“How kind of you to think of them,” Freya said. “And here I thought you were pretty murderous.” He looked at her as if she was absurd.
“Only to those who deserve it.”
“Like that mortal who´s life you just ended?”
“Exactly,” he said and she bitterly shoved her nails into his gloved hands but of course he didn´t even notice.
They continued down to a ravine, until they were standing between two mountains that were close to each other. The water was rushing with its usual brisk energy and Wolf grabbed Freya´s hands, putting them around his thick neck and his hair grazed her skin, surprisingly soft in comparison to his harshness.
“What are you doing?” she asked when she felt his body against hers and suddenly her knees went weak from the smell and feel of him. She had been unprepared for this but it had been such a long time, since she had been standing close to a male like this.
The only other one being Philip but he had been smaller and lankier and his strength only a fifth of Wolf. She wouldn´t even be able to reach to kiss Wolf without him picking her up… Wait why was she thinking about kissing him?
“I am going to transport us now,” he said in a low, growly voice. “It can be frightening the first few times but it is the only way to get to Ice Falls.”
Freya nodded, her eyes wide in her face. What if something went wrong?
“Hold on to me,” he rasped.
She pressed herself against his armor and for a second she thought he lost his stability, but regained it quickly by pushing her up at the mountain.
“Close your eyes.”
“I prefer keeping them op…” They swirled so fast in some kind of darkness and it made her sick. It felt as if her head was about to break in pieces and just when she was about to yell at him to stop, it was over.
Chapter Five
“Ugh, that hurt,” Freya said when she stumbled and fell to the ground, hitting…ice. Nice. She immediately missed the summer and greenery of the valley.
“I told you to hold on to me,” Wolf said and looked down at her, reaching out his hand to help her up. He seemed different here, amongst snow and frost, bigger somehow if that was even possible.
“You´ve been telling me a lot of things lately,” Freya said, ignoring his hand. She immediately began shivering. “Raving river it´s cold,” she said as her teeth chattered. Her breath was crystallizing in the air and it felt as if her own thoughts were going to freeze.
She flinched when she felt a warm fur covering her. Wolf was now only in that armor of his. His shoulders were huge, big enough to crush any enemy.
“This is Ice Falls,” Wolf said. “What did you expect? My home is up there.” He pointed on a hill, which held up a great white castle, with silvery grey towers that almost made Freya teary eyed from its extravagance.
As a mortal she had dreamt about marrying a king but instead she had chosen a poor soldier. Her parents had disliked that Philip hadn´t been drowning in richness but they would have lived in a small house, maybe somewhere in the city and it wouldn´t be much but they would have been happy. But as a young mortal she had also devoured fairy tales about castles. And now she was actually going to live in one…
“Is my home to your liking?” Wolf rumbled and Freya jerked.
“It´s magical,” Freya confessed. Everything in Ice Falls appeared to be enchanted. From the snow owl that was sitting in the tree, to the way the moon hung on the gentle sky, full and milky white and the icicles that seemed to be whispering…But in the distance there were mountains, larger than in the valley and darker, almost vicious looking.
“I could have transport us to the castle but since you almost fainted...”
Freya shrugged. “I got bored, it was a little slow for my taste but if that´s all you can handle…”
She trailed off under his gaze.
“Kidding,” she muttered and he nodded as if he´d never thought about that immortals could joke. Or maybe he just wasn´t used to being the one joked about. “The other god´s said you were like this.”
“Like what?” he asked lethally.
“Like…uh, you know...icy.” Freya sighed. “I´m just not used to immortals like you.”
“There are no other immortals like me,” he said and his shoulders straightened. “I am the only one of my kind.”
She looked at him sideways, at his sharp profile with his full lips and strong jaw. His face didn´t show anything but Freya thought it sounded dreary to be the only one of your kind.
“Don´t you have any family?” she asked and he looked at her as if she was speaking another language.
“Family?”
“Or friends, as in people who keep you company.”
“The frost keeps me company,” he said cryptically.
“I see,” Freya said, rolling her eyes. It was clear as crystal to her. Wolf had brought her here so that he wouldn´t be lonely, under the pretense that she would do him some kind of favor that would help defeat Wryfell. Whatever, she thought, it didn´t matter since she had a program of her own to follow.
“So what do you and your frost friends like to do?” she continued. “Do you play chess, cards? Watch that thing the mortals call television?”
“It speaks to me,” Wolf answered. “Tells me what I need to know.”
“Does it?” Freya said skeptically. “What does it tell you?”
“It talks about you,” Wolf said and Freya almost stopped in her tracks. She didn´t know frost could speak or that it could speak about her.
“About me?”
Wolf arched an eyebrow. “It recognizes you from all those times you brushed off frost from the crops.” He shot her a look as if he was surprised himself but
