“Maybe it would be better to sit out this assignment? I can swap in and cover the rest of winter for you and you can go into early hibernation. Get some extra rest before you’re due for another season.”
“No.” Ice climbs my fists and lower arms, and Aneira’s eyes slide straight to it. Crispin takes her hand.
I’m glad they have each other, but this fucking hurts.
After some steadying breaths, the white retreats, and I wiggle my fingers. “Never had that happen before.”
“This isn’t good for you, Jax.” Her voice is quiet.
“It’s not,” I admit. “But neither is beinghomewithout her. I could still sense her before I even arrived here.” I wave at the icy expanse around us, the collection of towering skyscrapers aglow with white light peering out from each small window. “I know you’re just trying to help, Ani, but…don’t.”
“So you just want to be miserable, brother?” Crispin asks, tilting his head. He may be a lazy motherfucker, but I hate how perceptive he is.
Maybe they’re right. Maybe I should give up. Wait. Figure out how to survive solstice alone.
Maybe that’s what I’ll have to do, but… “I’d rather be miserable and have a shot than give up on everything.”
Aneira swallows any retort and says softly, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I don’t, but we both know that’s not going to stop me.” I swivel away from them, looking toward the spiral drop to Fate’s den. There’s an entrance from each of the harbingers’ cities but it’s rarely used by anyone here outside of our leadership. I’ve never been. “I have to find a way. I’ll plead on my knees if I have to.”
“Just make sure you know what you want before you do anything hasty, Jax.”
“I want her.” I reply, clipping her off before she says anything else. She should understand the importance, especially with her mate by her side. “There has to be a way and I’m going to find it.”
“I hope you do.” She opens her arms, and I can’t fight the pull to hug her. I don’t hold her concerns against her. She just wants to keep me safe. Wasn’t I the one to welcome and comfort her all those winters ago after she’d become so sick that Fate had swept in and brought her here? Now she was comforting me. “Good luck, Jax.”
“I don’t need luck,” I say with a chuckle. “I just need Fate.”
12
JOLIE
My peaceful sleep is assaulted by thetap, tap, tapof drums from BLACKPINK’s “Ice Cream” blaring into my ear.
I jolt up from my covers. Whipping my head to the phone buzzing on my nightstand, my brows drawn tight. It’s 4:30 a.m., as it should be, only that’s not my alarm.
It’s been changed.
I snatch the phone up, and it vibrates in my palm. I turn it off, swiping to my settings and changing it back to Dua Lipa’s “Hotter Than Hell.”
How did that happen?
The question vanishes when my gaze falls to my bedroom window, and my lips part on a sharp inhale. There, in the dew-covered glass, words are scratched into the pane.Tonsof them.
But at the top is a response to my window-written question, big and bold.
YES, TEMPEST.
The answers beneath veer off into different directions. They’re huddled together in clusters, creating little clouds set against a frost-covered sky. I shiver and lift my phone to snap a picture. It’s the proof I need for no one but myself.
This isn’t all in my head.
I rise from the bed, slipping my feet into two puffy swans before shuffling closer. Wrapping my arms around myself, my teeth chatter, the chill increasing with each step forward. “What the fuck?”
My pulse stutters, throat turning to sandpaper as I trace a finger along the thin sheet of frost coating the glass—theinsideof the glass. Jax was in my room.
How many times has he been around when I had no idea? A very large part of me doesn’t want to know.
