Page 245 of Season Warriors & Wolves

“I had to slip something in his drink.”

I snorted. “Nia.”

“I’ve never seen one so tense as him. It was the only way to get him to settle.” She shrugged, grinning when my husband did not stir despite our giggles. “How does it look out there?”

“The skies are blue and the sun is shining. It will be better.”

We both sighed on que and more giggling ensued. “Let's be happy, alright?”

“Alright. Let’s. Go now, Moriko will stir up an avalanche in my mountains if you do not see her in the next hour or so. She was grunting and glaring so hard when I showed up out there without you, I thought weeds would sprout out of me.” I kissed my husband’s cheek again and again. “I have him now.”

She stood and stretched her legs. “I will pass by Thora before I return home tonight, see if she is suiting well with her new duties.” Before leaving, she stopped by the door, just looking at us, hazel eyes glistening in the distance.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” she said, shaking her head. “I like this. The quiet.”

For the first time—

“So do I.”

Kilian groaned, his face scrunching up a little while he began stirring awake. His hands patted the space next to him until he found my hand. “Snow?”

“Yes, darling?”

He sighed, relaxing again. It took him a moment to open his eyes. “Why are you so far from me?”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I said, snuggling to him a bit closer.

“Nia put something on my medicine, didn’t she?”

“No?”

“Hm. Closer,” he ordered, and I plastered myself to him, resting my cheek on his shoulder.

He looked at me and I looked at him. For a while. A long, long while. The quiet of evening filled with the soft patter of rain, clicking against the marble floor of the open balcony, slowly growing louder and stronger, the air chilling with the most tender wind and the sweetest smell. This felt…this—I felt it. Whatever it was, I was feeling it so intensely my whole body hummed.

He brushed his thumb on my cheek. “Why are you blushing?”

I pushed a few locks aways from his eyes. “I’m so in love with you, Kilian Castemont. But once you are out of that bandage, I will strangle you.”

He chuckled, reaching to kiss my brow, my eyes and the tip of my nose. “And I am so in love with you, Snowlin Castemont. So much so that I will let you strangle me when I am out of this bandage.”

I pressed my nose against his cheek and just sniffed his gentle scent of spring. “Kilian.”

“Yes, my heart.”

“Heal quickly. I want to devour your bones.”

He chuckled. “No kissing my pain away? It could speed up the process.”

“If only, darling.”

“It does. Flesh is flesh, it mends. But no one can patch up what hurts inside of me besides you.”

I lifted my eyes up at him. “Something hurts inside of you?”

“It does. Maybe it always will. Every time I close my eyes, I see you dying in my arms.”