Before Kai, I’d thought Valentine’s Day was a sweet notion, even though I’d never had a boyfriend. But now I could see this day for the evil it was. Okay, maybe evil was too harsh. Cruel was more accurate.
I’d taken a jog that morning through the frosty grass, and then gone to school to face the saccharine hubbub. I still believed in love. I really did. But everything about this day felt so forced and pressurized. Girls were crying because they didn’t get flowergrams from the boys they liked. Veronica was pouting because Jay got her a giant bouquet of pink carnations and baby’s breath, instead of red roses. Two boys asked me out via flowergram and I had to politely turn them down. And then there were the happy couples. The hand holding and eye gazing. The stolen kisses when teachers weren’t looking.
Everywhere I looked was love alongside brokenness.
I was so tense when I got home that I decided to go for another jog to shake it off. Februaries in Georgia were always chilly, but it was brutal this year. My fingers, ears, and nose were freezing. Definitely not helping with the stress and tension factor. I turned for home just as flurries started falling.
We didn’t get much snow. Hardly any, actually. So when we did, it filled me with an almost childish feeling of excitement. I stopped jogging and walked home, grinning stupidly at the falling white flakes, holding out my icicle fingers to catch them.
I was so lost in the beauty of nature that I thought I’d imagined it when I heard a lovely, low, accented voice call my name. I stopped in front of my apartment building, still grinning, and turned. Then held my breath and let the grin fall from my face.
On the other side of the lot, standing next to a black car with the driver’s door open, was Kaidan. We stared without moving or speaking. I didn’t feel cold anymore.
He had on a knitted gray cap and his hair adorably stuck out of the edges and curled upward. His eyes were locked on mine, and even through the falling snow their blueness shone like a beacon to my heart. But I didn’t move toward him. The way he stood there with his hand on the door and a guarded expression—not angry or happy, just cautious—he reminded me of a wild animal. As if I’d stumbled into the path of a majestic stag in the woods. Any false move or sound could startle him away.
“Hi,” I whispered.
“Hi, yourself,” he said quietly.
This was really happening. I swallowed, and my chest shook a little when I breathed.
“I hate Valentine’s Day,” I told him.
The corners of his mouth hinted at a sad grin. “Yeah, it’s shite.”
I grinned a little, too. “Is everything okay?” I asked, wondering for the first time why he was here.
It took him a moment to answer, as our greedy eyes soaked each other in. “I just needed to see that you’re well. And it seems you are.” He gripped the door and I saw it move an inch, which caused a mild flurry of panic in my chest.
Don’t go, yet. Please don’t go.
I stepped to the edge of the sidewalk, still afraid that if I got too close, he’d vanish. But I needed to get close. I needed to tell him about the prophecy and that I’d always love him, even if he continued to deny me forever.
Seeing those eyes made me wonder how I could have ever thought he meant what he said to Kope. Or how I could have thought I could so easily move on. One glimpse at him and I was his all over again. A stab of guilt pained me when I thought about that closet in Australia.
I was halfway across the street, eyelashes fluttering away snowflakes. He was pushing past the door to come to me.
This is all I’d wanted. For him to come to me. Even for a moment. It didn’t matter that I probably looked like a mess from my frozen run, or that he’d spent the last year, and even longer, pushing me away. What mattered was that he was here now. And we could finally fix it all. I could see in his warm eyes that’s what he wanted, too.
And then the most awful, ugly sight dotted the far sky. We both noticed at once and halted. Two whisperers. They weren’t flying low—it seemed they were just passing over on their way somewhere else, but still. We couldn’t take the chance of being seen together.
Kaidan murmured something sharp, stepping back.
Icy fear filled me as I instinctually backed between the parked cars and toward the stairs, my eyes still on Kaidan. His eyes hit mine one last time, his jaw tight.
“Don’t try to follow me. I’m on my way to the airport.”
I nodded and he slid into the car like a shadow. The sleek vehicle pulled away as I shot up the stairs and into my apartment, tremors shaking my frozen body.
Patti was on me in an instant. “Are you okay? Did you see Kaidan? He was here!”
I let her lead me to the couch. The apartment felt so hot compared to outside. My eyes skidded around the walls, expecting whisperers to come flying in at us, but they didn’t. I caught a glimpse of myself in the wall mirror and saw a sheet of light snow melting in my hair. Patti put her warm hands on my cheeks.
“You’re freezing.”