Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (z-lib.org).mobi

CHAPTER 19
My light kept us warm through the night in the lee of the rock. Sometimes I
dozed off and Mal had to nudge me awake so that I could pull sun across the
dark and starlit stretches of Tsibeya to warm us beneath the furs.
When we emerged the next morning, the sun shone brightly over a world
blanketed in white. This far north, snow was common well into spring, but it was
hard not to feel that the weather was just another part of our bad luck. Mal took
one look at the pristine expanse of the meadow and gave a disgusted shake of his
head. I didn’t have to ask what he was thinking. If the herd had been close by,
any sign they had left would have been covered by the snow. But we would
leave plenty of tracks for anyone else to follow.
Without a word, we shook out the furs and stowed them away. Mal tied his
bow to his pack, and we began the trek across the plateau. It was slow going.
Mal did what he could to disguise our tracks, but it was clear that we were in
serious trouble.
I knew Mal blamed himself for not being able to find the stag, but I didn’t
know how to fix that. Tsibeya felt somehow bigger than it had the previous day.
Or maybe I just felt smaller.
Eventually, the meadow gave way to groves of thin silver birches and dense
clusters of pines, their branches laden with snow. Mal’s pace slowed. He looked
exhausted, dark shadows lingering beneath his blue eyes. On an impulse, I slid
my gloved hand into his. I thought he might pull away, but instead, he squeezed
my fingers. We walked on that way, hand in hand through the late afternoon, the
pine boughs clustered in a canopy high above us as we moved deeper into the
dark heart of the woods.