Chapter 19

The cold was biting. Every inch of Snow’s skin ached from its piercing embrace. Only his back had any semblance of warmth as Lia sat close behind him.

It was tempting to take the road at a hard pace, but he wanted to go quietly and be able to duck off the path should he heard riders behind them. Eventually, he would need to give his horse a rest. Phoebe had not taken well to the idea of riding through the night, but Snow pushed her along, hoping to get at least halfway to the next town.

The only thing that made all this bearable was his anger. It burned bright enough to keep the chill from going deeper. His back was straight and his hands tight on the reins as he continued to play the scene in his mind.

Back at the inn, Snow had finally given in to the pang of his stomach and was starting to make his way downstairs to the tavern when he heard the voices. Titus was talking with some men. It didn’t take long to figure out who they were.

“I’m only saying that he might help us willingly.” Titus had said

“Well, let’s not give him a chance to decline,” another man replied. “Which room is he in?”

“He trusts me. … Let me bring him down here and all three of us might have a chance.”

That was all he needed to hear.

He was immediately back in the room as a naked Lia was pulling herself up out of the bath.

“We need to leave. NOW.” Snow shoved his belongings back into his open saddle bag on the bed and opened the window to the night air.

Lia stood with only the sheets wrapped around her. She didn’t understand the urgency, but she didn’t argue. In seconds, she had Snow’s long duster back on over the wrap of linen that covered her from breast to calf.

“What about my hero?” she had asked.

“He’s not your hero anymore,” Snow had replied before he was ushering her out the cramped window that narrowly allowed them to escape.

They had taken a quiet, back route out of town and across some fields to make it back onto the road a mile away from the village. Lia sat quietly the whole way. Snow said nothing for a time as he tried to listen to the night, searching for any sound of galloping horses down the road.

After a few a few tense hours listening, while simultaneously berating himself for being so foolish, Snow heard Lia ask, “why did we run?”

“Saviors came into the inn, and Titus was going to betray us to them.”

The fact hung in the cold night air for a long moment before Lia replied.

“Are you sure?”

Snow didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

“But… could you not have defeated them?”

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Snow sighed and ignored the question briefly as he looked up to try and gauge how many hours until sunrise by the setting of the stars. A few hours more, he counted. Then he would surely need to pull off the road and make some shelter against the sun.

“Yes. But that would draw the wrong kind of attention, which would quickly become dangerous rumors haunting me on the road,” he replied.

Again, silence crept between them for a long stretch. After another hour, the quiet dark was starting to take on the distant sounds of bird song as the sky grew steadily lighter in the east. The black walls of the forest on either side of them were now gray halls with pillar-like trees stretching back into the retreating darkness that now hovered in its depths.

Snow pulled his mare to a stop when he spotted a narrow game trail that had made a break in the underbrush. Against her better judgement, Snow nudged his horse through the trees down into the remaining patch of night. He could hear the trickling of a stream somewhere and gently tried to guide her towards it, ducking branches and dodging brambles that tried to snag his fine shirt as the trail descended.

When a clearing opened up around them, Snow was too tired to look for the stream any longer. His body ached from the cold and the long night. Every inch of skin felt pinched except his hands which still held a slight burning sensation. He cursed Titus under his breath as he started to stiffly dismount. Lia slid off Phoebe with ethereal grace before both his feet were on the ground.

“We’re staying here?” she asked. He briefly wondered what this little clearing looked like in her eyes. It was still too gloomy to properly see the state of the ground or if there was anything around them to use for shelter or a fire.

“Phee needs a break and I’ve never been well received by a town when I arrive at night. Besides, I want to find something for you to wear before we meet anyone. Best to rest out of sight for now. Sometime tomorrow, I’ll ride ahead and come back with some provisions. Then we’ll continue.”

Snow risked calling a small plume of fire to his upheld palm to hold it like a torch and take inventory of their surroundings. While his hand ached sharply with the heat, the rest of him wanted to wrap the blaze around his body like a blanket.

Unfortunately, he had found a soggy patch while following the sound of the stream. What they were standing on was a carpet of thick moss and the surrounding wood seemed damp and smelled of mold. But what it lacked in comfort, it more than made up for in shelter from the road and the sun. The forest rose a good eight feet on the eastern side, held up by half buried boulders and rocks that Snow could pull out to create a shelter. Lia took in their surroundings as well though she didn’t appear as weary.

“I can travel further in for firewood if you’d like,” she offered. Snow had no choice. While he could conjure flames, he couldn’t sustain them in his sleep.

“Please. I’ll get to work on some shelter.”

Lia then discarded the coat and the linen as well. Snow quickly extinguished his flame as he realized Lia seemed intent to move about the forest naked so as not to be snagged by every thorny vine.

The vampire looked back at him as the fire light vanished. “Am I so badly burned?” She asked sadly.

“No. I mean… they’re healing,” Snow replied awkwardly.

“But you do not wish to see them?”

“No. I’m… I’m just accustomed to the notion that most ladies do not wish to be gawked at.”

“We both know I am not most ladies,” Lia replied. Snow could hear a touch of humor in her voice. He turned to find her reshaping the linen around her; holding a rectangle wide across her back before closing one side and then the other around her like a bat folding its wings up. She then wrapped the ends around her neck and knotted them at her nape to make a primitive dress, albeit a short one that barely reached her knees.

Once satisfied with the fit she looked out into the still gloomy forest and took off until her paleness was a distant star in a black night of underbrush. Snow waited for her to leave before calling the fire back to his one hand and looking towards the incline he intended to manipulate into a small shelter. It was painful to hold the fire, but he didn't have Lia's night vision

But before he could start, a voice slithered out of the dark and into his ear.

“I knew if I waited long enough…” It began, the surprise of it sending Snow into a sharp spin – expecting some attacker behind him. But no one was there.

“… something would come up.” It continued. Snow stood still until he realized he recognized the smug voice.