Two hours later, after the Kelly’s left and I finished cleaning the kitchen and putting away the leftovers, I went back to the window. Cian was wearing a long, dark coat, and he was staring straight ahead, but his eyes seemed too distant. I was willing to bet his thoughts were caught up in a battle between the past and the future.
I could almost hear the falling of the iron petals as they drifted to the sound of the clock ticking in this war. I shivered and grabbed my thick jacket off the peg. Argus and Grania’s heads popped up when I walked outside. They were too busy sniffing around the backyard to stop what they were doing and greet me, though.
I sighed out a warm breath that sent a cloud of smoke from my mouth. Even if Cian had heard me, which I was almost positive he had, he didn’t turn and acknowledge me. His eyes were in the distance, on the setting sun. It broke around the clouds, and it seemed half of the world was still touched by the light, and the other half was already in frozen, solid darkness.
I was going to wait him out, but when I really started to shiver in earnest, my blood started to heat with determination. I wasn’t going to allow whatever he was feeling to come between us. I bent down, rolling the biggest snowball I could, and flung it. It hit his back and exploded, leaving a telltale mark on the dark fabric of his coat.
He became stiffer than he was before. I wondered if he was even breathing. Slowly, he turned around and faced me.
I already had another ice ball prepared. This one was smaller, but I thought it was going to be faster. I stuck my tongue out at him and then whacked him with it. This one hit his thigh. I was a terrible aim, but I was still hitting my target.
My laughter echoed in the air when he blinked at me, like he didn’t understand this game.
I opened my arms. “Let’s see what kind of aimyouhave, O'Callaghan.” I turned around, bending over to scoop up more ice, when I felt something cold and hardwhack!me on the ass.Oh no he didn’t!I felt my behind and…oh yeah, he did. Packing a big one, I turned slowly and said, “Feel my wrath!” I threw it at his balls, but he was too quick. He dodged just in time.
He was much better than me. Every time I’d bend over to make another ice ball, he’d somehow get me on the ass. It was like his favorite target. By the time I started running away from him, my pants were soaked and I was laughing so hard, I was screeching. The dogs were barking. And Keenan and Fiona were shaking their heads at us. They ducked inside when I started throwing balls at them.
I went to run around a tree to get a better hiding spot, but the ground was slick, and I started to go down. Cian grabbed me by the back of the jacket just in time and kept me up, my feet still looking for purchase. Then something must have happened because he went down, but instead of me hitting, he used his body to pad mine. I ended up on top of him.
For the first time since he’d come face to face with Spider and Web, he grinned at me.
I unbuttoned the hood of my coat from the collar, and lifting his head, set it underneath. “There’s my husband,” I breathed. “I’ve missed you, O'Callaghan.”
“I’ve been here.”
“Have you?” I whispered.
Snow started to drift between us, collecting on our faces, on our lashes, in our hair. He reached up a hand and smoothed my hair down, shaking some of the snowflakes loose.
“I’m never far from where you are, Maeve, even when I lose myself to the past for a time.”
“Are you…” I looked away for a second, but he turned my face toward his.
“Talk to me.” His voice was gruff, like his throat was tight from the cold.
“Are you mad at me? Or maybe mad isn’t the right word. After what happened…I just…I feel like it’s my fault you didn’t, maybe, do what you planned with those awful specimens.”
His stormy gray eyes stared into mine for so long, I looked away again. But he didn’t give me much time to collect myself. He turned my face toward his again.
“Never.” He took a breath, and it purled in the air like the smoke from someone’s chimney. “Thosespecimenswere just reminders of what I stand to lose. If this is a story as old as time, Craig’s is tangled in the pages of mine. It’s time for his chapters to end.”
I studied his face, every beautiful bone, the light scar he had on his chin, the color of his eyes. Stormy was perfect to describe the color, but so was wintry. A silver that was only possible in Boston in December. I tucked myself deeper into his body, my arms against me, and his arms wrapped around me even tighter. I inhaled him in the cold, demanding his essence cling to my lungs like icicles clung to the trees.
“Please don’t ever leave me,” I whispered. “You’re my life too.”
He lifted my face and placed a soft kiss on my lips. Sitting up, he stood and helped me to my feet. He picked up my hood and set it on my head. It was crooked, but the wind was too strong to keep it straight. Or maybe it was my hands. They were trembling.
He turned out all the lights in the house, and once we were in our room, he started a warm bath and undressed me. I didn’t want him to leave me alone, so I undressed him too. We sank into the warmth of the water, melting the clutching ice from outside, and we relaxed into each other as he held me against his chest. I turned my face and we kissed.
The kiss progressed, and after he brought me out of the water and dried us both off, he set me on the bed. He moved inside of me like a storm, claiming every inch of me as his, but I couldn’t claim he did any damage. If anything, his storm had brought life to me, just as he said I’d done to him.
His storm of life came in the form of the two babies taking up space in my womb.
The next morning, I was sore and tired, and when I reached out for my husband, what I found was as hard as steel.
A box.
Tears ran down my cheeks when I realized what it was.
