clear view of any immediate danger. Not that there was any. The fields and trees here remained just as quiet as they had back home.
I felt myself getting cold despite my layers. When I guarded the wall, I moved. A lot. On the narrow platform of the truck’s roof, there wasn’t room to take more than a step or two.
“We need to guard the truck, he says,” I mumbled under my breath. “More like uselessly freeze my ass off.” I bounced lightly in place and blew on my hands.
“If you’re cold, sit inside the truck,” Thallirin said.
“Your common sense is useless on me. I’m just a child, remember?”
A grunt came from the other side of the truck, and I turned to glare at the other fey.
“You have some sage wisdom to add to this conversation?”
The fey shook his head and continued his walk along the trucks.
I stubbornly remained on the roof. I honestly didn’t mind guard duty so long as Zach and I got a fair share of the supplies. And, despite Zach’s teen boy weirdness about Mom wanting birth control, I knew that he would come through for her if there was any to be found. What I minded was being managed.
The bracing wind didn’t let up for a second the entire time the group was gone. When a few of the fey started returning with supplies and left again with stacks of empty totes, I called it good and climbed into the truck and locked the doors.
Thallirin and the other fey left me alone for a while. The amount of time I stared at the keys in the ignition bordered on insane. Did I really care if letting the truck idle would draw infected? They wouldn’t be my problem. They would be Thallirin’s; and in my state of glacial rage, I thought he’d earned himself a few well-placed bites for putting me in this position in the first place.
However, no matter how much the idea of warm hands and feet tempted me, I didn’t reach for the keys. I pulled my arms from my sleeves and stuck them under my armpits while drawing my knees to my chest.
Thallirin knocked on my window, interrupting my daydream of sipping warm, dog food-free, soup.
“Are you hungry?” he asked through the glass.
“No. I’m cold because you made me stay here instead of letting me run for my life in the streets of Hasenpfeffer or wherever the fuck we are. Go away so I can succumb to hypothermia quietly.”
I stuck my tongue out at him like the child he believed me to be then ducked further into my hoodie.
“Open the door, or I will break the window.” He said it so annoyingly calmly that I had no doubt he would do it to get to me.
“I can’t. My hands are in my armpits. And if you break the window, glass is going to come flying in here and cut me. That’s not a very good way to show you care. Plus, no windows will make me even colder. If you’d told me I would have been standing still outside for hours, I would have dressed differently. More layers. Instead, I dressed as if I was going to move.”
I pushed back the hood to scowl at him.
“You do realize I survived this shit storm before you showed up. I’m not some helpless female who just lucked out. I fought for my life. I went into houses, killed infected with a knife, and took supplies, just like they’re doing in town now. How else do you think I ate?”
“You no longer need to fight. I will fight for you.”
Angry, I shoved my hand back through the sleeve and slapped my palm on the window, right over his face. He didn’t even flinch.
“You’re frustrating the hell out of me. Please go away before I break the window myself.”
He looked at my hand and lifted his own to cover mine through the glass. That I could immediately feel his heat, surprised me. As did the way he slowly curled his hand into a fist, then left me to shiver in silence.
Miserable didn’t describe how I felt when I finally heard a voice call out. Like a turtle emerging from her shell, I peeked out of my jacket and saw the majority of the group jogging our way. The fey carried laden totes, and the humans carried whatever they could. Thallirin stepped up to relieve Garrett of his burden. Garrett nodded his thanks and made a beeline for