Page 67 of Corvak's Challenge

"Ugh." She makes a face at him and gets to her feet. "Flattering offer, but no thanks. I'll let the others know I found you and bring them this way." She moves to grab her wraps and then turns to look at me. "If that's all right? Or would you rather wait alone?"

I shift in my seat, suddenly nervous. Would I rather wait alone? No. The thought of having company—people to talk to—is both exciting and terrifying all at once. I feel weirdly shy. What if they don't like me? "This is your people's cave, right? I can't say no."

"It's for anyone that needs it," she corrects. Her expression turns a bit more friendly, more understanding. "As long as you leave it as supplied as you found it, you're welcome to anythingin any of the hunter caves. I'm sure the others would agree with me. If you're not ready to meet anyone, just say so."

I'm overwhelmed with gratitude at her kindness. She's not trying to push me into anything. She's just stuck between a few moving pieces. "I'd love it if you guys came back—I'm sure both of us would. Company is always welcome."

And I mean it. The more I play with the idea in my head, the more I like the idea of talking to more people, talking to others in the same situation. Hearing what they've done to survive. I want to know all the details.

April nods and shoots one last look at Valmir before tossing her wraps over her shoulders and adjusting them. As she does, she glances out the entrance of the cave, pausing. "Looks like I might not have to go far after all. Someone's coming."

I jump to my feet, and it takes everything I have not to shove April aside. I squeeze in next to her instead, staring hopefully out into the snows. The day is overcast and a gentle snow is falling, which means everything is gray and gloomy and visibility isn't fantastic. There's a large humanoid figure on the horizon, though, moving steadily towards our location. They're too far away to make out who it is…

My khui begins its song, gentle and welcoming.

With a happy cry, I burst from the cave and rush out to greet my mate.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-NINE

CORVAK

The sight of Aidy,alive and well, is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. The exhaustion I feel in my bones eases for just a moment, and I stagger toward her. When she flings herself into my arms, wrapping herself around me, I feel content for the first time in days. Her scent is warm and welcoming, with just a hint of the herbs she'd rubbed herself with before she'd left my side. I hold her close, just enjoying the moment.

This is what I have been fighting for. This makes everything worth it.

"Where have you been?" she asks, laughing. There's an edge of tears in her voice, though, as if she's trying to hide her anxiety. "You took your time."

"I wanted to make sure none followed me," I say.

The truth seems like so much more. Do I tell her about the last few days and how terrible they have been? How I led hundreds of the snow-people up into the mountains with me, to the cliff I had picked out that loomed over our swimming hole? Do I tell her about the cries of sadness they made when I gestured to them that I was leaving? That the time had comefor me to ascend back to the heavens? How the closest ones had clung to the "ceremonial cloak" I was wearing and made the "no" gesture over and over again?

I felt like a monster, a terrible father betraying his children.

I cup Aidy's face in my hands, tired and shaking with fatigue, and study her features. She looks good, my mate. There are tired rings under her eyes, but the ever-present scratches and burns that have covered her arms and hands from her endless cooking are gone. She no longer looks thin and worn, like a hide stretched too tight over a frame. She glows as she smiles up at me.

I decide I'm not going to tell her any of it.

Not of my fear as I'd lifted the heavy weight of my cloak, extending it with the long bones we'd worked into it so it would act like a curtain. I'd stood on the edge of the cliff and stared at the pool of water far below, terrified. Lightning had cracked overhead in that moment, the storm finally marking its arrival, and I knew I could wait no longer. I'd swallowed my fear and stepped into the pool.

It was a move we'd practiced on the edge of the pool inside the cave—holding out the cloak overhead and then dropping it at the perfect moment so it would seem as if I was disappearing into thin air. A magic trick, Aidy called it. Like sleight of hand, only bigger. I stepped off the ledge and let the cloak fall as we'd trained. The screams of the snow-people and terrified hoots that followed as I'd plummet through the air told me that I'd been successful in that much, at least.

Then, the water had slammed into me, and I went under the surface. I'd gone under for so long and so deep that it seemed I would never make it back to the surface.

How do I tell Aidy the terror I felt in that moment? That I'd feared I would never make it back to her side? That I would diein the pool and no one would ever know what happened to me? That she would have our child alone because I'd abandoned her?

But my head had eventually broke the surface and I'd fought back a sob of relief.

I'd forced myself to keep quiet, keep calm, because I could hear the snow-people moving about above, calling for me in that strange hooting way of theirs. I climbed from the waters and covered myself with the scent of the crushed leaves, burying any remnants of their Great One that they might follow.

They had lingered by the cave for two more days, and it took everything I had to remain quiet all that time. To move without making a sound, even pissing in silence. I did not sleep for fear that I would make noise and alert them to my presence. I kept out of sight of the entrance, hiding in the middle chamber and listening, waiting for them to leave.

I didn't think it would work. I had thought they would be cleverer, see through the laughably thin ruse. But as Aidy has said before, they think like children.

And like children without a guardian, they had eventually wandered away.

It takes a full four days before I dare enter the front cavern and move to the entrance. The stink of them lingers, but when I look out to the path, I do not see them waiting. Only tufts of dirty fur and metlak scat left behind mark their existence. I wait until dark before I take my first few cautious steps out of the cave, worried that I'm going to be ambushed and then have to start all over again.

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