Page 139 of Winterfall Destiny

“Has using the powers yesterday done this to you?” I drop the flowers onto the small table, pulse racing harder when Andrei doesn’t reply. “You’re not well. I’ll find Tobias.” As I step around where he stands in the doorway, Andrei grabs my arm so hard that I swear in pain.

“Don’t leave me, Maeve.”

“Tell me what’s wrong,” I urge.

Tell me you’re not disappearing again.

“I don’t know.” Andrei splays his fingers across my cheeks. “Stay with me.”

“Always,” I stroke hair from his forehead, and Andrei buries his damp face into my neck, lips pressing against the skin.

My muscles go rigid, ready to fight Andrei off if his teeth pierce my skin, but he’s kissing me again. Slowly, sensually, running his lips and tongue from my neck to my jaw. His fingers touch my waist; they should be ice cold and uncomfortable, but instead he triggers a heat inside me to match them.

Andrei’s shaking doesn’t stop as his lips cross my cheek to reach my mouth again, and he pauses. “What have I done?”

“In town?” I ask, mouth filling with an acidic taste, images of human bodies in the street leaping into my mind.

“The blood. Why would I be different to the others that the First created?” His hot breath strokes my lips. “The blood will kill me.”

“No!” I attempt to move but his arm around me bands tighter. “Wrong. The First created you to protect itself.”

Andrei’s voice becomes a rasp. “Has something happened to the First? Because something’s wrong.”

“I don’t know.” I wipe more rain from his face. “Look at me. You’ll be okay.”

“I love you,” he murmurs. “Don’t let me go.”

“Never. But we need to get help.”

“The others can’t see this,” says Andrei. “They won’t trust me. They’ll think it has power over me.”

“You’re hurting inside yourself, not attacking others. Is this…” I can barely say the words. “Like when you took the First’s blood?”

Andrei shakes his head. “Something else. Like I’m falling.”

“I’m scared for you, Andrei. Please let me find the others.”

He’s looks less himself in this state, but this is my Andrei gazing at me. “I don’t know who I am.”

“You’re Andrei.” I place my hands on his. “Andrei, who I love and who loves me. The First targeted you because it saw a broken person and glued you together with… this. But you are not whatever you contain now.”

“But I am. I’m losing him. Since yesterday… when I attacked.” He squeezes his eyes closed. “Like the energy burned some of who I am away too.”

“Look at me.” I stare into eyes that burn mine. “You are Andrei. The guy who once did everything he could to act like an asshole and push me away. The one I hid in the dark with when you opened up to who you are. Who we are. You’re frustrating and make the stupidest decisions sometimes but you’re too strong for mistakes to break you. Look at your life. What you’ve survived. What we survived.” Every second that passes, I’m on tenterhooks, waiting for blood to seep from him. “Whatever this has done to you will not kill Andrei.”

“I’m not here.” His eyes close again. “I’m not connected anymore.”

Not connected.

“That’s half of the problem. You’re disconnected from us,” I say. “You’ve left me.”

“No. That isn’t true.”

“Don’t you understand? You’re severing the connection you’ve made with us all because that’s what Andrei does when he’s scared. He shuts everybody out. You’ve shut me out through fear.”

“No.” Andrei repeats and kisses my face, pressing his lips to my forehead. “Because I’m cautious.”

Stepping back, I push fingers into my hair. “Because you’re scared!”

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