Page 119 of Bring Me Your Midnight

Wolfe turns toward me and extends his hand. “Do you want to see your new home?” I can hear the heaviness in his voice, the weight of my decision wrapping around us both. It’s a good weight, a calming one, binding us together.

I look at the manor, its steep pitched roof reaching toward the heavens. Lanterns cast a soft, warm glow on the stone walland illuminate the climbing vines that crawl along the exterior. Smoke drifts into the clear night sky from a large chimney, and the soft sound of a piano filters out into the cold.

“Yes.” I take his hand in mine, but a shock runs through me, a flash of something I can’t place, and I pull away.

There is a life for you here.

“What did you say?” I ask him, stepping closer.

“I didn’t say anything.” He watches me. “Are you okay?”

“I could have sworn I heard something,” I say. “It was a long day. I guess I’m just tired.”

“Then let’s get you inside.”

Wolfe offers his hand to me once more, and I take it.

I don’t want to lose you.

My grip tightens as an image rushes into my mind: the two of us in this same place, standing in the woods outside the manor on a cold autumn night. He had just shown me his home for the first time, opened his entire life up to me so I could envision something different for myself. And I ran away.

I squeeze my eyes shut as the memory takes hold of my brain and my chest and my heart, digging its roots into me, ensuring I never forget it again.

“I’ve been here before,” I whisper. “With you. Right here. You told me there is a life for me here.”

Wolfe doesn’t say anything, but when I meet his eyes, they’re red. He nods and his jaw tenses. “Yes.”

Then it’s a flood.

A moonflower and a light. Crashing into Wolfe in a field.Missing the rush. Learning dark magic. Going to the western shore over and over, hoping to see the boy who changed everything.

I can hear your heartbeat.

Clutching him in the sea.

Touching him by the fire.

Kissing him on the shore.

I’m overwhelmed, drowning in an ocean of memory, an unfathomable depth of feeling I didn’t know I was capable of. I’m completely shocked by the way my love for him took hold of every part of me, masked itself as an impossible choice when the truth was that I could only ever choose him.

From that very first night, my fate was sealed.

Queen of the dark.

I rush to him, crashing into him with my whole body, squeezing him with all my might. Tears run down my face, and I close my eyes and press my lips to his ear. “I remember.”

His body shakes as he takes a breath, so strong it’s as if it’s the first time his lungs have ever met the air, breathing in the life he almost lost.

“I remember,” I say again, my voice louder, making sure he hears it. Making sure he trusts it. Making sure he knows.

“I missed you.” His words are quiet and rough and beautiful.

I kiss his neck and jaw before finding his lips, already wet with saltwater tears. His movements are slow and hesitant, as if he’s ensuring that I’m real, ensuring that I won’t disappear as soon as he lets his guard down.

“I’m here,” I whisper against his lips.

I feel the moment his walls crumble between us, crashing to the earth.

---