Chapter 13

Skadi

Snow flewpast me as my snowmobile made short work of the conditions and headed towards the town at the bottom of the mountain, but there was no joy in it. Not like there usually was.

I didn"t fully know what to make of the feelings swirling around inside me, but I could tell that the way I was feeling was all about the man behind me with his arms around my waist. I didn"t want our time to be over. And it wasn"t just because of how good it had felt to spend the night with him, it had been far more than that.

I pushed the thoughts to the side and pulled the snowmobile to a stop when we reached the square.

Erik dismounted with the ease of someone who"d grown up around the snow. He grabbed his bag and guitar and swung them over his shoulders. I was surprised he"d risked the instrument on a journey down the mountain such as this, especially when he was riding behind someone he didn"t know.

Except I supposed he did know me, far better than a lot of people did despite the short amount of time we"d spent together.

"It"s this way," he said, leading me to a cute little house that looked like it had come straight out of a storybook, complete with the snow-covered roof and the smoke curling out of the chimney at the top.

I nodded and followed him up the path to the front door.

"Morfar?" he called out as he stepped inside. "Are you here?"

A man appeared at the end of the corridor looking very much like an older version of Erik save for two pointy ears. "You"re finally home."

"I am," Erik said, stepping close and pulling the man into a hug. His grandfather patted his back. "I got snowed in up the mountain."

"That"s what you get for going up there this time of year," the man responded.

Without meaning to, I laughed. The two men turned to me in response. "Sorry, it"s just that he isn"t wrong," I pointed out.

Erik flashed me an amused smile. "Morfar, this is Adi, she drove me down the mountain."

"And you haven"t offered her a drink yet? I"m very sorry, Adi, my grandson normally has better manners than this." The man gestured for us to follow him into what I assumed was the kitchen.

"I was going to, I just wanted to check you were all right first," Erik said.

"I"m fine, you worry too much."

Erik"s expression said he didn"t think so, but that he knew better than to argue.

"Though now you"re here, you can clear the snow out of the fireplace in the front room."

"I can do that," I offered. "It"ll only take me a couple of minutes."

"That"s frost giants for you," Erik"s grandfather said.

I blinked a few times. "You know what I am?"

"I"ve lived in these mountains my entire life, my grandson is not about to pull the wool over my eyes." He gave Erik a stern glance. "This is not how you treat a goddess."

"Your grandson has been the perfect gentleman," I assured him while scenes of the night before played through my head as if to contradict my statement. Though there had been several moments in bed where I"d definitely felt as if he was a gentleman.

I pushed the thoughts aside. That was something that would never happen again now that we were parting ways, I should try my best not to think of it. Only deep down, I knew I"d be thinking about it for a while to come.

"I"m glad to hear it," Erik"s grandfather said. "I taught him well."

"You did," I responded, a little confused by how I was supposed to be acting around the man. He felt like he was a superior because he was the grandfather of the man beside me, and yet I was older and immortal besides. "Would you show me to the fireplace?" I asked Erik.

He nodded and directed me to the front room. "I"m sorry about my grandfather."

"What have you got to be sorry about?" I asked.

"I didn"t realise he"d recognise you immediately."

"He did better at that than you did," I teased. "You didn"t realise until I told you."

"Something that I"m never going to live down, even to myself."

"You"re fine. I didn"t advertise the fact either." I leaned in and kissed his cheek, feeling like I was a young j?tunn experiencing the first heart flutters of attraction.

I pushed all of that to the side and knelt in front of the fireplace, calling on my magic.

"I thought you couldn"t control the snow," Erik said.

"I can"t control it in terms of the weather phenomenon, but I can influence small amounts of it to do what I want. Which should be enough to get it out of the chimney." I stuck my hand into the grate and directed my magic towards where the snow was lodged.

If someone was watching the house from the outside, they"d probably have seen it shoot out of the opening at the top as magic tingled through me and dislodged it all.

I got to my feet and dusted off my hands, freeing myself from the hints of ash I"d got on them. "All done."

"Thank you."

I shrugged. "What"s the point of being a frost giant if I can"t help with something like this?"

"You didn"t choose to be a frost giant," he pointed out. "You could prefer the tropics to the snow as a person."

I wrinkled my nose. "Not my thing."

"I didn"t think so. You"re too at home in the snow."

"I am."

Neither of us moved, and I couldn"t for the life of me think of what to say. I wished we"d had more time together, then maybe I"d have been more certain about whatever this was.

Or maybe if I was bolder. More of a romantic. Just someone different than I was.

"So, I guess this is it," I said eventually.

"You can stay for lunch," he said.

I shook my head. "I shouldn"t stay longer than for a drink, I have to check on Lofn and the others."

"Ah."

Tension filled the room, and I couldn"t tell whether I wanted to ask him to stay, or if I wanted him to beg me not to go.

"I had a good time being snowed in with you," he said.

"Me too." I stepped closer to him, wanting one last kiss before we had to return to our normal lives.

He seemed to have the same idea and cupped my cheek in his hand. It made me wish my hair was loose and not practically tied back so I could feel his hands running through it.

My eyes fluttered closed and his lips pressed against mine, tender and caring.

A goodbye. There was no mistaking what it was, and it caused my heart to ache in ways that I hadn"t thought possible.

We broke apart and stared into one another"s eyes, the words left unsaid hanging in the air between us.

"Erik? Is everything all right with the fireplace?" his grandfather called, reminding us both that we weren"t alone.

"Yes, we"re all done," he said back, turning away from me.

Something that hurt a lot more than I expected it to, but I knew I"d be fine. It had only been a couple of days, that was nothing I couldn"t get past.

And yet there was a part of me screaming that it didn"t matter if I could get over it, I didn"t want to.