Angel of the lake

Chapter Twelve

By the morning, they were back to their walking, with everything packed probably for the last time.

Claudio could feel that they were close to the edge of the forest now. He could sense the buzz of civilisation nearby and dropped Caspian a text to tell him they'd be there soon.

His conversation with Megan the night before was playing out over and over again in his mind.

From her talk of sin to the fates in the heaven, he saw himself spending a great deal of time in the library in the coming days.

But first he'd be getting Megan out of the cold before that red nose of hers became anything worse.

They reached the edge of the forest line just as it started to snow. Megan had seen it on the ground, but from the look on her face, he figured this was the first time she'd ever seen it falling.

"I don't..."

"This is snow," He explained, brushing some out of her hair as snowflakes fell and dissolved upon her eye lashes. "It's water that's frozen in the cold."

"It's beautiful."

"It might be," He agreed. "But if you stay in it for long enough, it'll make you ill." He wrapped her scarf around her neck one more time, checking to make sure her hands were stuffed into her mittens as she scoffed and huffed.

"Remember that talk we had? I'm not going to break."

He smiled at that stubborn indignance on her face. Claudio knew she didn't appreciate the coddling, but he couldn't help it. "You can never be too sure."

"I'm pretty sure I won't break."

"You might be coming down with a cold already. Let's not take the chance."

He checked her scarf again, fully prepared to wrap it some more had she not slapped his hand away with a pointed look.

He huffed. This wasn't a battle he saw himself winning.

"We'll be out of the forest soon," He offered instead, satisfied with his work—for now.

"Okay."

"You should know in advance that there'll be demons waiting for us." Claudio was trying to think of how it would all look through her eyes. A bunch of warrior men with big horns whom she didn't know had to be frightening. "My General is coming to meet us to get us to my castle." Our castle. But he didn't want to spook her. They'd work their way through this with time. "I assume there'll be a full team with him. However, I don't want you to panic. There's nothing to fear. Nobody will bring any harm your way. They know better than that."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"I believe you."

He tried to contain his smile some. A futile effort on his part.

After a few minutes more of walking, they reached the edge of the forest. Through the last curtain of trees, they spotted a truck waiting in the snow.

Claudio knew it was one of Caspian's mercenary trucks.

As he'd expected, a flurry of demons lingered around the area, each and every one of them waiting.

It was quite a sight to see so many people so unaffected by the cold. Whilst Megan was bundled up beneath thick layers of material, these people wore tank tops and shorts as if the cold meant nothing.

As she stuttered at the edge of the forest line, Claudio placed a supportive hand at the small of her back, just below her injury.

"They won't hurt you," He assured her in a low voice. "You have my word."