Frost shifts beside me, straightening from the willow bark. His gaze scorches the skin of my cheeks, watching, waiting for more to come… but there was nothing left for me to say without re-dampening the mood and now was the worst of times to choose to be curious, when we’d spent weeks on cautions ledge.

“You know,” He whispered. “I had someone like Milo, someone who seemed like the right choice, the ideal path.”

I watched him through the corner of my eye. “Oh? And what happened to her? What tragic backstory did the fates condemn her with?”

I knew it was bitter of me to project my own less than desired fate onto Frost when he was sharing with me, finally getting vulnerable enough to spill his own secrets, but it was my distnace that would keep saving him and I had to keep it.

Frost went on, unbothered. “He wasn’t what he seemed. Not after our second witness of Bledenium.” He swallowed.

I watched him this time, as he stared ahead gravely. “Your second witness?”

“Yes,” He spoke after a long silence. “He lost someone. Someone very important to him, and he was never the same. Baz was always a… he chased justice and he saught revenge, watching her sacrifice unhinged him. He spiralled.”

“Spiralled?” I asked tightly.

“Baz was willing to do anything to make Kellan pay for what he’d done, even join Azriel.” He shook his head as my breath caught. “And I almost went with him.”

My stomach turned and lurched with horror. Frost, who’d slaughtered a Maron in vain of Azriel and saved my ass countless times from the very man, had almost joined The Cause. There wasn’t a life I could imagine where he lay in Azriel’s servitude, where he didn’t fight tooth and nail from everyone’s biting grips in search for freedom. “You what?” I sneered. “Are you stupid?”

“I was in love, Anala.” He scowled. “Love changes everyone.”

“Love,” I said. “Makes people stupid.”

He paused before bobbing his head, agreeing lowly. “Exactly. But sometimes we fall in love with ideas, not people. And Baz was lost to revenge before I could see through the dangers, he thirsted so badly for Kellan’s blood in return that anything we might have had ran cold.”