She stood on the precipice, the bag of coins in her pocket feeling like a ball of lead. The wind was cold on her cheeks, but she could not convince herself to move.

​

    If she had been asked a month or so ago where she thought she would be today, Arrie would have answered that she would be on her way home, warm food in her belly, and sleeping peacefully in the knowledge that her sister Karina would get the care she needed with plenty of gold to spare. She would not have said she’d be stuck standing on a frozen cliffside, watching the town below with a burning dread in her gut.

​

    Now she regretted asking the hooded man what would befall the exiled prince she had been tasked to bring here. By all rights, she shouldn’t have asked. It wasn’t her business what happened after her mark had been delivered into the lion’s den. But she’d always been a curious person, and the prince had a reputation for being a brave and fierce warrior. He would not be an easy man to take down. That is, unless one flooded the town with assassins, of course.

​

    ‘Walk away,’ her brain urged, frustrated as her boots stubbornly refused to move. ‘You have your money, and your sister will have her care. Walk away.’ It should be simple; reasonable. She would trade Prince Terran’s life for her sister’s and her unborn child. One life saves two. A stranger saves her family. It was an easy decision, she had thought.

But that was before the caress of his fingers was branded into her skin so much so that, even now, she could still feel his warmth. That was before the twinkle in his stormy eyes caused her stomach to flip inside-out. That was before she’d tasted his lips and felt his body over hers.

​

    A snowflake dripped down her cheek, then another, and, when she wiped her face with a frown, she realized she was crying. Her feet finally moved but, in rebellion to every instinct in her body save her heart, she was heading back to the inn where she’d left him oblivious to the fact that he would be dead by dawn.

​

    She all but tore the door to the inn down in her panic. Despite her relatively good state when it came to physical fitness, she gasped for breath, her eyes effortlessly meeting Terran’s despite not knowing exactly where in the room he would be. He looked startled and confused, a tankard of ale held halfway to his lips. The heat in the room was like entering an oven.

​

    “We have to go,” she blurted out, Terran immediately reaching for his sword.

“What’s happened?” he asked, rising to his feet and dropping a few coins on the table for the innkeeper, who was, at this point, glaring at Arrie.

​

    “I’ll tell you when there are five hundred miles between us and this town,” she said, reaching for his hand and pulling him towards the door. His grip in hers was strong and steady, and she was grateful for it when she noticed the dirty looks everyone in the room was giving her. “Maybe six hundred.”

​

    The door slammed in her face, a burly, tattooed arm still blocking it. Silver flashed at his hip and Arrie cursed her stupidity. Terran’s grip tightened in hers as every assassin in the room stood up.

​

     “We were going to kill him in his sleep after an evening of warm food and rich ale,” the man at the door said, reaching for his dagger. “Now, we won’t be as kind.”

​

    The room descended to chaos. Terran’s sword cut through the air, and the man was only just able to block it. Cursing her lack of a weapon, Arrie grabbed the nearest chair and broke it over the head of the next closest man, taking his sword when it clattered to the ground. While her movements weren’t as fluid and practiced as Terran’s, she was hardly a slouch with a blade, and the next several men found that out quickly when they set upon her, seemingly having conflated her small stature to mean an easy target.

Still, it mattered little for they were hopelessly outnumbered. “Arrie, can you reach the door?” Terran shouted, grunting as he blocked another downswing. She glanced to it and saw at least five men between her and the door.

​

    “No!” she shouted back, ducking as a blade sliced through the air a few inches above her head. Then she smirked at the sight of a relatively large window about five paces away. The man attacking her lunged again and she dodged to the side, using the force of his momentum to guide him through the glass.

​

    “Terran!” she yelled, jumping through it. He followed, wincing at the slice of a blade on his forearm, but ultimately leaping out the window with relative ease. They sprinted to the edge of the town, making for the tree line. They hid in the shrubbery until the men passed them by, then cautiously splintered off into another direction, trekking to the forest. About a half a mile later, Arrie found a small cave.

​

    “This should be safe enough for now,” she said, searching to the back and nodding in satisfaction when she found it completely empty. “Tonight will be cold, and we’ll need something to block the wind since we can’t light a fire.”

​

    Immediately, she was pinned against the stone wall, gasping as his mouth crashed against hers. She relaxed into the kiss, burying her hands in his hair. He froze and, in the haze of his kisses, it took her way too long to realize why.

​

    The hand on her hip moved into her pocket, pulling out the bag of gold she had long since forgotten about. He released her as if she burned him, the bag falling to the ground, coins clanging on the floor.

​

    “I had hoped you simply overheard something as you were leaving,” he rasped finally, not meeting her eye. “Tell me this isn’t what it appears to be.”

​

    Arrie slumped against the wall. “My sister’s pregnancy wasn’t going well, and I needed money to get her care. Otherwise, I’d lose them both.”

​

    “And so you thought to trade my life for theirs.” It wasn’t a question, and his voice lacked any affection that it once had.

​

    “I was wrong,” she whispered, glancing up at him before looking down again, wilting from his glare. He was silent for a moment, and then turned away.

​

    “So was I.” He sat against the wall opposite her, staring to the cave entrance as if the snowfall would distract him from the tears he couldn’t fully hide. She didn’t bother trying.