We arrive at Big Meadow Lake just before ten, and the moon is high above us, painting the lake a shimmering silver. Luca pulls into a small parking lot at the trailhead, and Marcus and Ian pull in a moment later. The moment Luca helps me down from the pickup’s high bench seat, I realize it’s not just the moon lighting the meadow, but thousands of glittering wards. They buzz along my skin, stretching to the edge of the meadow and fully encompassing the small, frozen lake.
I look up sharply and catch Ian’s eye through the SUV’s window, feeling hot tears welling, because the wards are unmistakably his. Saints above, he warded an entirelake and meadow for me. It must have taken days.
He dips his head in a nod and gives me a fond smile.
Luca takes my hand and twirls me around before dropping a kiss on my lips. “Surprise, princess.”
“You planned this.”
“Meticulously. We wanted you to feel saf,e and Marcus was right. You need this.”
I bow my head but nod. “I do. It’s just, since the Saint Jasper slayings, I’ve felt doomed, I guess. I worry constantly.”
He nuzzles my nose and touches his forehead to mine. “I know. But no worries tonight, all right?”
“No worries,” I promise.
“Good, now get your skates on. I’ve got circles to skate around you.”
It’s exactly what I threatened the first time we went skating together and that he remembered makes the biting cold around us a little less bitter.
I grin. “I’d like to see you try.”
We grab our skates and take the winding path down to the lake, where we lace up and hit the ice.
The second I take to the lake’s frozen surface, the weight on my shoulders eases, and I take a few experimental glides across the ice. The wind is sharp against my skin, but after a few laps around the lake, chasing after Luca and then him chasing after me, I don’t feel it anymore.
For the first time since term started, I feel alive.
We laugh and we tease as we skate looping figure eights around each other, and when we’ve worn ourselves out, we skate slowly, hand in hand, the only sounds around us the scrape of our skates on the ice and the rustle of wind through the dry meadow grasses surrounding the lake.
It’s beautiful and peaceful, and perfect, until my affinity picks up an emotion from Luca.
He’s… apprehensive.
I come to a quick stop, my skates scraping the ice, and Luca has to flail to stay on his feet.
Dread washes through me and I look around sharply, trying to find out what’s making him so anxious.
“What is it? You’re afraid. Is your ring cold? Did you hear something? Is someone here?”
“Princess,” he groans. “Stop. Nothing is wrong. I’mnervous.”
“Nervous?” I echo.
He skates up to me until we’re toe to toe and takes my mittened hands in his. “Yes, nervous. Nervous as all hell.”
“But why?”
He takes a deep breath, his eyes fluttering shut, and then exhales on a long sigh. When he opens his eyes, they’re startlingly clear in the light of the moon.
“Because I have a question to ask you. Oh saints, I’m definitely going to fuck this up… Juniper, my princess, you’ve enthralled me from the moment I set eyes on you in Quill & Clover, and imagine my luck, when I found you again, outside the omega residences and instead of telling me to get lost, you opened up to me, put your number in my phone, and agreed to see me again. I fell so hard, so quickly. Too quickly. Saints, I wanted to tell you I loved you for weeks before we even kissed.”
My heart stutters in my chest. “You did?”
He bows his head to mine. “I did. I loved you and I was an idiot. I lied to you and I shattered your trust in me, but I hope I’ve built it up again.”
“You know you have. I love you, Luca.”
