“Thank you,” I say to him. “I promise we won’t burn the place down.”
He lets out a low rumble, and his gaze shifts to Severin. It feels a bit wary and unsure. Raelan has become a sort of protector for all four of us girls over the years, and I know he doesn’t trust Severin yet. But eventually, he will.
“Tell Alina hello for me.” I step up to Raelan and place a hand on one of his glossy black scales. He meets my gaze and nods slowly, then turns his eyes to the sky.
It looks like he wants to fly. He probablyalwayswants to fly.
“See you in a few days,” I tell Raelan.
Then I back away, and I lift a hand to shield my eyes from the flying snow as Raelan begins to beat his massive wings. Severin draws a breath as Raelan launches once more into the sky, his black body a slash of ink against the bright winter blue.
We stand there in the cold, watching him become smaller and smaller, until he’s swallowed up by the clouds.
And we’re alone.
Finally.
The world goes very, very quiet.
Snow drifts from the pine trees in slow glittering showers, and for the first time in forever, Severin and I are free. There’s no one else around—no eyes, no whispers, no rules or expectations. No single locked door to keep the world away. It’s just the two of us.
I turn to him, and his gaze is on me.
“How long has he known?” he asks.
“About us?”
Severin nods.
I shrug. “I don’t know. Most of the semester, I guess. My friends know too.”
For a moment, he says nothing, but I feel his surprise through the bond. Then there’s a recalibration, like he’s trying to determine how to move forward from here.
“I know we have to be careful so long as I’m still your student,” I say, reaching out to take his cold hand in mine, “but I don’t want to hide you.”
The sharpness in his gaze softens, and the furrow in his brow smooths out. “You trust them?”
I run my thumb over his knuckles. “I do. I’d never have told them if I didn’t.”
He seems to turn this information over in his mind, then nods once. “Then I’ll trust them too.”
“Thank you.” I lift his hand and kiss his palm, and the bond between us immediately flares with heat. It makes me smile, and I stoop to pick up our bags. “Now come on. Let’s get a fire going. I’m freezing.”
I head toward the cottage, the calf-deep snow crunching under my boots as I walk. Severin falls into step behind me,and when we make it to the door, he reaches around me to open it.
Cold air slips out, along with the lingering scent of woodsmoke, probably from the last time Raelan and Alina were here.
We knock the snow from our boots and step inside. Severin closes the door behind us with a soft click. As we both look around, taking it in, he asks, “What is this place?”
I set the bags down and pull off my boots, leaving them on a mat next to the door. Now in thick socks, I take a few steps into the cottage and peek through a doorway into the sitting room. “Raelan and Alina found this place a few years ago. It was abandoned, and they’ve been fixing it up ever since. It’s their little getaway.” I glance back at Severin, admiring the cut of his jaw and his windswept dark hair. “And it’s ours for the next three days.”
His eyes flick to mine, and a muscle flutters in his jaw.
Three days, completely alone.
“I’ll start a fire,” I say. “Will you put the bags upstairs?”
Severin still remains in the foyer, looking unsure of what to do with himself, but I make myself at home right away, moving into the sitting room and grabbing a few logs from the holder beside the fireplace. I stack them in the hearth, add a bit of kindling, and then call a flame to my palm and blow on it, sending it dancing over the dry wood. After a few flickers, it catches, and I hold both hands up to the warmth.
