Chapter 183

The boys screen time was cut short as Gus left them with their ragged, scavenged carriage and my cart to fly me near the front of the line where the only actually nice looking carriage rode. He gave a short cattle whistle and the carriage began to make its way to the edge of the caravan, where it could come to a stop without interrupting traffic.

Luckily, the day had been warm enough that I didn't need Gus to unstick my frozen carcass from the saddle. I slid down Moonfall's scales, like a bumpy slide, into Gus's arms.

For the second he held me against his chest, lowering me to the ground, my mental walls which I hadn't been even aware of before he took them down shivered, as though readying to fall the moment he should breathe a word.

Without a thought, I brushed the tip of my nose against his throat, one of the few places not protected by metal.

His breath caught and he stepped away.

"I'll see you later, then?" he said, as though nothing had happened.

"How?"