Death wrapped its two strong arms around her chest. She'd heard of death's embrace but imagined it would be like running into knives. And while these arms pressed awkwardly against her bones and into her skin, it was a far cry from being stabbed by blades. A splash of icy water hit her shoes, and with a jolt she realized she was hovering above the water, not hurtling into it.

There was a grunt in her ear, and the arms tightened around her. "Faryn," a voice gritted out. Cassian's voice. "Please don't move." His mouth was at her ear, and he was breathing hard.

Only because she had placed her bag under her cloak was it still attached to her, hanging like a sack of bricks from her shoulder.

Even mere feet from the water, she could hardly make out the white froth of the sea. The water that had hit her was quickly making its way through her boots and socks. If Cassian hadn't caught her—if she had hit the water, would her bones have shattered?

That's when realization struck. Cassian had caught her.

His chest pressed into her back, and even through his layers of clothes, she could feel his muscles working and straining as he both held her and beat his wings.

Flying. That's what he was doing. So that's what Faryn—

She shut her eyes. "Thank you." Her heart was racing, and it probably wouldn't slow down anytime soon. She cracked her eyes open. The water swirled underneath her. She wasn't in a position to see his wings, and in the few days they'd spent together, he had never once revealed them.

Cassian flew upward, and Faryn shut her eyes again, this time against the wind. It wasn't until her feet pressed down on the pavers that she opened them.

Before her Peter was on his knees, his breathing labored. "Faryn. I—"

She shook her head, placing a hand against her incontrollable heart as Cassian's hold loosened on her, though he didn't release her entirely.

"It's not your fault," she said.

"Are you steady?" Cassian's mouth was still close to her ear, and somehow she managed to nod. As she did so, she felt the brush of his lips against the side of her ear, and she shuddered. Not from the cold or her plunge or the nearness of death, though she desperately hoped Cassian assumed it was one of those three. It was an accident. An unfortunate accident.

Cassian let go of her but continued to linger.

"Thank you." She lowered her hand taking a deep breath. "Thank you."

It was at that moment the rest of her body realized what her heart already had, and her legs gave out, the muscles feeling like they turned to melting sludge. She grasped for the cliff face.

Cassian had her back in his arms in an instant.

They stayed there for a few minutes, neither Peter nor Cassian pressuring her to get over it or to hurry up and recover.

She checked her thigh, breathing out a sigh of relief when she felt the dagger had remained strapped in place. "I'm . . . good. Let's go." Trapped inside her shoes, her socks were wet. If she couldn't take them off soon, her magic wouldn't be enough to hold frostbite back forever. She wouldn't say her toes were pretty, but she was partial to them and preferred to have all ten.

Faryn took up the lead, and Peter made Cassian take the middle. At some point the Fata had gotten rid of his wings. She never even got a glimpse of them.

They all moved so slowly that Faryn was certain they'd miss their boat and that her toes were going to freeze. Being this cold was foreign to her. How did Peter and Cassian bear it?

The cliff face alongside them finally began sloping downward, and eventually the sounds of rocking boats reached them. It sounded like ice splintering, and the cliff face lowered enough that they could see the harbor.

Bright lights shone from the ships onto the water. Close to the shoreline the water was frozen, and what she had thought was the boats rocking might have truly been the ice cracking. There were three large ships in the harbor though none as big as the human cruise ships Faryn had seen advertisements for in the past. Closer to the front of the docks were smaller boats, mostly ones used for fishing.

To reach the harbor, they had to walk down a hundred or so slick stairs. Peter mumbled the entire time about how whoever designed this pathway should be sued.

When Faryn reached the bottom, she wiggled her toes to keep the blood moving as Peter pulled his phone from a pocket, pulling up the details of their ship.

Cassian slouched against the rock wall that now barely came to his waist. How were his toes? That was probably the strangest though she had ever had, but he had been just as close to the water as she had been, and his magic didn't shield him from the cold.

Should she ask him or would he only be offended a bastard Elf was worried about him?

Before she could decide, Peter told them to follow him. All three made sure their cloaks were tight around them and their hoods pulled up as he led them out into the open. The harbor was busier than Faryn had expected though not terribly so. There was a mix of workers and passengers, all either focused on their work or too cold to wonder about who else shared a dock with them.

Peter showed a woman near the metal gangplank of one of the ships their tickets. He didn't even have to provide identification. Acurials didn't pay too much attention to human borders. What mattered to them were the four courts and to which member they lived the closest.

The woman nodded in response to one of Peter's questions, and all Faryn had was a murmured warning from Cassian before his arm was around her, and he tugged her against his chest. She braced her palm flat against him.

His lips formed one word. Perchta.

Faryn's fingers curled, tightening into Cassian's shirt. Light from the boat shown down on them, but with the hood of the cloak pulled over him, only the curve of his mouth, the tip of his nose were visible. The rest of him was hidden in shadows.

Maybe he had only spotted Perchta's patrols.

In the far reaches of her mind, she was mildly aware her toes had gone numb at some point.

"Do you have any more luggage?" the woman asked Peter.

"No," Peter said.

Cassian continued to hold her, not letting her turn away. Faryn's heart thudded in her chest, and while Cassian could certainly hear it, he also probably felt it too.

At last, though, they were allowed to ascend the metal gangplank and follow Peter inside the ship. It wasn't long before the floor became carpeted and both Faryn and Cassian yanked off their boots and socks. Cassian let out a hiss as his first bare foot came down on the navy-blue carpet, while Faryn winced. But the numbed burning sensation was worth it to feel the dryness of the soft fibers on her feet.

