Page 11 of This Frozen Heart

I remain silent as she glances around, realizing that her friends are all drunker than she is.

I’m not, though. The Healer Bloodline Magic I was born with— diluted as it has become after generations of marriage to those with no Bloodline Magic— ensures that. Though I can no longer heal others like my ancestors once did, I am invulnerable to alcohol, enjoy greater resistance to cold, and heal at higher speeds than mortals without the same Bloodline Magic. Even my strength replenishes more quickly.

Gerta doesn’t know any of that, though, as she sighs. “I suppose this chain is long enough that I could give you some privacy— if youreallyneed to do this.”

“Painfully so.”

“Come on.” Gerta slides off the cot, pointedly not looking at me. Her shoulders are bunched together like I have embarrassed her.

I quickly gather the chain and follow her, doing my best not to let it rattle too much.

We move through a cavern with a table set up in one corner and what appears to be a straw man in the other. A corridor leads from this cavern to another one that looks like it is used as a storeroom.

Then we pass through the mouth of the cave that is bare except for the gray furs strung over the entrance and pushed slightly to the side. Oh, and the man passed out on the ground, snoring away.

We make it past him without waking him. Then Gerta leads me around the dying fire and toward the pine forest growing between the mountain and the main road. Moonlight and the northern lights guide our steps.

“The latrines are just over here,” she whispers, even though we are out of earshot of her companions now.

Then again, mayhap we are not. The werwölfe is still out here somewhere, after all. Maybe she prefers to sleep closer to the latrines for convenience.

Gerta comes to a halt in front of a wooden plank as tall as I am that is stretched between two pine trees. “Here they are. You can,erm, help yourself.”

“Thank you so much,” I gasp, pulling her suddenly into my arms for a grateful embrace.

She stiffens in surprise, and I pull away before I can confuse her further with my jubilation.

“I won’t be long,” I add, ducking behind the wall and seeing at least four flat stones lain over what must be the latrine holes. “At least, I hope not.”

Gerta makes a strangled noise. I sense that she is regretting the romantic undertones of her gestures earlier.

She’s going to regret them a lot more before the night is out, I’m afraid.

Sighing, I grasp my belt and prepare myself for what I must do.

Chapter Seven

Gerta

Iwipe my eyes, the bite of the wind helping me wake a little more. Unfortunately, I drank a little more of the ale than I meant to, and I’m not as alert as I ought to be. My head throbs, warning of an incoming headache.

Even less fortunately, I can’t help but dig deeper into my memories, trying to remember how I behaved toward our prisoner last night that has him behaving like we are far closer than we are. Honestly, this is far closer than I have ever wanted to be withanyone. . .

“Gerta,” Kay calls from the other side of the latrine wall, “would you come back here for a moment, please?”

I wince, fingering the chain on my left wrist. “I’d really prefernotto, actually.”

“I assure you that I am decent. I just have a question about the latrines. They’re set up a little differently than the ones back at my base, and I don’t want to use the wrong one by accident.”

Letting my shoulders slump, I round the latrine wall. “It really isn’t that diffi—”

The chain on my left hand yanks me off my feet.

Before I can faceplant in the latrine area, though, firm hands grasp my shoulders. They twist me around and set me onto the snow. Then, while the world is spinning furiously between the sudden movements and the unfortunate ale, cloth touches my lips.

I cry out, but my scream is garbled by the gag that is being tied securely around my head.

“I am so sorry, ma’am,” Kay says, grasping my unchained hand before I can tug the gag away. “I assure you that I will do my best to make this as painless a process as possible.”

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