"This is absurd."

"Tell us again how you feel," Yoko muttered as she wrapped her scarf around the lower half of her face.

With the hood of her cloak pulled up and her mouth covered, she reminded me of the Reaper, causing the spot between my shoulder blades to itch as if my thoughts had called him. Considering I didn't fully grasp the extent of his abilities, it wasn't impossible that I was wrong.

A gust of wind cut through my coat. The higher we traveled, the lower the temperatures became, and the little warmth provided by the sun waned as it vanished behind the horizon.

My armpits provided relief to my chilled fingers, and I lamented the fact my new winter magic didn't make me impervious to the cold. Astreia and Tievel covered their faces as Yoko had done, but it didn't disguise the amusement in their eyes as they watched me pout.

"What do you have to offer us up there?" Yoko asked. The reprieve granted by our fireside chat had apparently ended, and she was back to her sour attitude and snippy comments. "It's bad enough we're taking three up there. The less the better."

After discovering the storm's increasing intensity, they determined it would be best to assess the situation tonight and try to pass through tomorrow. In the worst-case scenario, we could double back to the Crossroads and take the road around the mountain. It would add at least two days to our trip, but Tievel pointed out we were beyond King Brinley's reach, lessening our need to rush.

"Love," Tievel said, rubbing his gloved hands up and down my arms, his blue eyes glittering above his scarf. A single strand of rust red hair fell into his face, and I wondered what color the Reaper's hair was.

"I know what you're going to say."

"There's no need to put you in harm's way."

"What about you?" I demanded, gripping his coat front. If I closed my eyes, I could still see him lying on the ground, his flesh heated to near melting as the poison spread.

"We are Blessed," he responded. The High Elf's way of tactfully saying impervious and practically immortal. "What injuries we sustain today will be healed. You would not be so lucky, and I won't lose you."

He kissed me like before. Demanding. His tongue swiping across my lips until I opened and let him fill me with his taste. Kissing Tievel was like standing in a thunderstorm, the electricity in the air raising the hair on your arms while the rain threatened to drown you. I clung to him, half afraid if I loosened my grip, I would be swept away.

Yoko cleared her throat, and Tievel reluctantly withdrew.

"You promised to be at my side the next time there was danger." It was a low blow, but worth it if it meant they did not leave me behind.

But Tievel just chuckled and buttoned the top buttons of my coat up to my neck. "I believe I said the next time you find yourself in danger, I will be at your side. We are making sure you aren't in danger."

Astreia hugged me. "Take this time to rest. There is no point in you making this journey."

"Fine!" I conceded with a huff and plopped beside the fire Tievel conjured. Unlike last night's fire, it burned steadily and grew no larger than he designed it. "I'll just keep company with the horse."

The horse didn't acknowledge me. The feed bag filled with grain interested him far more than a pouting girl.

Yoko clapped her hands together. "Now that you've accepted that. We need to go. We can't miss our window."

The window. For a short while, while the sky hovered between mauve and charcoal, the lightning calmed. Or so they hoped.

"How long do you think you'll be gone?"

Tievel answered, "Two bells. Perhaps three?"

"Depends on if they sustain injuries and need to heal," Yoko added, staring at the princess while she spoke. Whenever she watched Astreia, she looked like a different person—all hard edges gone, replaced by soft affection.

"Rest. My nanny used to tell me the fastest way to pass the time was to take a nap," Astreia hollered as they departed. I watched them until they became specks against the snow and sky, disappearing around a bend and leaving me completely alone.

"A nap," I snorted, directing my ire toward the horse. "I'm not a child."

"One could argue against that statement," the Reaper said, materializing at my right, his cloak settling around the log we sat on as he came completely into view.

I bit off a scream and punched him in the arm. It was hard enough to make my bones ache, and his eyebrows lifted beyond the border of his head wrap as he rubbed his arm. Why could he sneak up on me when even Tievel's glamor couldn't fool me?

"Is this what passes for gratitude among Deathsingers?"

"Gratitude?" I spit out.

"I saved your life two nights ago."

"What are you doing here?" I asked, refusing to go down that road with him. As much as I might want to claim I could have made it without him, we both knew it was a lie. "Are you just hovering about invisible all the time?"

"Something like that."

Imagining him lurking about our encampment last night sent me scooting to the end of the log and turning my face away from him. If he had been there, he would have seen me share the tent with Tievel. Would no doubt suspect we'd shared our bodies with one another, even if it wasn't entirely true. May have even heard me cry out.

"Feeling guilty about something?" The Reaper asked, stretching out his long legs and placing his hands on the snow-covered ground behind him. He gazed into the sky, giving me a chance to examine his profile.

"No, what would I feel guilty about?" I squeaked out as I inched closer to him to get a better look and wished I could see the lines of his jaw.

His nose was broader and less pointed than Tievel's, but it was perfectly straight and proportionate to the width of his face. Inky lashes brushed his low set brows as he looked up, but when he shifted to look at me, I noticed they were long enough to touch his brows.

"Do I have something on my face?"

"No. Just trying to decipher you."

