Winterskin (Book One of Wrath & Winter)

Watch the Skies: Part Three

Up before the girls, but never Gram, I rub my skin raw of the blood. Of the marks from last night.

And Elisedd's unflinching touch.

Climbing down from my perch in the cabin's attic, smoke was the first thing that hit me that morning as the hearthfire burned and something boiled in a pot. Sliding on yesterdays garments and sticking my feet into boots, I escaped outside.

"Elisedd?"

He should have left last night. He shouldn't still be here.

Elisedd raised his pale eyebrows. Lowered them with a mumbled, "Morning."

A selfish pang in my chest. It shouldn't be this way. Gram should have never made him promise to look after us. To look after me.

"I'm sorry." I finally say. Well beyond the snowdrift and cracked earth, Montbereau is waking up. A rooster croaked to the silver sky as bells chimed and rang. Smoke rose from a bevy of stacks and windows while people poured out of homes. Collections headed for the town center while bits and pieces of the crowd tramped for the farms on the outskirts.

"I'm sorry she's made you do this."

A grin that's more for himself than for me, "I don't know how many times I have to tell you this—"

"I can make her take it back."

"—only fae are bound to verbal contracts—"

"I'm not him. I don't need protection—"

"—Kat."

His strong grip on my wrist made me realize how small I am sitting next to him. Though he's nowhere as big as the commander's mountain-sized bulk, he's got a lithe build to him. Like a dancer that may have been a monster hunter in another life.

And his fingers wrapping around my wrist bring a certain type of fire. One that doesn't burn but makes your heart hiccup.

"I'm not under an oath." And he said it like he meant it. Like he wasn't lying right into my eyes. "We're friends." He tilted his head, "Remember?"

Finally, he let me go. And my wrist tingled, almost missing his touch.

You shouldn't feel this way about one of Them.

"Somewhere, everything got tangled up." I blurted. Then, swallowed my tongue. Though it didn't go very far. "You know what you did."

"You say it like I've done something wrong."

"You haven't." I squeaked. Eyes on the dirt lain trail leading to the village center. A figure ambled up it. Three, in fact. All weighed down by gear and round shields and glinting axes.

"I think you should go." I stood.

"Kat." He grabbed my outer wrist this time. Those fingers sliding toward mine. Filling the gaps. "You...,"

I cleared my throat, eyes on the figures. Willing his eyes to follow mine.

And they did.

Those fingers disappeared quicker than they came. As did the heat that emanated from him like a well-packed furnace. Along with the feeling that something...something was going to change this morning.

Something between him and me that I desperately did not want to undo only to remake. In a better and brighter way.

That day can wait. Can stay on the horizon. Perhaps forever. Because I am not ready yet.

Of course, it is the commander. Striding up the path with two shieldbrothers, their briandine vests done up tight with white-gray direwolf fur. They stood at attention as the commander strode closer. Stood before me with his arms tucked behind him.

For half a breath, my gaze flickered toward where Elisedd stood just moments ago. Gone, now. As quickly as a brisk summer wind.

"The ghoul on the stakes?"

I do not need to answer. Black blood crisscrossing my chest and staining the knees of my breeches is all he needs to see. The past in the present.

A curt nod. A jaw that goes as hard as his soul.

Commander Giroux was once synonymous with werebear. In his earlier years, of course. For, where a werebear stays adolescent forever, men like the commander grow older from every chunk cut out of their bodies in the name of protection. His face alone is testament to the proper use of a shield. And lack of one.

Gram is not fond of the man and neither was my mother.

He was one of the many that took her last words to heart. But he was one of the few that refused to see them as a curse.

"The Guardhouse. At dawn." He commanded.