Page 49 of Hunted

“Food fixes everything.”

“Good foodfixes everything.”

“You really thought it was good?”

I lowered my eyes, then looked up at him again. “I’ve spent my whole life being waited on. Chefs from all over the Winter Kingdom fight for the privilege to cook in the palace kitchen. I’ve never cared for a bowl of food as much as I care about this one.”

“High praise indeed.”

I nodded. “So high, in fact, that I’m going to let you take the bed upstairs.”

His eyebrows arched. “You’re going to let me have it?” he asked.

“I am.”

“I don’t remember there being a discussion about who takes the bed. Did you simply assume you would be sleeping there?”

“I assumed you would be gracious enough to let me have it, and then stubborn enough to fight me when I told you that you should be the one to take it. I think, after this meal, we can reach an agreement on the bed situation.”

He nodded. “I think you’re starting to figure me out.”

I smiled, smugly. “Good.”

“But you’re still getting the bed.”

“What?”

“I don’t need a bed. I’ll be fine down here. I should be, anyway… just in case.”

“In case what?” I knew the answer. I wasn’t sure why I’d asked the question.

He shook his head. “We aren’t going to talk about that. Instead, I’m going to clean up down here, and you’re going to go upstairs and rest. We both need it after the day we’ve had.”

“I… guess I can’t argue with you there. I would feel bad taking the bed, though.”

He picked my bowl up and shrugged. “Feel bad, then,” he said, “But get your rest.”

I didn’t want to spoil our dinner by arguing with him about the bed. Instead, I got up, walked over to Tallin, and rubbed him between the ears while he finished his meatballs. “I’ll be upstairs if you need me,” I said.

“What I may need are more of these,” he said. “Are there any left?”

I chuckled. “Go and ask him when you’re done. Goodnight, Tallin.”

Tallin mumbled a reply, but he was too busy eating for it to sound likegoodnight. I headed upstairs, then, to the only bedroom in the cottage. It was a little colder up here than it was downstairs, but not unbearably so. Searching the dresser, I found more warm blankets I could use, so I pulled them out and threw them onto the bed before settling myself.

It was strange, being here, with only the wind for company. Weirdly, it bothered me. The constant howling, the rustling of leaves, the occasional slamming of wood against stone. I found it difficult to fall asleep, despite the mountain of warm blankets I was buried under.

It was a long while before I realized, it wasn’t the noise that was keeping me up, but Valerian.

He was running around in my head, making me think, andfeel. A few days ago, I had called him a stranger. Someone I didn’t think I could trust. Someone I thought, no matter how slightly, may have had a connection to the crone that cursed me. But now I couldn’t stop thinking about our bond, how many times we had fought side by side, how he had saved my life.

How he had cooked for me, thrown a blanket over my shoulders.

I realized, in a moment of internal chill, that I the reason I couldn’t sleep tonight was because I felt… alone… without him.

Alone, and perhaps a little afraid.

So, I decided to get up out of bed, wrap myself up in a blanket, and join him and Tallin on the couch, not knowing until I saw him coming up the stairs, that he’d had a similar idea.