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I stretched out my legs so our ankles rubbed together. “I think I can follow the rules for that long.”

Shallow wrinkles of amusement formed at the corners of his eyes, and I turned back to continue watching the world outside. Train rides were like frustrating little marvels, especially if the route was beautiful. You’d catch a glimpse of something lining up perfectly, of nature or a part of a city showing you something special, like a dancer spinning en pointe, but it would be gone before you could hope to catch it on camera.

I watched those sights tease my photographer’s instinct, my focus especially narrowed after the long trip. I saw Auris get up out of the corner of my eye, then watched as he moved the bag from the seat next to me to the one he’d occupied so he could sit on my right.

“You know, Ethan, it harms my self-confidence, this preference of yours to gaze at the outside when you have a perfectly dressed vampire right here with you.”

I pointed. “Well, we’re a continent away. I want to see where we are.”

“Hmm. I think you’ll find even more to see where we’re going.”

I nodded. “Yes. This was all really easy. Traveling here.” My gaze had wandered back to the view outside, where a bank of fog clung to bony tree branches against the backdrop of a milky sky.

Auris put a hand on my knee and squeezed lightly. “I told you it would be. A lesser man might take your surprise as a blow to his confidence. Another blow to his confidence.”

I turned and looked at him, his daylight-silvered eyes and faerie prince features a sharp contrast to the wintry landscape outside. “You mean a lesser vampire. But I don’t even mean it like that. With the pandemic, I just thought getting a flight would be harder. I thought you’d have to use your vampire entrancement thing to get some important businessperson or politician to give us their tickets. The private plane threw me. Also, you’re pretty, and I do look at you. I’m doing it now. No blows to your confidence from me.”

He shrugged. “It helped that you had your passport on you, especially since modern technology is ever encroaching on travel. The restrictions only add to that. Listen, while I know you are the visual type, you should try to sleep a little. You look tired after the flight. I’ll let you look at me to excess once we arrive in Prague.”

I sighed. “It’s just a little jet lag. How long until we get there?”

“Slightly more than two hours.”

Birds, crows or ravens, zigzagging through the sky pulled my gaze back to the window like a kite being guided on its line. “Is there… I mean, we’re crossing another border, right? It’s daytime. Is that going to be a problem?”

He folded up the armrest that separated our seats, hooked his arm around me, and then drew me close to him. “It won’t be. We’re in Europe—there’s a very good chance no one even wants to check our papers. You can rest your eyes for a little while, my sweet.”

I sighed and relaxed into him, but I couldn’t quite let go of the day. “Where are we staying? Once we get to Prague, I mean.”

“I own a building in the Old Town, and I keep an apartment there ready for personal use.”

I turned my head so I was more comfortable, his black suit soft against my cheek. “Of course you do.”

Auris ran a finger through my hair. “I hope you’ll like it. It’s been a while since I visited. You’ll definitely like the Old Town, that much I’m certain of. There are no abandoned places in the city, but I can find you lonely places, and places that aren’t lonely but are a feast for the eyes. The age of the city might lure you better than even I could.”

I craned my neck so I could look up at him. “You really thought about that, huh?”

“Of course.” Some shadow passed over the part of his face I could see above the mask, but he smoothed his expression out quickly.

“What?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. I wondered whether people could read him or whether his vampire don’t-notice-me magic made that difficult. Then I wondered whether he was just unguarded around me or whether I truly had a knack for interpreting his features, and if the latter, was that because of this love prophecy I still couldn’t bring myself to fully believe in?

“Little worries, Ethan.”

“Tell me?”

He sighed, then closed his eyes for a moment before he spoke again. “I took you away. From your home, your family, your life. I care about you greatly, so I worry about whether you’ll thank me for that, down the line. Leaving a life behind like you did isn’t a small thing.”

I nodded but didn’t respond beyond that. Auris hadn’t been fishing for a response or for absolution, he’d just been frank with me.

Instead, I moved so that I was still comfortable but also able to see some of the landscape outside the window, my back against his chest, his slowly beating heart sending vibrations along my ribs and spine.

Back in my apartment, I kept several collages. Photos of my dad and Don, his now fiancé; photos of my mom. I had my friends and my life on there, in no order that made sense to anyone but me. In a kitchen cabinet, there was a mug I loved. It had sat on my desk next to me for countless hours while I worked. It was black on the outside with yellow cat eyes and whiskers, and white on the inside. It had been so well used that the glaze was beginning to show spiderweb cracks.

As I sat there in a first-class seat next to the vampire I’d saved from certain death, I slowly, slowly realized that those things were… if not gone, then at least no longer the steady mooring that they had been. I wasn’t going back to that apartment or to my studio with the exposed brick and threadbare carpet anytime soon. Likely never. The things that had filled my past and surrounded me—some of them to my chagrin during lockdown—were gone from my future. But there was a slice of blue cutting through the gray morning sky. I felt like a kite released to the wind.

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