Verena's Whistle: Varangian Descendants Book I by K. Panikian (essential reading txt) 📗

I pulled off my boots and angled their shafts toward the small fire. I stripped off my damp socks next and fought a full-body shiver. Oh man, it was cold. I draped them over my pronged stick, pushed it closer to the fire, and then turned my body to Owen’s. He picked up my legs and ran his hands down to my feet. He tucked them under his coat, under his shirt and against his skin, and sucked in a breath.

Ah, the prickles of warmth were immediate. I curled my toes into his stomach and exhaled. “Oh my god.”

Owen rubbed his hands up and down my legs, and then up and down my arms, as I curled into him. Our breath mingled as our faces bent toward each other.

“What’s the plan,” Owen asked.

“I think it will take a couple of hours, at least, before Theo and Julian catch us up, if they do at all tonight. They may stop on their own. I made us a shelter in that tree well. I have an emergency blanket in the backpack. If we snuggle and pull the blanket over us, we should be pretty warm in the well.”

“That sounds amazing,” Owen answered. He kept rubbing my lower legs and my feet with his big, warm hands. The return of blood flow to my toes was exquisite.

We sat on the log for a little while. We talked about hobbies, family, and then we were quiet. Finally, I drew my feet back from his warm chest and pulled on my steamy socks. The wool was much dryer and I tucked them into my warm boots. Then I held my hands out to Owen.

“I’m ready,” I told him.

He stripped down to his bare feet and we did the same dance. When his icy cold feet hit my stomach, however, I gasped out an “Unhhhh.” I recovered my dignity and I silently tucked his legs close to my body and started rubbing his toes. Man, it was like hugging a block of ice.

I cleared my throat. “Tell me about accounting.” He huffed out a laugh.

Later, when his socks were dry too, we let the fire die down, kicked snow on top, and then crawled into the tree well. I set the emergency blanket out on the bare earth and we lay down on top. We took our boots off but kept them wrapped in the blanket with us, otherwise they’d be frozen in the morning.

I showed Owen how to zip our coats together and we snuggled close. I wrapped the other end of the blanket around us and we tangled our legs.

“Nice and toasty?” Owen asked and I nodded.

“You?”

“Actually, yes.”

I fell asleep with his arms around me, his hat itching my ear.

WHEN I woke up, I was a little disoriented. I couldn’t move because our coats were still zipped together, but I didn’t remember that in the moment. I struggled briefly and Owen woke up too, smacking his head into my chin and I bit my tongue. Oh yeah, that cleared away the fog. Tears smarted in my eyes.

“Very,” Owen asked. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I answered thickly. “Just give me a second.”

I carefully wriggled around and found the zipper to unstick us. I started to draw it down when Owen stopped my hand.

“Mmm,” he said, nuzzling my neck. “Wait a minute.” His morning whiskers tickled my skin and I giggled. Then I laughed out loud.

“I’ve never giggled before in my life!”

“Really?” was Owen’s muffled response. “That’s a shame.”

He sent his fingers dancing up my rib cage and I giggled again. Gah!

“Ho, the camp!” came a shout from outside.

Owen and I sat up and I hurriedly unzipped us.

“In here, Theo!” I called and pulled on my boots. Nice and warm.

A head poked over edge of the tree well, sending snow cascading inside.

“Well, how about that?” Theo said. “I get up at the crack of dawn for, I might add, the second day in a row, to hurry to find you, thinking you would need help, and here you are, canoodling under the trees!”

I smiled up at him. “My hero! You rescued us. You camped last night along the trail? How did the tents work?”

“Fine, we shared, though I do not recommend it, warmth aside. Dmitri snores.”

“Dmitri?!?” I exclaimed.

“Oh yeah, he came with us. He was at the house when we got back from separating with you. He said he was coming along for a little while and I didn’t know how to get rid of him. He seemed to know a lot about what’s going on.”

Owen climbed out of the well and I followed. Julian and Dmitri stood a few feet away, large packs on their back, smiling at us.

“Glad you’re safe, you guys,” Julian said.

Dmitri waved and shook his walking staff at us. “I know, I know. What am I doing here? Don’t worry. All will be revealed in good time. For now, I promise I won’t slow you down while you chase the besy.”

I cleared my throat. “The, ah, what?” I made big eyes at Julian. He shrugged back at me.

“The besy. Are you not calling them that? The bies. The chorti. The fiends.” He motioned to his head with his fingers in the shape of horns. “The bad guys that came through the meteor portal.”

“Ah,” I said weakly, “yes, those besy. Yes, we’re following them.”

“Good, good. I’m ready to go when you are,” Dmitri answered.

Theo handed me a slightly squished peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “Eat up!”

Chapter 23

When we were on the trail a little bit later, I tried to talk to Dmitri again. He shushed me and waved at the trail we were following. “Now’s not the time,” he told me.

About mid-morning, when the sun was high overhead but the winter air was still briskly cold, we saw the trail split. It looked like, from the hoofprints and claw marks, among other prints, that the mass of besy continued north. However, a set of tracks split from the main group and