Page 30 of A Fate of Ice and Lies (Fated #1)

Chapter

Twelve

TEDDY

It was strange how things could change in an instant.

While I still believed Elias was part of whatever happened to bring our endless winter, I no longer thought him to be the villain of our story.

Unless making sure the people who stole from him didn’t end up sick with whatever magic the commander had placed on the livestock in case they were stolen was considered nefarious.

Not that Vance or Heath wanted Elias probing them with his magic or drinking the tea he’d made with the herbal plant he’d brought from his realm.

While I didn’t like the magic Elias used to subdue them, I saw the necessity in it when they started vomiting black bile.

It was either that or the morons would end up dead.

“Do you think the commander put magic on other things to keep us from stealing anything else?” I asked Everly.

It’d been a little over a week since Elias had told Donnie about the infected cattle that’d been stolen.

Nine days since Donnie figured out our local troublemaking morons did it.

After throwing them in a jail cell, Elias forced them into allowing him to heal them.

Seven days since Donnie and our chief of police held a private lashing.

Elias used magic to brand them with whip marks that would fool the fae patrolling our area into believing Elias had punished them.

It wasn’t just the fae they’d fooled but everyone in Colina and the neighboring towns.

Again, he’d used magic to keep Chief Fort, Vance, Heath, and Dr. Daniels, who was supposedly tending to them, from telling others the truth while Elias willingly told me everything.

He trusted me enough not to force magic on me.

Everly put a heavy basket of butchered meat on the floor and placed a hand on her hip. “Did Elias tell you it was Commander Hudson who’d used magic on the stolen cattle?”

Using the back of my hand, I wiped cold sweat from my forehead as I propped the heavy basket I carried on my hip.

I wasn’t sure how Elias and Nalari had done it, but we had more food than we’d had since before this winter had started.

So much so that I had to tell him to slow down before food started going to waste.

The way he’d laughed had warmed me from the inside, even more than when he’d told me how we’d be sharing with another region.

His thoughtfulness endeared me too much to him.

If only his thoughtfulness could extend to the weather.

It wasn’t enough that our roads were undrivable, forcing us into the Stone Age, where people traveled either on foot or horseback, but the pipes here at the food bank broke or burst or whatever Donnie said they’d done.

And while I knew he’d figure out how to fix it as he did with so many others in town, it was still frustrating.

I knew I shouldn’t complain. Where so many of my neighbors had gone without heat or water, my home stayed toasty and with running water. While it’d taken me a bit longer than I’d like to figure it out, I now knew Elias and his magic kept my home safe from the environment.

“He wouldn’t tell me who did it,” I answered. “But who else would it be?”

Everly grunted.

I gripped my basket of different cuts of chicken and stepped over the toys Elias had made for Victoria to head toward the refrigerators at the back of the store. Victoria peered up at me and, with a smile, pushed her wooden dog toward me and woofed.

I barked back at her and relished her giggle.

Although I hadn’t expected Collette to have left Victoria as long as she had this time, she brought joy to so many moments throughout the days.

And, if truth be told, she laughed a little more every day since her mom had left.

While she was still shy around most people, Ryenne and Everly had won her over.

So had Elias and his two friends. Especially George, who I still felt wary of.

I couldn’t place it. George had never given me a reason to fear him, but the fear remained. Like a sixth sense that made goosebumps rise over my skin.

“Do you think people will keep stealing after. . .” Her dark blue eyes were wary as she stared at the raw meat in her basket.

After the morons’ staged beating that she didn’t know was fake.

“I hope not,” I whispered. If not for their sake, then for Elias’s sake, who shouldered more than I’d realized. Cared more than I’d realized.

From the food to dealing with people who still hated him, and now hunting for whatever creatures had made the large tracks by the creek, he never seemed to stop. While he tried to hide it, I could feel how anxious he was. And how much the wounds on his back still hurt him.

Regardless, he took the time to take care of people. Not just with the food he provided us but also the new wardrobe Javier and his sisters had, which was made with the same fabric as my blanket, beanie, and gloves. The new wooden toys so many of the kids in his region now played with.

I wasn’t sure how he found the time to sew and whittle, but he did. And what was more, he never took credit for any of it. Probably because he knew the people would throw it back at him. I once would have done the same.

