Orion glanced back from where he rode up ahead next to Sorrell. Sorrell didn’t even bother to look back or acknowledge my agony in any way. Asshole. “Are you okay, Cress?” Orion’s concerned question reached my ears as he pulled up on the reigns of his own horse, slowing until he moved alongside Roan and me.
“I’m cold,” I said.
His smile was full of sympathy. “We should be stopping soon,” he offered by way of consolation.
“My nose is frozen,” I stated. His eyes moved down to that particular feature.
“It’s a cute frozen nose,” he said, his eyes lighting up with an intensity that I hadn’t seen in a while. A very … sexual intensity.
I blinked, feeling a warmth flooding my belly. I thought for a moment, considering my next words. “My hands are frozen too,” I said, watching Orion for his response. I should’ve been watching the man at my back. Roan reached forward and took my hands in his, pulling them down and cupping them on the outside of his strong thighs. I shivered at just how close I was to his … other appendage—the one between said thighs.
“I will warm you up, little Changeling,” Roan whispered against my ear, sending a rush of warm breath over my earlobe. I swallowed roughly as desire thickened my voice and made it difficult to speak. Gods, these Fae were dangerous creatures.
“Perhaps she needs more than one Fae for the job,” Orion commented lightly.
I couldn’t see Roan’s expression, but I felt it when he turned his head to look Orion’s way. They must have exchanged some sort of silent communication because Roan chuckled deep in his throat, his chest vibrating against my back with the sound. Dangerous! my mind reminded me. Hot. Sexy. Dangerous—bad—makes your mind go blank because they were so fucking sexy princes.
“Would you like that, little Changeling?” Roan asked.
I gulped and went for the stupid act—though the nuns claimed it was never an act. “Huh?”
“Would you like to lie between Orion and me?” he asked, pressing even closer to me so that I could feel the hardness of his cock at the small of my back. My eyes widened. Holy Gods! That had to be a weapon in his pants. There was no way it was a cock. It was just too big. My eyes darted to Orion who was watching the two of us with intense lightning flashing through his irises. “Would you like to feel our hands on your pretty flesh?” Roan continued, squeezing my hands against his outer thighs.
“I think I’m warm enough!” I said quickly, tugging them away even as my face flamed with heat. Warm enough was the understatement of the century. I was boiling hot.
Orion and Roan chuckled together this time. “I’ll take that as a yes,” Orion said as he retook the reins of his steed and pushed ahead a few steps. “Expect to find me in your tent this evening, Roan,” he called back just before his feet kicked the horse and sent him galloping forward to catch up with Sorrell.
Roan’s hands found my hips as I settled my hands in front of me, squeezing onto the front portion of the saddle, my nails digging into the worn leather. “So…” I started, unsure of what to say to start a new topic of conversation, but unwilling to sit in the awkward aftermath of our previous conversation. “Tell me about Alfheim?”
Roan grunted at my back. “What do you want to know?” he asked.
I shrugged, turning my cheek as I watched the passing hills dusted in snow. “I don’t know,” I said. “Anything? Everything? I know nothing about this place. Only that it’s where the Fae are from. Is this where I’m from?” I asked.
There was a brief moment of silence and I wished I could turn to look at his face without giving away that I wanted into his thoughts. Finally, he spoke. “Not necessarily,” he replied. “Not all Fae are born in Alfheim, it’s simply where we originated. It’s often known as the Realm of the Fae or in direct translation to human tongue—Fairyland.”
“Human tongue?” I asked. “Isn’t that … I mean, we’re speaking it right now. Do Fae speak a different language?”
He grunted again, readjusting himself on the seat as he gripped onto me a bit tighter with one hand and held the reins in his other. “Once, long ago,” he started, “the Fae spoke the language of the Gods. Our original ancestors—the first Fae—were thought to be children of the Gods. There are many Fae spells and castings that still use the old language, but there are no remaining Fae who speak the language of the Gods.”
I hummed in my throat and went for a new question. “How come no human has ever traveled to Alfheim before?” I asked. I didn’t want to think about what might happen to Nellie if these new Fae knew of her existence in Alfheim. “I was always told that the Fae lived in a different realm.”
“We do,” Roan said. “Or rather, we used to. Alfheim isn’t necessarily on the same plane as the human realm, but as you can see, it’s not exactly livable.” He gestured around the frozen tundra as we passed through, mounds of snow and ice on either side of the slender path we tread.
“The Court of Frost lives here, don’t they?” I pointed out, looking back and meeting his gaze.
He stiffened and lifted his head, breaking the connection of our eyes as he stared straight ahead. “You’ll find out soon enough that the Court of Frost isn’t like our court. There’s no court like that of the Frost Queen.”
“But—”
“Enough,” he said. “It looks like we’re stopping for a break.”
At that moment, my bladder let me know that the break had come at the perfect time. But as my insides screamed for release, I couldn’t help but think it was a bit odd how Roan referred to the Court of Frost. The tone he used was stilted, careful, as if he were afraid of saying too much.
What, I wondered absently, was it about the Court of Frost? My eyes sought out the back of Sorrell’s head as the horses slowed and several riders dismounted, pulling out the supplies for our stop.
“We’ll eat here and then pick back up again for a few more hours before we find a new place to bed down for the night,” Roan said as he too slowed our horse and then slipped over the side of the saddle, swinging his leg around the horse’s backside and hopping off.
He reached up and helped me down. “So, I can take a break for now then?” I clarified.
He nodded. “Just don’t go near Ariana.”
That wouldn’t be a problem. As much as I’d been trying to avoid thinking about the fact that I was traveling with someone who wanted to kill me and had already attempted as much, it was still there niggling at the back of my mind. “You don’t need to worry about that,” I said. I’d rather bury myself in snow than go near that vile creature.
Roan glanced at me with a peculiar look in his eyes that I couldn’t quite decipher. Then before I realized what he was doing, he captured my face in both his hands, leaned down, and pressed his lips to mine. The kiss burned through me like wildfire—fast, out of control, unexpected. His mouth slid over mine possessively, consuming my thoughts in an inferno of heat. When he pulled back, I felt myself leaning toward him, wanting more. Instead of giving it to me, however, he simply released me, turned, and strode away.