Kane flips him off, and Finn winks.
I turn to Tynan. “You’ll help him?”
“I don’t need help,” Kane says.
“Sure you don’t, buddy,” Tynan says, patting Kane’s arm and nodding to me. “You two should get out of here. Take the alternative route we discussed last night. I don’t know where they came from or how they knew where to find us, but I don’t like it.”
“Agreed.” Finn tilts his face to the sky and a hawk circling overhead. “Misha knows where to meet you, but Storm will follow you in case there’s any trouble.”
“His hawk?” I ask.
Finn nods, smirking grimly. “There are sometimes advantages to his compulsive spying.”
“Be safe,” I tell my friends. “I’m counting on seeing you again when I get back. Don’t disappoint me.”
Finn’s already busy pulling things into his pack. “Hurry up, Princess. We have a long way to go today.”
Thick snowflakes pelt the right side of my face, making me squint to see the path ahead. “Are we close?” I ask. The tug is stronger and stronger with every passing mile, but I have no idea what it should feel like when we’re almost there, only that we’re getting closer with each step.
Finn scans our surroundings and nods. “I think so. Maybe a couple more hours of hiking, and we should arrive at the Mother Willow. If I’m right, we should be deep enough in the mountains that we’re on the Silent Ridge now.” He passes me a canteen of water.
All I see is rocky path behind and more rocky path ahead. The only thing that’s changed since we parted ways with Tynan and Kane is that it’s gotten so cold I can no longer feel my toes in my boots or the right side of my face where the wind is pummeling me. “How can you tell?” I ask. Thanks to those injections, it’s not like we can test our powers to see if we’re in this magic-free zone.
He takes the canteen back and clips it onto his pack. “Can you feel Sebastian?” Finn asks. “The toxin doesn’t interfere with the bond, but the Silent Ridge does.”
“Oh.” I hadn’t thought of that. I mentally search for that ever-present connection. “It’s gone.” I close my eyes and draw in a long breath. All my feelings are my own, and it’s a relief.
“You can’t feel him at all?” Finn asks, stepping closer. “Even when you reach out and try?”
I mentally reach out to the other side of that wall I keep between us and shake my head.
“Nothing.”
He scans my face. “Good.” He doesn’t miss a beat before lowering his mouth to mine, hot and hungry and impatient.
Everything inside me thaws and sprouts to life like flowers pushing up through the dirt and meeting the sun after a long winter. In my belly, a thousand tiny butterflies stretch their wings under the warmth of his touch.
Angling his mouth over mine, Finn threads his fingers into my hair and tips my head back. I moan, taking a handful of his shirt in my fist, trying to get closer.
When Finn pulls back, his silver eyes are at half-mast and smoky with lust. “I’ve been waiting this whole trip to do that.”
I bite back a smile. “Ah, so that’s the real reason you came with me.”
He flicks my nose. “Kane’s complained so much about the tension between us, if I didn’t know better, I’d think he got himself sliced open on purpose just so we could be alone tonight.”
He continues up the path, and I stare dumbly at his back for a few beats as his words echo in my head. Alone tonight.
Alone.
“The sun will set soon,” he says without turning back to me. “We should find somewhere warm to sleep.”
“Right,” I murmur, forcing my feet to start moving again. Two minutes ago I would’ve rejoiced over finding a spot to camp and cheered loudly for anything resembling warmth, but now nervous energy dances in my core.
We slept together last night and at Juliana’s. It’s not like this is so different.
Except it is.
We’re alone, and my connection to Sebastian is nonexistent here. It’s completely different.
Finn stops walking and whistles for his wolves. They return to their master and follow when he pushes through some underbrush at the side of the trail. “This way,” he says, nodding for me to follow.
We tromp through the brush for several minutes before reaching the opening of a cave mouth. The wolves head in first, then return to the opening and sit, panting happily as they look up at Finn.