Mates were treasured among my kind. Some immortals went centuries without one, only to suddenly feel the mate mark carved into their flesh. I’d inspected myself weekly for years,combing over every silvery mark marring my body. Waiting. Hoping there was someone out there who was mine.
The day I awoke to my mark, I touched the silvery swirl and closed my eyes, and my nerves jolted through my fingertips as I was transported. When I looked around, though, I was no longer beyond the veil that shielded Nivea from the mortal realm. I thought, perhaps, that they were a fellow Frost who’d headed out early to their harbinger assignment. I scanned the tree line…
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
My mate was nearby.
Could it be one of the Frosts I’d grown up alongside? Maybe even someone I’d been with before, enjoying each other’s company until we were lucky enough for Fate to bless us.
Just as I was about to descend to shift to chase them down, a pair of blue eyes startled me from the other side of a windowpane. It was her.
My mate.
She had long, brown hair, pale-pink lips, and was staring right at me. My chest and chin lifted as I beamed at her through the glass. I’d imagined this moment a hundred different ways over a hundred different seasons, and here we were.
“Hello.” I waved at her, trying to tamp down my excitement so I didn’t look like an idiot.
I held my breath, waiting a few moments while she continued to stare. But then, instead of waving back or saying anything in response, she turned away from the window.
My brows furrowed.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
I swept in through the window quietly, a few stray whorls of white marking the glass. She didn’t notice any of that. She didn’tnotice me. The room began to spin. I clutched my chest and zipped backward, flying out the window as I stared at her, brows furrowed, hands shaking at my sides, flecks of snow flurrying from my palms. Realization began to sink in, but I didn’t want to believe it.
She couldn’t see me because my mate, the one I’d waited my lifetime for, destined to be mine, wasmortal.
The pain of that moment still haunts me, even now, but it doesn’t stop me from coming here whenever I can.
I have to leave soon, refreeze the partially melted rooftop icicles so it looks like I’ve done my job before the others notice I’d wandered off. This has been the steady rotation for over a month, and I still don’t understand how I ended up with a mortal mate. It’s not supposed to be possible.
No one seems to have any answers for me. Part of me wonders if letting me out this season was to stop me from asking more questions. Anytime I’ve tried, I’ve been met with a clipped response, sent off to do another task, or reminded how I am so close to earning enough frost marks to become a Lead Albidus like my fathers.
They took me in as a young Frost, raising me as their own alongside other new Frosts until we were ready to be on our own and serve the mortal world. That’s a large part of what being a Lead Albidus is, helping immortals adjust to their afterlife existence. I want to pay forward what their guidance and kindness did for me. Training the next generation of Frosts, it’s everything I’ve been working toward.
Of course, I’ve been a little distracted, but so far I’ve been good, not missing a chilly mist or leaving a snowflake out of place.
While there aren’t many rules when it comes to being a harbinger, there is one very important creed we must follow: Never interfere with the affairs of mortals.
It doesn’t stop me from envisioning what it would be like to be seen by her. To know her.
Whatever I do, though, I can’t risk banishment from the mortal world. Not when that would cut me off from her. Not when she’s finally within reach.
There’s just one problem…
She doesn’t believe I exist.
3
JOLIE
I’m exhausted.
