Page 40 of Winterfall Destiny

"I wish I could see that future the same way I saw the academy fire. Some clues to when and where we confront Gabriella. Anything."

"Mmm." He twirls a strand of my hair around a finger. "Like how big a pain in the arse Dorian will be because he won't stay away forever."

I chuckle and give him another soft kiss, and my heart speeds with worry over his thoughts on using shadows—partly because he's right.

"Tell me again why we're waiting until night to travel?" grumbles Andrei as he walks into the room.

I startle but not due to his arrival. Andrei isn't wet.

"Because we're keeping your daywalking secret for now, remember?" says Jamie wearily.

But Andrei isn't listening, mind and hearing elsewhere as he darts to the window. "Shit."

On the day that Andrei came back, I thought the First approached me because the First's blood ties Andrei tightly to her. That blood connection misled me then—and now. Andrei wasn't the presence I just sensed in the woods, and his response confirms who.

No.

Oh no.

"Where's Tobias?" I ask in sudden panic and leap from Jamie's lap. "Ash?"

"You feel it too?" asks Andrei, eyes wide.

"Yes. I think the thing is here," I say, breath shortening. "Get together. Now."

The First moves at a speed beyond any vampire, as if travelling the ether but without a blood spell. She's in the lounge with us as the last word leaves my mouth and halts centimetres from Andrei's face.

Their twin hearts thud louder in my ears, and I squeeze my hands together. As Jamie darts from the room to find the others, I fight the shock and fear that could trigger shadows.

But I will not give this creature the satisfaction of seeing it upset me, and I can't allow the First to see the shadows again.

The First looks no different, the girl she is hasn't aged and today dresses in a cute blue dress that skims her knees and brings out her eye colour. My eye colour but for once not my clothes. The short-blonde haired version of me reaches out and strokes Andrei's cheeks with the back of its fingers and I wind myself tighter, ready to intervene if the hand goes to his neck. The creature's smiling, silent, as if a sculptor pleased with the results.

"How lovely to see you breathing," the First says softly.

Andrei's rigid, expressionless, but both the creature and I can sense his trepidation. What if the First's here to take him? My heart couldn't cope.

"I am not, Maeve," says the First, eyes not leaving Andrei's. "He belongs to you, after all."

"Andrei doesn't belong to me," I reply, holding back the terseness. "But he does belong with me."

"Semantics." The creature turns its gaze my way. "But now he'll always be with you, yes?"

The First may look like a teen, but the same imperceptible dark edges and unsettling energy surround it, as if we need any other reason to watch our behaviour around the creature.

Tobias stumbles into the room and halts, Ash in the doorway behind him. The creature glances over but doesn't register their presence.

"Have your friends explained my motivation for allowing you my blood?" the First asks Andrei, and he nods. "In which case you will be with him always, Maeve."

I swallow, ignoring the creature's almost riddle.

"Why are you back?" asks Tobias, snatching those very words from my mouth.

The First pivots to face him. "Because you're leaving."

"Are you offering to house sit?" mutters Ash.

The First's light laugh holds an edge of warning. "No. I've things to do. Decisions to make."

---