Lilith could barely believe the sight of the woman staring back at her. She hardly recognized herself. Her cheeks no longer looked so full, or her hips so broad. Though she still had her curves, they were more womanly and toned.
Even the blues of her eyes seemed more mature. She touched her cheek, smearing the dust upon it.
“You look lovely,” he said.
Smiling, she looked at her dark demone warrior and gripped his hand. It was hard to tell just by looking at Giles how badly the cold was affecting him because his skin tone was still the deepest depth of darkest shadow, but she felt it in the jerking spasms of his twitching muscles.
His teeth clacked together almost angrily, and she brushed her knuckles against his smooth cheek.
“Don’t touch the walls, Giles, hang on to me. I’ll keep you warm.”
“Lilith, I—”
“No.” She placed a hand over his lips. “Don’t. Let’s not say words that would only cause us more pain in the end. What is done is done, and it cannot be undone. So let us smile and be glad for the time spent together. And let us hope by the great wolf that there are no ice dwarves in this place.”
She tried to add some sort of levity to their situation, but inside her heart was shattered. She loved him. Absolutely and completely. And though she knew he’d take her as his if she asked, she could never do it to him. To force him to never have children, it would be a decision he might one day come to regret and resent her for. There were many things she could deal with in life, but having Giles ever hate her wasn’t one of them.
They began the slow walk down the slippery smoothness of the ice. More than once she and Giles had stumbled, causing him to reach out his hand to steady himself against the ice wall.
He’d hiss and she could literally see the steam rising off his palm from the touch. His steps were sluggish and he was stumbling more than normal.
“Giles, can’t you shift?”
“No.” He coughed, gasping and breathing heavy. They’d barely walked half a mile at this point.
But the air was definitely thinner, even though they were going down and not up. And though any cave system she’d ever explored in her life was always at a constant temperature, that was just not so with this one. Each step seemed to feel colder and colder.
Even she—that ran warmer than a normal human—was suffering from muscle spasms. Each breath was punishing, filling her lungs with frost and making it feel as though something were chiseling away at her insides with an icepick.
It would be better for her to shift, but then she’d not be able to hang on to Giles, and as poorly as she was doing, he was definitely doing worse.
The normal reds of his eyes were now barely a light pink tint.
“Shifting requires too much energy at this point and it would not protect me from this level of cold. We must press on,” he managed to whisper.
“I wish I could just take you back to the glen, Giles.” She rubbed his arms vigorously, attempting to warm him up as best she could. “You can see there is nothing in this cave with us. In fact, it’s dead. I hear no footsteps or breaths other than ours.”
He didn’t say anything and she wished he would. It was sweet how thoughtful he was of her safety, but not at the expense of his own.
But in so many ways Giles reminded her of her father. The big bad wolf had done much in his search to find her mother and his reason had always been simple: love.
And though Giles hadn’t spoken the words to her, she knew that what they shared was that and were it she struggling as he was, she would fight tooth and nail to remain by his side, too.
“Okay,” she finally relented, “I won’t make you. But I am going to shift. I’m too clumsy with only two feet. Grip firmly on to my pelt. You shouldn’t slip anymore once I shift.”
Nodding, he finally released her hand and she called her light. Unlike Giles her heat was not tied to the elements, and when her amber warmth curled around her for a brief moment she saw him smile as it stroked his skin.
The ice tunnel hissed as wherever her light touched it melted, dripping cold little puddles at their feet.
But all too soon the brightness died out and he was once again shivering violently. Covered in thick fur now, she felt instantly better and sidled up to him so that he could grab hold of her pelt.
His blunt fingers dug into her fur and once again they walked.
The trail seemed never ending, twisting and turning back in on itself over and over again. Sometimes the tunnel would grow so narrow that even with her belly-crawling through it to give Giles enough space he still scraped along the sides.