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She squealed like a little girl—so much for being a warrior—and bounced up and down on her toes. “I have one condition,” she said.

“You have a condition?”

“Yes.”

“I am the one teaching. I shall be setting the conditions.”

She shook her head slowly and smiled a sly, charming smile that made the corners of his mouth twitch.

“You teach me sword-fighting. And I teach you yoga.”

The muscles of his face fell. “No.”

“Yes, you know you want to. You know you’re curious.”

“No!”

“Come on, just once. When else will you have a chance to try something from the future? No one else in this whole part of the world has even heard of yoga.”

“If you think this argument will convince me, you are the madwoman I thought you were.”

“Just once, Andor. Come on. Please?”

Loki must be stirring his brain like stew right now, because Andor did want to try it. He could not forget the serene expression on Cathy’s face. What if he could feel that, too?

“Once,” he said.

She squealed again and clapped her hands together.

“Calm down, Cathy, or I will change my mind.”

She shook her head. “You’ll love it.”

He frowned and rolled his eyes, then looked around. “We must find something for you to eat or you’ll fall unconscious after the first sword practice.”

She beamed at him as though sunlight streamed out of her beautiful eyes. He must be getting mad himself, because he began feeling warmer. For the first moment in a long time the ghosts behind a dark door in his soul kept silent.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Cathy grimaced as she bit into the tart flesh of a winter crab apple.

“Euch,” she mumbled with a shudder. “This is pure acid. Maybe I should reconsider that rabbit leg after all.”

By some stroke of luck, they had found a crab apple tree that still held some small red fruit, although birds had been happily feasting on them. Andor had helped Cathy to gather the tiny apples and now they had breakfast.

“Take it.” He stretched out the last drumstick.

She eyed it, hunger rising in her stomach. Maybe she should start eating meat, just until she got back to her time. It must be healthy during this day and age. Andor was right, scavenging was difficult in the woods in winter, and she was deprived of many important nutrients. She was also exhausted after days of surviving on fewer calories than she needed. She was probably losing weight like crazy, although without protein it was mostly muscle weight not fat, so that didn’t do her any favors. Was being vegan the wisest choice during winter a millennium in the past?

She had almost thrown up because she wasn’t used to meat anymore, but she had enjoyed delicious meat dishes at home before she’d become a vegan.

“Okay, give it to me,” she said. One corner of his mouth crawled up and he passed her the drumstick.

She bit into the aromatic meat, and although it was unusual and a little chewy and strong, it actually complemented the crab apples surprisingly well. And having something warm in her stomach felt divine.

“Mmmmm,” she moaned, and closed her eyes briefly.

Her stomach had shrunk so much in the last few days that she was full just from a few crab apples and the leg.