Page 185 of The Frost Touched Queen

“I love you so much, kitten. So fucking much,” he says, holding me tightly.

“I love you too. I always have,” I admit on a strangled sob. “Please, Teo, come north when it’s time. Please.”

He doesn’t answer me and instead, pulls me away just far enough to kiss me.

I taste the saltiness of our tears as our mouths become one.

But all too soon does he break the kiss and take a step back.

“Go, kitten. While I still have the nerve to let you walk away from me. Go!”

“I love you,” I cry out as I rush to the carriage and lock myself in. I bang at the ceiling, my order for this train to start moving west.

I open the small curtain and watch as my taste of paradise begins to slip through my fingers. Anya waves at us, while still crying her eyes out, Cleo holding her close so she doesn’t get trampled by the horses passing her by.

But it’s Teo’s face that I memorize most.

Please, oh heavenly ones, bring him back to me.

Let this not be the last time I see him.

With that prayer in my thoughts and Teo no longer in my view, I sit back into my seat, and hold Inessa’s hand.

“This is the last time we will say goodbye to the people we love, Inessa. The last time.”

First Levi.

And now Anya and Teo.

I don’t think my heart could handle another goodbye.

“Maybe we’ll be too distracted in the west to miss them,” Inessa says, trying to find something positive to say.

“You sound like Anya,” I tease her.

“I wish that were true. I’m not sure what I’m going to do without her. Do you really think she’ll come home?”

I shake my head.

“I didn’t think so either,” Inessa mutters with a sad frown on her face.

“But she’s happy. Take comfort in that, dear friend. Our sister is happy,” I state warmly, squeezing her hand reassuringly.

“She is, isn’t she?” Inessa wipes at her tears. “That’s all we can ever aspire to be. Happy.”

Truer words have never been spoken.

But where does my happiness lie?

Is it in the soft green meadows of the east with Levi?

Or is it in the hidden oasis with Teo?

These questions have yet to be answered.

But right now, my destiny forges me to go neither east nor south.

West is where it lies.

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