Page 57 of Beneath the Flames
And with that, he shoved his hands into his coat pockets and sauntered into the tent.
Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly get any colder, Eroth proved me wrong.
Even with the tent fabric cutting off the wind, and the fire right outside the tent, it was hardly a degree warmer inside the tent than out.Or maybe I was just too frozen to notice anymore.There was no longer any feeling in my fingers or toes, and my entire body ached from the ceaseless shivering it had been doing for hours.
The moment I came inside after Rhydian, I scooted my bedroll to the side, as far from him as I could get, before shoving myself beneath the blanket, waiting for warmth to find me.
I was still waiting.
And I was beginning to regret my decision to move my bedroll away from his.If a blanket and a fire weren’t going to warm me, there was only one thing that would.
But I sure as heck wasn’t going to ask for him to touch me, to put his arms around me just to get warm.I’d shiver all night if I had to.
“I can hear your teeth clacking from here,” Rhydian’s voice rumbled, my ears straining to hear it with the wind howling against the tent.
“Well maybe you should have had your golden death rays put up a warmer tent, or better yet, a heater.”
A soft huff sounded.“All you have to do is ask, Maren, and you could be warm.”
The audacity.
I refused to hear the taunting suggestion in his tone, refused to feel the tingly sensation at the thought of him holding me.It’s just the cold.
“Unless you’re sending me back home, I don’t want anything from you.”I could barely make out his face in the dark, but a strange look flickered over his face.I couldn’t be sure, but it looked a lot like hurt before it disappeared beneath his usual cold mask.
“Suit yourself.”
Silence engulfed us as I tried and tried to fall asleep despite the violent shaking of my body.I had no idea if minutes or hours had passed when the desperation to get warm finally became too much.I hated the thought of asking Rhydian for anything, least of allthat.But if I was ever going to get home to my family, I couldn’t let my pride get in the way of surviving this cold.I couldn’t die tonight.
With a sigh, I rolled over to face Rhydian.The jerk was already looking at me, a smirk on his face.
“Have we finally grown desperate enough to ask for help, Maren?”
My teeth ground together.I let the image of my mother,my siblings, bolster me as I prepared to ask him to warm me up when he exhaled loudly.
“Don’t fret, human.I won’t come anywhere near you.”Before I could ask what he meant, golden light filled the tent, though not quite as bright as I’d seen him use before, and suddenly a surge of heat filled the air.
The quaking of my body slowly ebbed as warmth seeped into my bones.
“Better?”Rhydian asked, his eyes flickering in the light from his magic.
“If you could’ve warmed us up the entire time, then why did you wait so long?”I asked, curling deeper into my bedroll.My toes still ached, but for the moment, the shivers had subsided.
“I was curious how long it would take you to ask.I wanted to find the limit of your desperation.”
If I was a braver person, I might have tried to strangle him with the way outrage filled me to the brim.Had he forgotten that I was a human?I didn’t have his insane ability to withstand this type of cold.What if I had never asked him?Would he have let me freeze to death?
Likely sensing my anger, Rhydian simply huffed an amused breath.“Sleep, Maren.You’re going to need it.”
The wind howled, the sides of the tent flapping and slapping, silencing any answer I might have given.My eyes slid closed of their own accord.“How long until morning?”
“Sleep, Maren.”
“I can’t.”It was a lie.I could barely keep my eyes from closing.
“You’re not even trying.”
“I’m camping in a freezing tundra with my kidnapper, about to face down death tomorrow.Wouldyoube able tosleep?”I wanted the words to sound angry, but they only came out mumbled and groggy.
