Winterskin (Book One of Wrath & Winter)

Past to Present: Part One

Hagen wouldn't let me live that down. For failing to pick up my shield in time, I was rewarded with extra duties. Buffing shields, sharpening axes. I'd often be at the guardhouse until the moon picked its way across the sky, giving way for the sun to rise in the eastern horizon.

On long nights like those, the following morning would be even longer. Due to my exhaustion, I'd wake up late. Arrive late. Be introduced to Hagen's most disgusted sneer and earn even more extra duties. Again and again and again. Luckily, the black curtain didn't come back. Hagen walking through it apparently had dismantled it. Scared whatever in the blue it was.

Tonight, I was grateful.

I had actually gotten on the path for home early enough to see the torches on the outskirts being fed by shieldsiblings. And when I approached Gram's cabin, the fragrant scent of steamed vegetables caught me. Tied me up and dragged me, running, through that front door.

We weren't fortunate enough to own a dining table. And, usually, we weren't lucky enough to dine together either. But tonight, things were a bit different. Eva and Maddy sat together on the bench beneath the cloak hooks, gabbing off to each other. Gram stirred her pot and Elisedd...

Why was he here?

"Ah, Katty! Finally." Gram dropped from her footstool and Elisedd offered her her collection of chipped wooden bowls. Five of them. "Girls, come get your dinner!"

"We're all eating?" I managed, "Together?"

It went without saying that he should not be here. If the Guard decided to just show up at our front door, seeing Elisedd alone would give them reason to search the place. To jail Gram for her craft and hang the rest of us for allowing it to happen. Not telling anyone about the Northsworn enemy that currently passed out bowls of steamed vegetables in our home.

But, no, apparently he's our dinner guest.

"Sit," Gram commanded. Finding no room on the bench, I sat cross-legged on the floor near the hearth. "We're celebrating, Katty! Why be so dour?" she dropped a small wooden cup near my knee. Already sloshing with something thick in its innards. "Ale, darling. Why don't you drink some?"

He was putting my entire family in jeopardy. And Gram was just allowing it.

Knowing her, she probably invited him.

I couldn't take this. One receives a stipend being a newjoin in the Guard and it was obvious Gram must have recently received it and brought something the girls had been craving ever since winter fell. But to do this? To invite him?

"I'm going out."

"Katell!"

I didn't need a cloak to stand on the threshold. To meander around the outskirts of the cabin with my eyes nervously scanning for the Guard patrolling the dirt pathways nearby.

"Kat—"

And he had followed me.

Great.

I whirled on him. Fists clenched. Heat charging through my head. "Why won't you leave my family alone?"

The black tearing through his white hair resembled the coal-colored horns of a dragon. For once, he was silent.

"You said your kind isn't beholden to verbal contracts, so why don't you just leave?" this is how things usually go for me. I'll get one good thing—joining the Guard, finally—and then something bad will come around to even it out. Having him in our home was too much of a risk. If I could control what bad thing came to even things out, then maybe my counterbalance would be easier to accept. To control.

The firelight in his eyes died. A stark glaze took over. "You can't control everything, Kat."

It put me on edge the way he could just capture my attention. Hold it in the palm of his hand and pull it into his heart.

I hated this feeling. Drinking in his every reaction like I'm lost in the woods in winter and desperately searching for water that isn't ice.

"I can't deal with you anymore." I said, shoulders falling. Heart dying as it climbed into my throat.

His smile hurt. "That's what I was waiting for."

"What?"

But the moment I look up, the moment I search for his eyes...

He's gone.

And where he stood, there are not even footprints. Just...nothing.

***

Author's Note: Does anyone listen to music as they write? For the Wrath & Winter trilogy, I made a whole playlist. It's mostly game scores (Skyrim, anyone?). You can check it out here if you're curious as to what inspired Winterskin: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTOjd_bLzgAYWYbk0ovCTSgvb4XlK55je