Shady

She wrinkled her nose at that, too. “Well, whatever. As long as they kill me first. The order matters.” Was that too dark? She hoped not. But she still hadn’t ...

Ky shivered slightly at that. “At least they won’t eat me.” She’d firmly decided by now she didn’t like the idea of that at all.

Ky laughed at that. She’d never thought of personifying animals into toxic masculinity, but she supposed it fit. The little boy running Wolf Keep was certainly guilty of it. But ...

“Giant…” she furrowed her brows. “I don’t like the sound of that at all.” Marrow Man was friendly. She doubted the same could be said of giant seals.

Ky nodded. “You’ve just gotta intimidate the things in the South. Convince them you’re bigger even if you’re not. Up here…” she wrinkled her nose. “They’re all gigantic and they ...

“Oh.” She was silent for a moment, considering. “You’ve got a bunch of terrible things up here… no offense.”

“No, I was asking,” she murmured. “If wolves and wolverines are different?”

“They’re different from normals wolves?”

“Maybe,” she agreed. “There’s probably bears in the area. Dunno if they can catch them.”

“I don’t think they’ll come near,” Ky said, trying to reassure him. If they hadn’t gotten her last night, she couldn’t imagine they’d try now. Especially with the Marrow Man ...

She shrugged, still not sure that his walls would protect any of them. “Hopefully that will be enough to protect us all.”

“I won’t do it,” she said, knowing what he was asking. “If I die, then they won’t believe you, and will think I’m hiding, and then they’ll torture you and ...

She shrugged, deciding to play it cool. “A snowbank? I think the one from last night got buried.”

She shrugged. She was frozen clear through. “At least there’s a fire here.” She mentally kicked herself for adding the ‘here’ to the end. She shouldn’t have done that.

“Even still.” She shrugged again, glad he wasn’t upset with her. “You’re not responsible for my emotions. I’ll do better. I promise.”