"This was all just a game to you, wasn't it, princess? 'Come, Zarek, sit on my lap. Tell me why you won't behave.'" His vision turned dark. Deadly. "Fuck you, lady, and fuck them."
Her head snapped up. "Zarek, please!"
"So what, you decided Acheron was right? I'm psychotic, so send in your dogs to kill me?"
She got up and turned to where she heard his voice coming from. "No. Thanatos wasn't supposed to be sent in after you. As for Acheron, he would never convict you. If not for him, you'd be dead now. He bartered who knows what with Artemis so that I could come to you and find a way to save your life."
He snorted. "Yeah, right."
"It's the truth, Zarek," she said, her voice sincere. "Deny it all you want to, but it doesn't change the fact that we are on your side."
He raked her with a repugnant glare he only wished she could see to appreciate. "I ought to leave you here to freeze to death. Oh, wait, you're an immortal nymph. You can't die."
She lifted her chin and stood as if braced to take on his worst. "You can leave me if you want to. But the man I have come to know isn't so callous or cruel. He would never leave someone to die."
He ground his teeth. "You know nothing about me."
Astrid left the snowmachine. Walking slowly, she reached out with her hand, wanting physical contact with him. She needed it, and something told her he did, too. "I've been inside you, Zarek. I know what no one else does."
"So what? Is that supposed to make me all warm and cuddly for you? Look, the little princess stole into my dreams to save me. Ooo, I'm so touched. Should I cry now?"
She grabbed his arm.
His muscles, like him, were tense and hard. Fierce. "Stop it!"
She reached up to touch his ice-cold cheeks with both of her hands. They were chafed from the ride, and yet they still managed to warm her icy fingers.
Half-expecting him to pull away, she was amazed when he didn't. He stood there like a statue. Unmoving. Cold. Inflexible.
Astrid swallowed, wishing for a way to make him understand. Wishing for a way she could reach him so that he would stop being so self-destructive.
Why wouldn't he see the truth?
Zarek couldn't breathe as she cupped his face in her warm hands. She was so beautiful, with tiny sparkling snow-flakes on her eyelashes and blonde hair. He saw the pain on her face, the softness.
She seemed to want to help him and yet he couldn't make himself believe that.
People were always self-serving. All of them.
She was no exception.
And yet, he wanted to believe in her.
He did want to cry.
What had she done to him?
For a brief time in his dreams he had begun to think that maybe he wasn't so bad. That he deserved some kind of happiness.
Gods, he was such a fool.
How could he have been so stupid and trusting? He knew better.
Trust was only a weapon that was used to kill people.
It had no place in his world.
Astrid stroked his cheeks with her thumbs. "I don't want you to die, Zarek."