,” he replied, his voice a hardened line.
I leaned on Kye’s shoulders as he worked, watching the slant of his dark lashes as he pulled the rope taut and secure, checking his knots. He gave a hard tug, forcing me to catch myself againsthim. I bit back the urge to scold him for it, my hands fisted in the thick fur of his coat.
“Even if you clear snow, the ground might be unstable,” he said in a flat murmur. “Once we reach the high grade, your balance will be off. It’s not as simple as rock being dry. You’ll be climbing at a vertical slant. A ladder without rungs.” He looked up at me. “We’re bat-shit crazy, taking horses up here. Sero could easily slip and lose his footing, taking you down with him. If that happens, I’ll sever the rope—”
I opened my mouth, but he cut me off.
