Page 48 of Yearning For Her

She heard the rear door on the driver’s side of the car open and close, and then Kian was there beside her. He swept something over her shoulders, something with comforting weight and warmth, something that smelled wholly of him.

His coat.

It was…incredibly thoughtful of him.

She grasped the coat and pulled it tighter around herself. “Thank you.”

“Of course.” He slipped his arm around Willow, tucking her against his body, and walked her along the footpath. His guidance was welcome, as she couldn’t see a thing in the darkness.

The path was short, but it led to an astounding change in scenery, ending at a hilltop overlook with a low stone wall. The sky stretched out overhead, all shimmering stars and dark patches of cloud, and beneath it sprawled the shallow river valley. Memoree lay at the valley’s heart, its buildings defined more by the countless lights shining from them than their true shapes. A warm, inviting glow blanketed the city, one which wasn’t so apparent from down on the streets.

It all seemed so small from up here. So quiet. So lovely.

Willow took a step forward, away from the security of Kian’s body, and placed her hands atop the stone wall. “This is beautiful.”

He moved to stand beside her. “I hoped you’d like it. I come up here from time to time when I need to…I don’t know, to escape from it all? When I need perspective.”

“Perspective on what?”

Kian glanced at her. Blue light sparked in his eyes before he faced away, looking down at the city. “My place. I live down there, amongst your kind. Spend my days surrounded by mortals. But I’ve always been…apart. I’ve seen this world change, Willow. I’ve watched towns grow and collapse, I’ve seen cities blossom from wilderness, I’ve seen wars ravage once beautiful lands. And yet what did all that mean to me?”

Bending forward, he leaned his arms on the wall and shook his head. “Whenever I felt as though those problems, those worries, were my own, I came to this place—or places like it in other towns. To remind myself that I am apart from it all. That mortals are my prey. My source of food, nothing more. Their wants and needs matter to me only so far as the sustenance I can draw from them.

“And yet I stand here tonight…and I cannot find that detachment.”

Willow stared at him, uncertain of her feelings. His words reminded her anew of just how inhuman he was, not only in appearance, but deep down in his heart. She was prey. She was one of the people that lived beneath him, one of the mortals he would never have thought twice about had fate not intervened.

“Why?” she asked softly.

“I already told you, Willow. You unmade my world. I don’t know how the pieces fit back together, only that they don’t without you.”

“Oh.” Something in her belly fluttered, and she pressed her hands to her middle as though that could stem the sensation.

His fingers, firm but gentle, took hold of her chin, and he guided her to face him. “Whether I asked for it or not, I have that connection now. You are that connection. I didn’t bring you here to make you feel insignificant. I brought you here to share this place with you. To talk. The things I read mentioned that dating is supposed to be about getting to know someone… And I find I very much want to get to know you, Willow.”

Warmth suffused her body. She reached up, grasped his wrist, and pulled his hand down, dropping her gaze as she brushed her fingers over his knuckles and rings. “I…would like to get to know you too.”

“What would you like to know?”

“Well, for starters… How old are you?”

He, too, watched the play of her fingers, a tiny smile curling on his lips. “Let’s say four hundred, give or take a few decades. The beginning of my life was spent in places where time doesn’t flow quite the same as you’re used to, which complicates the calculation.”

Willow snapped her head up and gaped at him. “Wait. You said four hundred?”

Kian narrowed his eyes. “Yes.”

She released his hand and stepped away. “Holy shit, you are old. I mean, I figured you were older, but…but not that old.”

He scoffed and raised his hand, sweeping back his hair. “I’ll have you know that four hundred years is nothing to my kind. Many fae would still dismiss me as a child at my age.”

“I’m only twenty-seven. That’s a blip compared to your lifetime. How does that even work? It’s like…you’re robbing the cradle.”

Kian folded his arms across his chest and leaned his hip against the stone wall. “As far as I’m aware, most fae don’t rob cradles anymore. So unless you mean twenty-seven months instead of years, I hardly see the issue. You’re a mature, consenting adult, aren’t you?”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “It’s still so strange.”

Talk about an age gap.

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