Tapping the heel of his boot against the toe of the other to knock slush from the soles, he resumed his stargazing. "I'm not a difficult man, Morana. I'm given a job, and I make sure the task is carried out. I do what I'm told. Unlike others."

"Your life would be a lot easier if you just accept the fact that I will not Sing so you can kill Tievel."

He growled, the sound a deep rumble in his chest that rivaled the earlier thunder. "No, everyone's life is going to be a lot harder if you don't do it. Monsters slaughtered an entire village for your foolish infatuation, but I suppose a sloppy fuck is worth the lives of hundreds."

"You don't know that," I countered, hot tears of embarrassment clouding my vision as his words confirmed my fears.

"I do know," the Reaper snapped, jumping up and kicking the log so it rolled from beneath me and dumped me in the snow. Stepping over me as I flailed on the ground, he squatted over me and pinned me in place with his odd eyes. "Was he everything you wanted him to be?"

"It's none of your business."

"It's not, no. You're right." He walked away and leapt onto the cart's edge. Arms aloft, he walked along the ledge as easily as if it were a road and not a strip of wood a few fingers wide. "But I know what the prince is getting out of this thing between you. After last night, I'm not certain it's a fair deal."

"What do you mean?" Icey water trickled down my back as I struggled to my knees, magic surging to my fingertips.

The Reaper turned on his heel, his right foot swinging wide before coming down in front of his left one. "Only that the fire was impressive, but if it had been me in your bed, we both would have been too spent to use magic."

His words barely registered before I threw a snowball I'd created while he talked. It struck him directly on his perfect nose, knocking him off his perch and into the pile of supplies stacked in the cart. Only his boots were visible, sticking straight up in the air.

Doubling over in a fit of laughter, I held my stomach, peeking through the hair falling in my face to watch as he scrambled to his feet. Eyes on fire, his cloak worked its magic and removed him from my sight.

"Hey, now," I said, backing up slowly while looking side to side. "Let's call a truce."

"Or let's call us even," he replied, his breath hot against my ear.

His nimble fingers flicked open the buttons Tievel had so carefully snapped together and pulled the neck of my blouse away from my body. Before I could so much as protest at his indecent handling, he dropped a snowball twice the size of the one I made down my blouse.

"Why?" I shouted, elbowing him in the stomach and flapping my blouse to dislodge the ice.

Wheezing, he fell on his backside in the snow, his hand over his stomach. Then his gasps turned to laughter. It was a sound almost as deep as his growl—full bodied and rich as it slid over my ears.

"You're insane," I fumed while my lips twitched upward. This moment of levity seemed out-of-place considering what my friends were trying to do right now, but my heart swelled. I needed this chance to laugh.

"How did you do that?" he asked at last, sitting up on his elbows. His head wrap had slipped, revealing a corner of his upper lip.

Tearing my eyes away from the rosy flesh, I blinked innocently at him. "Do what?"

"Make a snowball so quickly. I was watching your hands because I half expected something like that from you."

"How does your cloak work? Are you becoming invisible or teleporting?"

"It's like that, then?"

"I'm learning secrets are a commodity," I replied, righting my log and pushing it closer to the fire. "One of mine for one of yours."

"That's a steep price," he admitted, rising and brushing snow from his leathers. "How can I be sure that one of your secrets is worth one of mine?"

I shrugged and held my breath when he rejoined me on the log, his hip pressing into mine. His body warmed me more than the fire had. The flames jumped higher.

"Well, this is odd," I said after we sat for several moments in companionable silence. I had to speak. Anything to distract me from thinking about how good it felt to sit beside him. Or how delicious he smelled. "Don't you think this is odd?"

"In another life, you and I might have been friends. Maybe even in this one, if you weren't so stubborn and misguided."

"Reaper–"

"Where are your friends?" The tone of his voice shifted. From friendly to hard—almost angry. "Did they leave you alone?"

"How is it you know about last night, but not where they are?"

"So, you're admitting something happened last night?"

I stuttered, a pitiful excuse forming on my tongue that shattered in a scream as white light blinded me. Thunder clapped a second after the lightning strike. To my left, a sharp cracking sound reverberated through my body as trees snapped and the ground split.

"Morana!" the Reaper roared, dragging me away from the widening pit.

Blinking to clear my vision, I gaped at the hole as the world quieted, not leaving the trembling grasp of the man who had saved me for a second time in less than two days.

"What the hell is going on?" he demanded, following my gaze toward the Lightning pass. "You've got to be shitting me. First the Light of the World, and now the Lightning pass."

His arms went over my head, covering my eyes as another bolt blasted the earth. When he loosened his grip, I shoved him away and ran down the path to the pass. My name bellowed in my ears as he shouted after me, but he didn't stop me. Looking over my shoulder, it did not surprise me to see an empty space where he'd been standing.

It was pure stupidity. There was nothing I could do to help the others, but what if this was like Friedesh? It couldn't be a coincidence. I could no longer deny the Reaper's warnings, but neither could I condemn Tievel to death. My throat tingled with the urge to Sing, but I quelled it, running faster than I had ever run before while trying to deny the truth.

I either had to damn the world or the man I loved.