Page 205 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

“That seems cosy.” I startled upward at the interruption. Nia leaned on the balcony door, arms crossed and severely amused.

“It is,” I said, wiggling my locked feet. “Want to try? He is big enough for two.”

Kilian made a choking sound and nuzzled my neck to hide his chuckles. “You do realise how bad that sounded.”

“What is—” a sleepy Thora said with a yawn, coming from behind Nia. Her brows almost met her hairline. “Oh.”

Oh gods.

“We have been caught,” Kilian whispered and then kissed my neck before letting go of me to face them. “I apologise, ladies.”

“You don’t look sorry,” Thora said, and Nia laughed.

“I am not, actually,” Kilian offered with a cocky grin.

Thora assessed everything with her usual scrutiny. “Alaric is taking us to Drava tomorrow, to celebrate our return. You should come with us,” she offered.

“I don’t think—”

“Come,” I said quietly.

He turned to me a little surprised. “I will then.”

“Can you,” my sister started, a little nervous, “can you get down from there, Snow?”

I jumped from the balcony ledge and my sister flinched back in the room. Immediate worry cursed through me, but I didn't get a chance to look further into it as she went back inside.

“What was that about?”

Nia looked behind her and then at me. “She hasn’t been near a window or the stairs at all. Looks like the height of the castle scares her. I faded us to Taren because she couldn’t walk the bridge during our walk.”

Heights? “She has never been scared of heights before.”

“I’ll find out,” Nia offered. “I know how to be gentle with other people’s secrets without scaring them.” She pointed a finger to me. “Don’t try. Your approach to other people’s feelings is too aggressive.” With that, she left Kilian and I alone again.

“The gears are spinning,” he said in my ear, his warm breath making me shiver.

“They are.”

He turned me to him and gave me a long kiss on my forehead. “Good night, my love.”

What? I gripped the hem of his trousers “They know you are here, why would you go?”

Slowly, his brows went up. “You want me to stay?”

“Stay,” I said, pushing him back till the balcony ledge stopped him. “Entertain me, Adriatian, I’m bored.” I was tired—really tired, and sleep kept pestering me for a while now. But if I shut my eyes, I saw what I’d been seeing every night in Isjord. Nightmares. However, this time I was not running from monsters of night, I was running from myself. Because every time I stopped, he was in my arms bleeding, life seeping away and fading. And I held the dagger to his heart.

He ran the back of his finger down my cheek. “How about I tell you a story?”

“Sure,” I said, leaning to rest my head on his chest. “Tell me a story.” Anything to distract me from what I was going to do sooner than later.

Chapter thirty-one

Oscen

Thora

Olympia was my ultimate nightmare. Wherever I looked and whenever I turned there was a tall fall. Thankfully, the training courts were between a long glen stretching along the two highest peaks of Taren. Bodies moved chasing one another, sparring and duelling yet all I could see were blurred figures. My mind had already drifted to another place not long after we’d gotten here. To a world that was mine and mine alone. One small—so small that only I could fit in it. An empty one, but one where there was no one to hurt or hurt me.