Everly had been right all along, though. Elias was good. And his skin had felt like the softest satin yet had been so warm to touch. To kiss. I fought the temptation to touch my lips, where the memory still lingered.

“You can kiss me whenever you want.”

Those had been his words to me that morning in the kitchen, but I wasn’t sure I could do that.

After Everly and I stocked the fresh meat, we sat on the floor with Victoria, who abandoned her toys to sit on Everly’s lap.

Everly unpacked her lunch of cheese, fruits, and flowers that looked like lilies.

I handed her a slice of bread Ryenne and I had baked last night.

While it definitely didn’t taste as good as the bakery bread we’d eaten, it was edible.

And it hadn’t made us vomit although the wine we drank almost came back up this morning.

I cut my deer meat in three parts, and after she took the piece I offered her, I cut Victoria’s portion into bite-sized pieces.

Everly added a portion of her lunch to Victoria’s, then put more on my plate.

Victoria lifted one of the white flowers off her plate. “So pretty,” she said.

“It is,” Everly agreed. “It also tastes good and is healthy for you.”

Victoria scrunched her nose and put the flower back on her plate. “I’m not eating that.”

“Everly says it’s good for you,” I said although I was Team Victoria on this one. I didn’t want to eat it either. “At least try it.”

“It’d look better in my hair than in my tummy.”

With a laugh, Everly took the flower from Victoria’s plate and put it in her black hair just over her ear. “Can’t argue with you when you’re right.”

Hesitantly, I took my first bite of the flower, and because I had zero poker face, Everly started laughing when she saw my expression. I widened my eyes and pushed the bitter flower down my throat with a large gulp of water.

“Mm,” I said, patting my stomach. “So good.”

Everly snorted.

Victoria reached for the second flower on my plate and put it behind her other ear. “Better.”

“Much better,” I grumbled. Heat warmed my cheeks, and I bit my bottom lip. “Sorry, Everly, guess we’re not used to eating such...delicacies.”

She snorted again. “Tastes better if you sauté it, but I was running a bit behind this morning and didn’t have time.”

Everly pushed her plate to the side to comb her fingers through Victoria’s long hair. With expert ease, she started braiding the thick strands of her hair.

“You don’t really have to be here at a certain time,” I told her. “It’s not like you’re getting paid or anything.”

Not like anyone in Colina was getting paid.

People who continued to work did so for the benefit of others.

In the past month and a half, money had become irrelevant.

Unfortunately, so had our local bakery and coffee shop.

It wouldn’t be long before I ran out of coffee and sugar.

The idea of that made me want to sob. Yeah, I knew it was stupid and selfish, but regardless, I’d complained about it to Elias a few dozen times.

Again, selfish, but he listened to me with such intensity, seeming to hang on to my every word, like what I said and cared about mattered.

Like he wanted to right every wrong in my life.

Everly used the tie around Victoria’s wrist to tie the end of the braid. Then she took the uneaten flowers and placed them around her braid.

“Wow, look at how pretty you are, Tori,” Elias said from behind us.

Victoria jumped up and ran toward him with Everly inching herself up to follow her. When Victoria hugged his legs, he knelt to hug her back. And there went my silly little heart, pitter-pattering over this man.

“Eli.” Her eagerness in seeing him seemed to wash over him, and he hugged her a bit tighter before letting her go. “Did you bring me more toys?” she asked.

He ruffled her hair. “Actually, I brought you a sled. A real one. George and Brent are outside and ready to pull you around if you want.”

“Like my toy sled?” She lifted the small sled he’d made her and ran it over his hair and face.

“Tori,” I chided.

His eyes twinkled when they met mine. All sweet and amused and sexy as sin. Almost as beautiful as the dimples that flashed on either cheek.

“Even better.” He pushed his head against her stomach, a lot like the way Hee-haw did to me, and made her squeal.

“Can you play with me too?” she asked, her voice hopeful .

He kissed the crown of her head and my heart. . . dear God, my heart.

He held out a pinky and said, “I promise you I will as soon as my back’s all better.”

She twined her pinky with his, and that was it. I swear there wasn’t a force on this earth, fae or otherwise, that could keep my heart from trembling.