Despite the sweetness of the moment, I know she won’t accept my advances. If I try to make a move, the spell of this instance suspended in time will dissipate. I’m wary, wanting to prolong the magic just a tad longer. Maybe she’s truly the first female who doesn’t find my company agreeable or my physical qualities alluring. As baffling as such a concept seems, it remains a possibility.
So, instead of leaning in and trying to steal the kiss I long to have, I keep my eyes wide shut and revel in the quiet embrace of a girl who is getting under my flawless vampire skin.
Here, in an empty square in the middle of a sleeping city, bathed by the gilded rays of sunlight creeping in over the horizon, I can almost pretend that we’re two lovers lost in the devotion they harbor for each other.
As if the future is not murky and we have all the time in this realm ahead of us.
It’s a beautiful illusion, and I’ll cling to it for as long as she’ll let me.
Chapter 19
Killian
Weemergefromtheshadows on the northern part of the Saunoque Mountains, high in the snow-capped peaks where the temperatures plummet well below zero and blizzards batter the summits day in and day out.
It’s a place where the world stands still, thin and frayed, smothered in a white rage that swallows everything. Here there are no edges, no mercy, no forgiveness.
Here you are insignificant.
Aimee’s teeth chatter under her fur-lined cap, and she hugs her midriff in an attempt to preserve some warmth.
The blizzard blusters all around us, howling winds dredging up the powdery snow in blinding sheets. The frozen cruelty behind each gust feels like a stinging slap against numbing flesh, as if the mountains are punishing us for merely existing, for daring to disturb their icebound solitude.
Little icicles form on her long eyelashes, and her cheeks redden under the cold’s bite.
“Aren’t we going underground? Why in the name of the unholy Gods are we so fucking high in the m-mm-mountains?” she asks as her eyes roam the vast expanse of white nothingness surrounding us.
There’s no shelter as far as the eye can reach.
No respite. No welcome.
Nothing but the endless roar of an unrelenting storm and the suffocating frostiness.
Lesser creatures would cower on this altar of colorless doom.
But I don’t have that luxury.
“This is where your friend said the entrance to the tunnels is,” I answer, loud enough to cover the wrathful winds.
“There’s nothing here but white death,” she wails, throwing her arms in the air before snatching them around her body as if the gelid air personally offended her.
“To the untrained eye, yes. But we’re two of the most powerful creatures in existence, and we’re supposed to uncover this access point to Ereshkygall’s hiding place,” I say as I search the peak for anything amiss in the towering snow.
“All I see is how I’m going to freeze my ass off, all because of the fucking Goddess of Death,” she huffs, and I smile under my breath at her antics.
I can’t help myself but find pissed off Aimee adorable. Like a kitten that mewls in the mirror, trying to be all mighty and imposing.
But she’s no kitten, no.
She’s as fierce as they come. Even when she is terrified, uncertain, or doubting herself.
Even in the middle of an Akaoriforsaken snowstorm, she’s the blinding sun I revolve around.
I curse myself mentally for taking so long to acknowledge this simple fact.
We’re inevitable.
We’ve both made mistakes, and directly or indirectly we both have blood on our hands, but this love?
