“May I carry you, Terri?” he asked.
My grip tightened on the baby clothes, and I forced myself to nod, but immediately flinched when he moved to pick me up. He paused, and I flushed.
“Would you prefer Groth?” he asked.
My gaze flicked to the other fey watching us.
“N-no,” I managed through my tight throat. “You.”
He nodded once, his green, vertically slitted eyes watching me closely as he slowly bent to pick me up. He lifted me like I was nothing. The end of the world and the food shortages had done a number on me, but I knew I weighed more than nothing.
“Am I holding you too tight?” he asked, looking down at me.
I shook my head and focused on my hands.
“I won’t drop you.”
“Okay.”
I’d barely managed the words when he leapt up and over the wall. I screamed the whole way.
“You’re fine, Terri,” Brooke called. “No more screaming, okay? I haven’t seen any infected yet and don’t want to start now.”
Clamping my mouth shut, I nodded and looked around. This was the first time I’d been outside the wall in weeks. It was exceptionally normal looking. Trampled snow filled the quiet clearing. Nothing creepier than the fey lurked nearby.
“I’m sorry for scaring you,” the fey holding me said, making me flinch in his arms.
“The jump just surprised me. That’s all.”
He grunted and looked at the other two fey.
“They’re going to run now,” Brooke said. “Turn your face toward him so you can breathe and not freeze. We’ll be there before you know it.”
I nodded and did as she suggested, but with my eyes closed.
A moment later, I felt him moving against me, the barest jostle of his chest against my side. If not for the wind battering the back of my hood, I wouldn’t have believed he was running. Within minutes, the cold bit into my jean-clad legs, proving he was though.
I shivered. Then he did the strangest thing ever. He leaned into me, pressing his cheek to the top of my head. I felt…hugged.
The second jump twisted my stomach just as much as the first one had, but I swallowed my scream.
“Would you like to walk now?” the fey holding me asked.
I lifted my head and looked around. There were fey everywhere. Lurking between houses. Stalking along the top of the wall surrounding Tolerance. Hiding behind trees.
“Um…I…”
“I think that’s a ‘yes,’ Azio,” Brooke said with a chuckle.
I kept my gaze locked on Brooke as he carefully eased me to my feet, and I tried not to feel the way his hands slid over the backs of my legs or down my arm.
“It’s impressive, right?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“This place. I saw the way you looked around. It’s so much calmer here—laid back. I went to Jamaica once before the world fell apart. It feels like that. Slower. Calmer.”
She motioned for me to walk with her, and I cautiously stepped around my fey-barer to do so.