Another kiss to my temple, then his silver eyes found mine. “Oh, he will show himself. And then, we will demand your life breath back, hmm?”

That roused another flutter behind my ribs. “Yes.”

Enosh slipped me off his lap and returned to the line of men kneeling in the snow, who shivered from frost and fear, letting a new bone blade shape when he reached the squire.

Gulping, the boy took it, and brought it to his wrist.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Enosh gripped his hand and guided the blade a smidge more to one side. “Right here, mortal, along this very vein, blueand oh-so swollen with dread. Cut.”

From ten feet away, it looked like no more than a nick, but I knew how sharp a bone blade was. It sunk into the vein easily, immediately staining red before rivulets of blood collected in the man’s palm. From there, crimson drip-drip-dripped into the white snow.

“Return what you stole from my wife,” Enosh mumbled as the boy’s head slowly drooped, chin sinking toward chest. “Or else I shall unbalance this world until it turns upside down. Show yourself!”

Enosh’s shout echoed across the silent field, letting a flock of birds take flight from a nearby tree. All the while, the young man’s arms slouched, pulling heavily on his shoulders until he tipped forward, slumping against the god.

Nothing.

No Eilam.

A tremor shook me, caused by equal parts of cold drifts from the north and despair. How many more needed to bleed out before that bastard finally showed up? I just wanted my baby.

When Enosh rose, letting the squire’s face fall into the snow, I averted my gaze. “This is upsetting…”

“Agreed,” Yarin said on a sigh. “Upsettingly boring.”

Enosh handed the blade to the next man in line, a priest. “How many priests with their soul still about?”

“Five,” Yarin said. “Seven with the two in this line.”

“Bind the dead ones. I shall trade you one for one.”

Offshoots of hair spread across the field of demise, slithering toward the sudden echoes of scattered wails and prayers. When they retreated toward the trunk, they pulled the corpses of priests with them.

Soulbound.

One after another, they rose toward the branches. They tossed and writhed until their robes slipped over their heads, letting the shit-stained underpants of some air out. They screamed and cried, praying to a god who would not help them.

“Wonderful,” Yarin said with a grin and an excited clap. “Oh, Enosh, I do love it when you lose your mind every couple of centuries. Such skill. Such creativity.”

The soldier who kneeled in front of my husband shot his hand forward, taking the bone blade from Enosh’s palm. With a slow cut, he opened his veins to the chill of winter and death.

“Good man,” Enosh whispered as the soldier slowly slumped into himself as he crawled toward death. “I can do this for the rest of my life. Tell me, brother, how long might that be?”

When Enosh picked up the blade where it had dropped in the snow, a sudden sense of despair settled onto me like thick tar poured over my very soul. It slithered into my chest, robbing me of air, leeching the little warmth I had left from me like he had done the day I’d died.

“Eilam,” I rasped, making Yarin scoot away from me and Enosh to rise to his full height.

‘Ada.’ My name whispered from an aura to my left, almost like the caress of light one felt when the sun poked through the windows in the morning. Not a sight; a sensation. ‘Still so much life in you, refusing my command. An atrocity.’

Eilam slowly came into his form beside me, his windswept hair as white as snow, his black eyes seemingly fixed on me, though it was hard to tell. Oh, and he was naked.

Yarin rolled his eyes. “I would have gladly waited another moment if only you would have found a rag to cover that white fur of yours.”

“By Helfa…” the other priest mumbled, rocking on his knees and swaying back and forth as he stared at Eilam. “Give me the blade so I can depart this unholy place of dark magic.”

Enosh let the man’s arms fall forward and handed him a fresh blade, but his eyes remained locked on Eilam. “As you wish.”

The daybed shook.

My gaze snapped to Eilam, who trembled beside me as he watched the priest slit his wrists. It truly upset him, didn’t it?

A flutter of hope.

Would he give in?

We had four more left…

“You knew she carried my child.” Enosh stepped up to us and, with a flick of his hand, let a leather shape on Eilam’s crotch. “Give her your breath.”

“I did not know what it was when she died, not that it would have mattered.” Eilam leaned into me, bringing his eerie eyes so close to mine, I stopped breathing, if only to remind myself that I no longer needed air. I was dead. He could take no more from me. “Her life was twice forfeited. Once stolen.”

I lifted my chin no matter how it trembled. “I just want my baby.”

Perhaps I imagined it, but his eyes appeared to slip to those lips he’d once kissed, letting the hairs rise along my arms.

“Enosh, did you know that our brother kissed your wife?” Yarin blurted, letting my husband’s jaws clench with such force his ears twitched. “Ada, how bad was it?”

I looked straight into Eilam’s pitch-black eyes. “Clearly so terrible, I died from it.”

Yarin laughed.

Enosh did not.

“Strange creatures,” Eilam said, seemingly unfazed by it all. “Women. So different from us.”

Yarin leaned back into the daybed. “At long last, you took notice.”

“Give her… your… breath.” At Enosh’s growl, all those soldiers who’d lost their lives stood and turned toward us, stares abandoned, sending a shudder across my chilled skin. “Or on my word, I shall kill every soul I come across until you restore her.”

“I do not think you will, Enosh.”

“You are not powerful enough to stop me.”

“From the moment you have claimed your first death of the day, I have been watching, listening.” A strand of Eilam’s hair fell forward, scenting the air between us with crisp breeze and lavender. “No, I am not powerful enough… but your wife is. And stopping you, she will. Already she has… doubts.”

“So certain, brother?” Yarin asked. “All it takes is one whisper.”

“As I recall, our brother has no want for your illusions. No, he longs for… unadulterated love grown from her uncolored inclination. Tell me, Enosh, how much will she love you once the first house collapses onto a child under the weight of corpses? How many whispers will it take to dull her hate once a wave of bonedust suffocates a girl in hiding? Come to think, have you ever told her how many children died in the Soltren lands?”

When my gaze flicked to Enosh, my husband sunk his head—if in regret or to escape my judgment, I couldn’t say.

“Children. So innocent. For a while.” Eilam cast his judging stare over me, lifting a smug brow. “All this ordeal over a mortal woman, little more than an insignificant speck on our memory. Here one day, gone the next.”

Insignificant.

A rush of hot blood itched beneath my skin, tossing me into the biting throes of rage and utter despair. He would not do it. Would leave me behind cold. All because he… expected me to protect the innocent?

And what of my trapped baby?

Was it not innocent?

It was, and I refused to fail it again.

“You think I’ll do you the favor and stop Enosh?” I leaned into Eilam, then a bit more when he shifted back, as though uneasy about my closeness. “Think again, Eilam, because right now, I’m very tempted to help.”

Why did Yarin sink his face into his palm? Why did Enosh hiss? What did I do? Wasn’t this what he’d wanted of me? To stand behind this?

“Will you truly help?” Eilam opened his palm, letting a wooden stake form there. “Show me how mistaken I am in my assumption, mortal. Of course, my brothers shall not interfere, guiding neither hand nor mind.”