Page 166 of Season Warriors & Wolves

“Otis deserved what he got,” Mal said, flashing my wife a charming grin. “Did you really hang him upside down?”

“Like the moon,” Snow replied rather excitedly, and my brother chuckled.

“Maybe Snow can actually tell him the truth about it all,” Nia suggested.

Caiden shook his head. “That might actually scare him off. It will be worse when he actually realises in whose hands the power lies.”

“I am a humble matron of my power,” my wife said, cutting her vegetables rather graciously and unhurriedly. “Nothing to be afraid of.” Surprise almost overtook me until I saw that the vegetables in question were a piece of broccoli, beans and baby carrots that she most certainly was not going to eat.

Everyone dropped their cutlery and raised their eyes up at Snow, all except Alaric who was silently chuckling while he enjoyed his meal.

“Humble?” Moriko asked. “I heard you once claimed that you are a god amongst men.”

Once? I was sure it had happened more than once.

“That wasn’t a claim,” Snow replied, almost gagging on a single piece of bean.

“Humbleness was at discussion,” Moriko pushed.

“Humbleness, not truthfulness. Why should we lie so unnecessarily?” She turned to me. “Right, darling?”

I rested a hand against her cool cheek and wiped her lip with my thumb. “Yes, my heart. We mustn't.”

She smiled and kissed my palm before turning a ‘I told you so’ look on Moriko who scoffed incredulously.

“No, Snow,” Nia said, hesitating. “About Olympia. Let’s tell him about us. All of it. Let them know how big this fight is, how much we ourselves are sacrificing before asking him to sacrifice.”

Everyone stopped eating and looked over at Snow.

Eren spoke first, “I agree.”

“Same as I,” Caiden said and that was enough to make Snow’s attention return from wherever thoughts had overtaken her.

“You agree?” she asked.

Her friend nodded. “As you said to our people, we aren’t the nation from the Night of the Draugr, we’ve never been, but we let it define us because we were afraid someone would be able to reduce us to that again. But that is not true. That night…that night will never repeat. You and I will never let it repeat, just like we’ve made sure this far.”

It was all it took for Snow to nod and say, “Then we don’t hide anymore.”

“Right, my king?” Caiden asked, raising a brow at me and attempting to contain a victorious smirk.

“Since you’ve been polite for once,” I said, “I do agree with you.”

“Feels nice,” he said, chewing like a smug idiot. “To be agreed with for once.”

Penelope burst through the dining room, wearing a massive grin and few streaks of smoke on her freckled cheeks. “I got it!” she said, waving a piece of what looked like fur on her hand.

“Rabies?” Thora asked, scrunching her nose. “That’s nothing to be excited about, Penny.”

Penelope’s excitement died down and she stood there, panting and with hair that looked like she’d been struck by lightning. “No, I got my first charm. I mean, I made it. With magic. It protects the person you made the charm for. This was a tricky one. It is for Snow,” she said with a small voice, hiding the trinket behind her back, embarrassed all of a sudden. “So it can protect you in battle now that we are definitely going to war.”

Snow raised her eyes to the young girl and extended a hand forward. “Let’s see.”

Penelope hesitated and then slowly walked to her, leaving a small corner of fur strung on a piece of tie on Snow’s palm. “Maybe it won’t work.”

Snow studied the thing for a moment and then tied it to her waist belt. “I’ll let you know, little carrot.”

The girl beamed. “Alright.”