I laughed. “No.”
“Then why are you staring?”
The answer arrived so quickly I didn’t have time to filter it. “Because you’re kind of incredible.”
She froze.
“I mean it.”
Her eyes widened. “Conrad...”
“No, seriously.” I shook my head. “You trapped an ancient monster. You fought him. You broke a compulsion that controlled you for almost two centuries.”
Her gaze dropped to her lap.
“You saved my children.” The words came out rougher than I intended. “You saved me, in more ways than one.”
Silence settled between us. Winnie looked down at our joined hands. Then back at me. I could see tears threatening again. Happy ones this time.
“I love you, too, you know,” I said.
I’d heard those words from her, not directly, but from Bogdan. She loved me, and she needed to know that I felt the same.
She squeezed my hand gently.
“I know things are complicated.”
She laughed quietly. “That’s the understatement of the century. Possibly several centuries.”
“Fair.” I brushed my thumb across the back of her hand. “I don’t know exactly what our future looks like.”
Neither of us said the bigger thing. Immortality. Aging. Time. The enormous shadow waiting in the distance. Not tonight. Tonight wasn’t for fear. Tonight was for surviving. For choosing each other. For being alive.
“I just know I want a future with you,” I said.
A tear tracked down her cheek, but she smiled.
I could actually imagine happiness stretching forward instead of backward. Not replacing what I’d lost, of course. Nothing ever could. Instead, adding to it. Expanding the shape of my life in ways I hadn’t thought were possible anymore.
Winnie squeezed my hand.
I squeezed back.
And neither of us let go.
The carriage was waiting for us outside the pub. I gestured at it dramatically. “Your ride awaits, m’lady.”
Winnie stopped so abruptly that I nearly walked into her. “A carriage?” she asked.
I tried to look casual. “Maybe.”
She turned toward me. Her eyes narrowed. “Conrad Lawrence. You arranged a carriage ride? Don’t you think that’s a little much?”
“I arranged transportation. It was necessary.”
“Transportation.”
“Yes.” I fought a smile.
