The last thing Talia remembered was thinking that it wasn't so bad to freeze to death. Once your body got used to the cold, you didn't hardly notice it. She felt weightless and sleepy and comfortable.
In fact, as soon as Prince Mikhail assured her that he did not believe she'd broken the treaty, she realized that there was nothing more to worry about. Her people were safe, and her struggle was thankfully over. She could sleep. Perhaps when she woke, she would at last find herself with Oleg and Ora in the land of Alulia. That was the last thought in her head before... she opened her eyes to find herself being boiled alive!
It felt as though she'd been thrust into molten lava, and her skin was melting off. She tried desperately to claw kick and fight her way out, but to no avail. The pain was too much, and everything went black again.
The next time she opened her eyes to find that she had still not reached Alulia, she wanted to scream in frustration. However, she was too weak. All that came out was a faint and broken moan.
"Princess?" Prince Mikhail whispered beside her.
Talia shivered. Waking up brought the feeling of cold back to her, and yet... she should not feel cold at all. Even in the dim light, she could see that they were inside. She was covered in blankets, and the room itself was steamy, as though someone was boiling water in huge copper laundry pots.
Her skin was damp from the humid air and perhaps even her own sweat, but still, the heat did not seem to reach her core. Her insides felt frozen.
Talia turned her head to see Prince Mikhail seated beside her. He wore no shirt at all! Moisture glistened across his chest and toned abdomen, and his hair hung wet down his back.
Talia flinched and jerked away but realized that he held her hand tightly in his own large ones. She looked down to see that he was not only holding her hand but was carefully massaging her fingers and palms. She had not noticed because she could barely feel it at all.
"The old lady said you wouldn't wake for another day," he muttered.
She wanted to ask what had happened to his clothes and why were they both so damp, but in that instant, she remembered the feeling of burning to death in a cauldron of fiery hot water and realized that the reason she couldn't move at that time, was probably due to the fact that he had been holding her.
She raised her free hand and held it to her face, examining it carefully. Her fingers were very red and swollen, but it did not appear that she had any burns.
"You nearly died of cold," Prince Mikhail explained in his low voice. "Your fingers hurt because of the frostbite."
"Frost... bite?" she wondered.
He nodded in response.
"You won't lose them or your toes. The old lady said they'd be numb and hurt for some time," he explained.
"The old lady?" she asked.
"Yes. We're in the village of healers, south of Pirchburg. The old lady gave you treatment," he mumbled.
"Why... why am I... still so c-cold?" she shivered.
"It will take some time for your body to stay warm on its own. I... can help you if you want. If you lay against me... I can... I'm warm," he stumbled over his words and then pressed his lips together.
Talia considered it. He was warm and had always been so. Even his mouth and tongue had heated every part of her body they'd touched. Had she enough warm blood, her cheeks would have flushed at the memory of it.
She should tell him no, of course, berate him for even suggesting such a thing, but she knew how warm that chest would feel against her body, and she wanted it.
She nodded slowly, careful not to meet his eye as she did.
He laid her hand down, gently slid his arm beneath her, and lifted her up from the bed to cradle her against himself.
Talia held very still, even though the moment her body made contact with the warmth of his bare skin, she was almost overcome by the urge to wrap herself completely around him.
"What happened out there?" Prince Mikhail asked in a low voice. You're heavily bruised and--
Talia gasped, startling him into silence. She had suddenly remembered that Ilya had betrayed both of them! Prince Mikhail would have to be told that his most loyal vassal had been plotting against him for some time.
He probably wouldn't believe her. She had never seen him talk to anyone the way he did Ilya. The two seemed more like friends than master and servant, and it was glaringly obvious that Prince Mikhail had no other friends. If he believed what she told him, he would lose the only one he had.
"Ilya lied to me. He said we would visit Ora's grave, and then he made a deal with the rebels. My maid overheard everything he said in the stables. He was going to hand me over to the rebels so that they could force an alliance with Vezda. I tried to escape and go back to Bludston, but they were waiting for me outside of the city and... I'm sorry. I know you probably don't want to believe me about-"
"I believe you," he answered quickly. "I believe that you heard those things from your maid."
Talia swallowed hard and glanced up at him. He was not staring down, but his arms tightened around her.
"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you for saving me back there... and for... for believing me now. I know it isn't easy. I know... that I'm the enemy and-"
"You're not the enemy," he answered quickly. You're not the enemy anymore... but you... never were."
Talia looked up at him questioningly.
"That night... years ago... I knew that you weren't running ahead of my men. You didn't even jump from the tower until we were already in retreat. I was the last one through the gates, and you were behind me. I thought you'd followed me to try and find a chance to kill me, but... but that wasn't it. There were scouts and traps in the woods between Gelt and Dreyva. You knew it. You... stopped me from going until daylight. All of my men died before reaching Dreyva, even General Ivanov... but not me. I owe you my life."
Talia did flush a little at this confession but did not confirm or deny it.
An uncomfortable and tense silence stretched out between the two of them.
"You're... very warm," she said at last and immediately cringed at how lame it sounded.
He moved his hand slowly up her arm and began to massage her shoulder.
When she looked up at him again, she found that he was staring avidly at her, his eyes as unreadable as always, but it was his lips that drew her attention.
She knew how hot they would feel against her skin, and there was a part of her that begged for exactly that.
Slowly, and in an almost trance-like way, she reached up and lightly stroked his bottom lip with one finger.
Prince Mikhail flinched as if she'd burned him. Talia giggled nervously.
"I apologize," Talia said, slightly ashamed. "It's just that your lips are... they're... she paused to find the right word but was never able to finish her thought.
His hand moved from her shoulder to catch her chin and tilt her face as he leaned down and caught her lips with his own.
Talia closed her eyes and opened her mouth immediately to his hot and thrusting tongue. She wanted desperately to put her hands on him, to feel the heat of his skin against her palms and trace her finger across the hard, defined musculature of his chest and stomach.
She did not give in to that desire, but when his own hands fumbled and tore at the blanket that covered her, she helped to pull it away. His burning fingers wrapped around her cold flesh, and she moaned in pleasure at the sensation, pressing against him as if she could somehow get closer to the source of that heat.
The Prince pulled away, and Talia whined in protest, but in the next instant, he was hungrily kissing her neck and then her shoulder. When she felt his hot tongue against her throat she gasped and reached up to wrap her arms around him.
He lifted her up in response and then laid her down gently on the bed, his lips never ceasing their exploration of her skin. She arched her back lightly, inviting him without words to do the shocking thing he had done to her on the field in Bludston and when his mouth finally moved to her breast she cried out and shuddered at the sensation.
His tongue circled her nipple teasingly before he nipped it lightly, causing Talia to jerk at the shock that went through her body.
She wanted more. She wanted to feel his mouth and tongue and hands on every part of her, and somehow she knew it still wouldn't be enough.
"Look at me," he whispered, his voice rough and low. Open your eyes and look at me, Princess."