Kiem just shut his eyes and drank in the feeling of Jainan close to him.

It lasted only short seconds. Jainan let go and said, “We’ll need to set up the tent. At least we saved the heating canisters.”

“R-right,” Kiem said. He resisted the urge to wrap his arms around himself again and forced himself to think. “Right. Okay. Maybe not here. Let’s get a bit farther.”

“Will it come back?” Jainan said. He picked up the backpack—Kiem hadn’t noticed him shed it to fight—and hovered by Kiem’s side.

He was obviously waiting for Kiem to get his shit together and actually start walking, however much Kiem’s whole body ached. Jainan had just fought off a bear. Kiem was only cold. “Shouldn’t,” Kiem said, finally clearing the lowest bar for effort and putting one foot in front of another. “You scared it off. They only go for prey that doesn’t f-fight back.” He clamped his jaw shut to stop his teeth chattering.

Jainan fell into a tense silence. Kiem stopped himself from talking. He

pretended it was easier to keep walking once he’d started and tried to ignore the way his energy seemed to be seeping away with every step, like his soaked and freezing clothes were bleeding it out of him.

“Here,” Jainan said. Kiem stopped, pulling himself out of something close to a fugue state. He glanced around. They were some distance from any trees, under an overhang at the top of a shallow slope.

“Looks good,” Kiem said. He held out his hands for the backpack. “Let me

—”

“I’ve got it,” Jainan said, already laying out their spartan camping gear. Kiem took the sleeping bags to unpack, but his fingers were numb and clumsy, even when he slipped his hands out of his borrowed gloves. He fumbled a toggle time and time again because his hands were shaking too violently to control.

It slipped out of his hand for the tenth time. “Argh!”

“Are you all right?” Jainan called.

“Yes. F-fine. Ignore me,” Kiem said. He finally tugged the string free on about the eleventh try and straightened up with some relief.

When he looked over his shoulder, Jainan already had the tent up and anchored—about twice as fast as he’d done it the previous evening—and had stowed most of their things inside. He came back around the front and handed Kiem a stim tab, already unwrapped. For all that Jainan hadn’t grown up in this climate, he was remorselessly efficient at getting things done, while Kiem fumbled around here like he had a faulty connection.

Jainan caught his expression. “Is something funny?”

“I was just th-thinking,” Kiem said, “that it’s lucky one of us reacts to danger by actually being competent, rather than f-falling into the nearest river.”

Jainan’s face went blank. “I am sorry if I gave the impression—”