Wendigo Wars by Dulcinea Norton-Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

smell made Mathilde feel safe and her mouth watered at the thought of food. They had spent a good hour boarding up the windows and doors so even if any beast did come close they would have quite a job trying to get in.
    “Do you ever think about...you know...having a boyfriend Tilly?”
    It was the first time Seb had spoken since they had settled in front of the fire. Mathilde had been enjoying their companionable silence and the uncomfortable question, which just a week earlier would have meant nothing ominous, now seemed loaded with expectation.
    “I don’t really have time for anything like that,” said Mathilde, staring in the fire to avoid having to look at Seb.
    “Sometimes love just finds you Tilly and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Seb sounded wistful as he spoke and Mathilde couldn’t tell whether he was looking at her or not. “When that happens you don’t have to make time for it; it’s just there, it’s that simple.”
    “I don’t know much about love Seb but I have a feeling it’s anything but simple.” Mathilde wasn’t even in a relationship and already the threat of one seemed complicated and stressful enough to put her off for a lifetime.
    Seb sighed and Mathilde risked a glance at him while he leaned forwards and knelt to stoke the fire. “I think the hare is ready,” he said in a voice which was less happily Seb than usual. Staring at his wide, muscled back Mathilde felt the urge to lean forwards and smooth away the soft blond hairs stuck under his collar but she resisted it. A meaningless, friendly move just a few days ago could now lead onto something far more and Mathilde wasn’t sure that was what she wanted.
    “You will meet Violette soon,” said Mathilde in an attempt to get back to safe ground in the conversation.
    “Yeah,” said Seb sitting back on his chair and smiling warmly, the hare now cooling on the hearth. “Is she like you?”
    Mathilde laughed. “No, nothing like me at all!”
    Seb raised his eyebrows and looked bemused. “She can’t be that different. You’re triplets!”
    “Sometimes I wonder if we even came from the same family. There is a family resemblance I suppose. We have the same coloured hair and eyes. Apart from that though we couldn’t be more different. Violette is more...womanly I guess, and more confident. You’ll like her; she‘s a lot like Amelie. You might like her even more than you like me.” 
    Mathilde smiled casually to show that she was trying to joke but in her mind she hoped for a second that Seb would like Violette in a romantic way then they could get back to being normal. Seb smiled at Mathilde and shook his head, “I don’t think so Tilly. I’m sure I will like her though. She’s your sister after all.”
    Mathilde rolled her eyes but smiled, as Seb split the meat from the now cooled hare between them and started to eat. Chat soon turned into joking, fuelled by full, warm stomachs and Mathilde started to get sleepy as her face was heated by the fire. Soon the hiss, crackle of the flames was all that she could hear and, though she wasn’t inspired to try, she was unable to move her arms or legs at all.
    Mathilde woke with a start. She felt that she had only been asleep for minutes but the fire was now little more than a sputtering pile of embers and Seb was snoring heavily in the chair opposite her. Stretching out the aches in her shoulders and neck from the uncomfortable sleeping position she wondered if the cold was what had woken her but seconds later she heard the panicked whinny of the horses and she shot to her feet.
    “Seb,” she hissed, “wake up.”
    Seb stirred inelegantly and opened his eyes.”Humph?” he grunted, the last threads of the dream world clouding his consciousness.
    “The horses...there’s something wrong.”
    Moments later Seb was on his feet, now wide awake and clutching his sword. They had left the horses in a broken down old house opposite the cottage they were staying in but there