Peter navigated for all three of them the way to their cabin. As they walked through the ship, Faryn was reminded of a cruise ship, not that she had been on one, but sometimes she had liked to watch with her friends in Oxford a reality show about crew members living on such a ship. The space felt clean, with a nautical theme that wasn't tacky. The walls were painted an eggshell white that wasn't numbing to the eye, and they were trimmed in silver.

It would be nice to go on a real cruise one day. Somewhere that she would get to visit a private island that would never be touched by snow as long as an Acurial didn't get involved.

Peter inserted the key into the door of their cabin. When he pushed it open, it was evident he had gotten them a suite. There was a large window at the end, looking out at the darkness of the sea in the early morning. There were both a queen bed, laden in silk sheets, and a bunk bed, built into the walls of the cabin, the two sets of sheets as equally as fine.

Faryn headed straight for the bathroom, Cassian on her heels. The bathroom was much larger than she had expected one on a ship to be. Truthfully, she'd been thinking it was going to be too small for even one person. But this could fit all three of them comfortably. The bathtub doubled as a shower, and the rim of the tub was curved. There would be enough space for them both to sit without being forced to press against each other. They both let their cloaks drop to the tiled floor. As Faryn turned the tub's faucet on, Cassian pulled off his layers of shirts, leaving him bare chested. She should do the same. Her clothes were not only cold, but damp from the wet wind beating against them restlessly.

She pulled off her own top layers, until she was only in her bra. If Cassian wasn't uncomfortable, why should she be? It wasn't like he even bothered to look at her, his body tensed as he reached for the button of his pants. As she checked and adjusted the water temperature, Cassian took off his pants, leaving him in only his underwear until he reached past Faryn, arm brushing her side. She sucked in a sharp breath, and he quickly grabbed a robe from the wall and slipped it on.

Peter knocked on the open door but didn't poke his head in. "Try not to drown each other, please."

Faryn stepped out of her own pants and took a robe as well. The material was like the largest, softest towel, and she only wished it covered her feet. When she glanced up from tying it, Cassian's eyes were on her hands where they still rested against the bow. Her skin heated at the same time it prickled with goosebumps.

Sitting down on the edge of the tub, she faced away from the water first. She wanted to plunge her feet in, but the water would be hot and would only make her feet feel as if she'd ducked them into lava. She let both her feet hover above the water before dipping the tip of her right foot's big toe into the water and resting her other foot on the other side of the tub. As her skin touched the water, she didn't know whether to grimace or let out a moan.

She did both.

Cassian let out a low growl, annoyed, and sat down beside her, much closer than needed, and as he turned around to face the water, his arm again brushed hers, but this time they had the fabric of the robe between them.

That didn't stop her from feeling that heat again.

Faryn let her whole big toe enter the water. "Was it Perchta or her guards?"

"I only saw her guards." Cassian had a whole foot in, and his eyes were closed as if he were experiencing true bliss. She couldn't look away.

"Thank you again for saving me."

Cassian nodded.

The water soaked over her foot. "Do you really think Mother Nature will help us?"

"She's supposed to."

Faryn ducked her head, watching as the skin of her feet turned red. If court members were like queens and kings to Acurials, Mother Nature was their empress. She held power over all the courts. She even had more authority than Father Time. Neither pledged themselves to a court, but they were the exceptions when it came to them. They answered to no one, but then again, they were Acurials' Emperor and Empress. Who could they answer to?

For the Acurials who sat on the rung below them, a court offered protection when they crossed another powerful being.

"Arlo will help us get an audience with Ziva."

Aurelius was supposed to help them. Would this new journey only turn out like the one they were sailing way from?

"He'll like you, Faryn. You don't have to worry about him turning us in."

She looked up, her eyes locking with Cassian's. She hadn't realized how close had gotten, and now their faces were only inches apart.

His eyes studied her face. "Midas is no fan of Winter."

The ship jolted under her, and she fell against him. He caught her, his hands pressing into her arms through the robe.

They were setting sail.

His hands dug into her muscles, and suddenly she started imagining him gripping other places.

Righting herself, she hoped Cassian couldn't see her embarrassment on her face. She closed her eyes and focused on her feet in the warm water, imagining her whole body submerged in the tub, letting the heat soak into her muscles.

The ship jolted again but this time Faryn kept herself seated upright.

Ireland. She was finally getting the chance to see the world and yet she wasn't able to soak any of it in. She would have loved to explore the streets of Sleet City, taste the crab cakes they were known for, and see the Northern Lights through the walls of their crystal dome. Standing inside it was said to be like being transported to a world where the sky was a kaleidoscope.

One day, she promised herself. One day she would see and do all of that.

She just had to clear her name first.

*****

At some point while Faryn and Cassian were in the bath, Peter had left the cabin. They changed into what dry clothes they had and claimed the bunkbeds, Faryn taking the bottom. Peter had paid for the room. He should get the larger the bed.

The young Easter Bunny returned soon after Faryn had tucked her legs under the covers. He bore a tray of food with three boles of stew and bread.

As she ate, the stew warmed her throat straight down to her stomach, and she breathed in the scent of roasted vegetables, pepper, and an herb she wasn't familiar with. She didn't even care that it was technically breakfast time. Until they got off the ship, she and Cassian wouldn't be able to leave the cabin. It was already risky enough for Peter if he were to be recognized.

So, she'd be spending three days in a cabin with a fairy, and at some point his scent stopped bothering her, so there was that relief at least. There was a sort of familiarity about it now, one, if she really stopped to think about it, she might consider a comfort. 

I had a lot of fun writing that bathtub scene.

The next update will be Wednesday.