There’s no wind. The naked branches on the trees surrounding us are not swaying in the slightest. There’s no howling I swear I heard just seconds ago, and it’s my turn to frown.
“Huh,” I muse to myself. I guess all the sleepless nights are finally catching up to me and I’m losing it. Great.
Blowing out a long breath, I straighten and take Emett’s hand. “Okay, Mr. Toasty, please promise to behave and be careful and forget all the smart-butt words your nana taught you.”
“Don’t worry, Mommy, they won’t know I was raised by the wolves for like ten minutes for sure.”
“So much for forgetting all the smart-butt words,” I grumble. “God help me.”
“You are so silly…”
Emett is still talking. I hear him laughing and words spilling at rapid-fast pace, but I can’t understand a thing because I feel something entirely else.
A chill runs down my spine. The hairs on my back raise as I suck in a sharp breath, because this chill? It has nothing to do with the temperature. This chill is the one I’ve felt only once before, five years ago.
I stop dead in the middle of the snowed-in driveway. The memories of the last time slamming into me all at once and I brace myself. The wind hasn’t whispered into my ear for half a decade, and all these years I went on thinking what I heard back then was a figment of my imagination yet now as I stand here, I know it’s not the case.
Because the whisper brushes against me like a gentle caress, as if we are long-lost friends reconnecting after years apart.
The winds are changing…
SEVERIN
My phone rings in my pocket as I make my way to my car.
Clearly, today’s not my day if all my nightmares decided to claim my attention at once.
The ringing ends and starts anew because there’s no giving up in the Mineav family.
“Fucking hell,” I curse, about to block my mother for the next few days of peace when I hear Anze calling my name.
“Hey, Sava.” I turn my back to see him jogging up to me.
“What’s up?”
“Heard you’re going to see Axe today.” It’s not a question, but I nod anyway. “Good. Tell that fucker to get his shit together. I’m done playing defense.”
And with that, he stalks off past me toward his blacked-out bike. His leather jacket swaying with each move.
I shake my head—that right there is all you need to know about Anze.
Or all wedoknow.
The guy drives his bike and wears that jacket no matter the weather outside. He doesn’t do friendly and doesn’t participate in any bullshit.
Sometimes I’m envious of his ability to be so unabashedly himself, and other times I wonder if it’s another brand and make of the same mask I’m wearing.
But I’ll make sure to pass along his message to Exton word for word, even if it’ll have little effect on my idiot friend.
Something changed—flipped—in him since he was tasked with being a glorified babysitter. I thought he’d kill the poor girl for unwillingly being the one to take him off his beloved ice, but instead, she was the one who tackled his heart.
The funniest part is, he doesn’t even realize it yet, but I’ve seen it as clear as a day in his eyes when I visited them a couple of weeks ago. I may not be a fan of love and all it entails, but it seems to have unlocked something in my friend. Something he’s been burying for too long.
Shit, look at me talking like some Jedi over here when I’m no better. The only difference, I don’t have hearts in my eyes. I’ve lost the ability to form them. But if Electra manages to bring him back to life, I’ll get her much more than what’s in this box on my passenger seat.
I look over to the big box with a red bow and grin. Exton will lose his fucking shit.
The phone starts ringing again, and with a sigh, I finally hit the block button.
