Page 30 of Winterfall Destiny

"You're back," I whisper, throat thick. "You're really back."

"I'd never leave you, Maeve."

I bite back my thoughts on his stupid move, but we've had that one-sided conversation many times when he lay immobile, apparently hearing everything. Why waste the time and breath on rehashing that? Time will tell whether the decision led to a different person, but at this moment I'm with the Andrei whose love for me shines brighter than ever.

Tiny streaks of burned orange appear in the clouds, and Andrei's grip tightens. His eyes fix on the sky, and he chews his lip.

"Okay?" I ask and rest my head on his shoulder.

"Mixed feelings," he says hoarsely. "The hemia self-preservation makes the sight terrifying enough for me to run back into the house."

"Oh." I look up at him. "Too much?"

Andrei runs the back of his fingers against my cheek. "The last time I witnessed dawn is the day you escaped the Blackwoods. And that fucking hurt."

I tense. So long ago, but so recent. "I understand why you'd think of that right now. I remember the burns."

"I'm staying. Even though I'll see thousands more sunrises, I want to watch the first one with you." His eyes glisten. "Tomorrow, I start the life I wanted. Properly."

The spectre of the First hovers around those words, but I smile, life filling with as much warmth and colour as the dawn gradually creeping across the horizon. As Andrei pulls me closer, the reality of what we're doing hits me.

I remember all those nights we were forced to part abruptly, too lost in ourselves that we missed how close dawn was. After one close call, we always spent our nights at Petrescu—a new day would never matter if Andrei wasn't the one who needed to leave the room.

Never again.

Andrei shivers slightly as his new world greets him with a sky that burns, spreading like a fire as if the horizon were alight with a threat that could roar towards and overwhelm us. Andrei's breathing speeds and I wrap my arms around his waist, hugging him close. He wraps his around me in return and my heart races in unison with his, as what was once impossible and unimaginable grows around us.

"The day chose a spectacular sunrise for you, Andrei," I whisper, voice thickening with tears.

"I can't believe I'm here," he whispers back hoarsely. "You've no idea how often I've imagined this."

No. I never understood until the day in his room, when Andrei showed me pictures Ash sneakily took of me and gave to him. The tears in Andrei's eyes as he shouted in frustration how he could never have all of me because he'd never be with the Maeve who thrives in the sun. The distress that he'd never touch the warm skin of the girl he loves, and see colours that would never appear the same under artificial light.

In that moment, I understood that Andrei loved me more than I ever imagined. And that day, Andrei took my blood, and we took the final step to sealing who we are and always will be. I rub my neck subconsciously. Can we ever safely do that again?

"I always promised we'd find a way for you to daywalk."

"But not this way," he mumbles. "Sorry for not thinking. For hurting you."

I turn Andrei's face to mine, meeting troubled eyes and press my lips to his. "Live in this moment instead. I'd rather hold on to and remember today forever than dwell on the last week."

As dawn gives way to day and the mountains appear, their peaks shrouded by rain-heavy clouds, I'm in tears. Happy tears, relieved tears, disbelieving tears. I try to suppress a sob and Andrei tips my chin.

"Don't cry, Maeve." But his eyes hold tears of his own.

We kiss beneath the new day, clinging to each other, the sunrise forgotten. Andrei's lips move gently over mine, a contrast to the fierce, passionate kiss when he first returned to me. I worried that gentleness couldn't co-exist with this new Andrei, but the guy holding me now spoke the truth about his love not changing.

I'm not fooling myself; his changes involve more than watching the sunrise or walking in the sun with the girl he loves. But for now, in this peaceful, once impossible moment, we're the guy and girl who once hid in the dark and never believed we'd fully step out of that. Our lives changed when we met, but more than we could ever predict, and we've thousands more sunrises to watch together.

The future belongs to us, and we'll create the one we want, not a fate thrust on us.

"You're missing the rest of the sunrise," I whisper against his lips.

He pulls the blanket tighter around us and rests his forehead on mine. "I love you."

"And I love you. Always."

Andrei curls fingers around where I touch his cheek and presses his lips to them. "I've glimpsed dawn many times since we met. Here, now, with you, is a hopeless dream I've had for months."

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