Page 41 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
The moment he stepped away, she muttered, ‘You’re cold too.’
‘Is that an invitation to warm me up, little wolf?’ Arden tilted his head, his grin widening as his green eyes gleamed with familiar mischief. Ylva shoved past him, muttering a string of curses under her breath.
‘I’ll take that as a no,’ he said cheerfully.
‘You’re ridiculous.’
‘I’m always ridiculous,’ Arden replied, already falling into step behind her as Elric pressed onward. Nymeria glanced back sharply, eyes narrowed in warning for them to hurry, and more importantly, to be quiet, lest they alert the forest to their presence. Arden lifted his hands in an exaggerated show of apology.
Ylva rolled her eyes.
They all knew Arden was physically incapable of silence for longer than two minutes.
The depth of the snow made every step heavier, yet Ylva moved through it with practised ease. The sight of the Fae struggling behind her almost drew a smile to her lips. Her valkyrian training served her well in the bitter terrain. But the moment the thought fully formed, she faltered. What sense did it make when the Fae at her back were Black Lotus? She slowed, the smile fading. Perhaps it was something else that allowed her to move so freely across the snow.
‘What’s wrong?’ Arden asked at once, noticing her hesitation.
‘Nothing…’ She wanted to ask what weighed on her mind, but the runes shimmered across her skin and her throat tightened, sealing the question away. Instinctively, she forced her thoughts elsewhere and quickened her pace, her winged horse keeping close. ‘If the king is dead,’ she asked instead, ‘what becomes of the Black Lotus?’
Arden’s expression tightened not with worry, but with uncertainty. As though he did not know the answer…or perhaps did not wish to.
‘Rio Hawthorne claims she will dismantle the Black Lotus,’ Arden said at last. ‘But…’
‘But?’ Ylva prompted.
Arden shrugged, a hollow motion. ‘What becomes of us then? It’s all we’ve ever been.’
‘You could become something else.’ She frowned at the snort he gave. ‘What’s so terrible about that?’
‘I don’t want to be Black Lotus, but…’ His green eyes dimmed, sadness softening their usual mischief. ‘The truth is, I don’t think any of us know how to be anything else.’
‘You just need time.’
Arden scoffed gently. ‘Do I, little wolf?’
Ylva nodded. ‘I am valkyrian. I may not be allowed to question who I was before, but I had a life. That’s what it means to be valkyrian. We come from something else, and we become something new. You could do the same.’
‘Maybe I don’t want to.’
‘I thought you said you didn’t want to be Black Lotus.’
‘And I don’t, but…’ He faltered, the words catching somewhere deep inside him. ‘What if I don’t like who I become? What if I don’t like the real me?’
Ylva stopped and turned to face him. She stepped closer, close enough to notice the faint hitch in his breath, the slight widening of his eyes as she closed the distance between them.Without quite thinking, she lifted her hand and brushed her fingers against his cheek.
Arden froze beneath her touch.
And something in Ylva’s chest cracked quietly, painfully, at the way he stilled, as though even tenderness was something he did not know how to hold.
‘I think that, if you allow yourself to, Arden Briar, you will love your true self.’
His long, dark fingers brushed her wrist, then lingered over her hand. Ylva knew,knew,that if she did not pull away now, he would step closer. That he would tilt his head and kiss her.
And some small, treacherous part of her wanted him to.
‘Arden…’
‘Yes, little wolf?’ His green eyes held hers, deep and luminous, drawing her in until the world seemed to narrow to the space between them. She lost all sense of time. How could she feel this way about a man she barely knew? He was a stranger and yet, it felt as though she had always known him. As though trusting him was as natural as breathing.
