47. Jax
47
JAX
B rown strands tugged between my fingers…
Icy blues engulfing my very being.
Tracing along her cheeks with my nose, inhaling her sweet, spiced scent…
Flushed skin quivering against the panes of my chest.
Soft lips, a sweet tongue, and the playful nip of teeth…
Even in hibernation, Jolie’s with me. She’s always on my mind. I can always sense her joy, sorrow, and strength, thanks to the mate mark emblazoned on my chest. Every time she dances, the music echoes through her bones, pulsing within my own, just as her heart beats within my chest with its comforting thrum. A metronome I use to measure the months apart.
Thump-thump, thump-thump.
Thump-thump, thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
Thump.
Thump.
I toss and turn.
Waiting.
Silence.
I continue to rock, fighting my deep slumber as I wait for that pounding. That pulse. A melody that’s etched itself between my ribs.
But it doesn’t come.
Something’s wrong.
Dragging myself out of hibernation is always a struggle. I’ve worked extra hard during the winters I can see Jolie, not wanting to do anything to lose more time with her. If that means doubling up my icy workload as I deliver winter up and down the east coast, then so be it.
She’ll always be worth it.
My eyes snap open. Popping up in bed, I bring my palm over my chest, waiting for the steady thud… Even a faint one…
Silence.
I spring out from the covers, padding across the room—
That’s when I see the curls of words woven between frost along my windowsill.
I’m here.
I’m. Here.
Fuck.
No, no, no.
This can’t be happening.
I stagger out of my room, my body adjusting to the drastic movements after sleeping for weeks. When I see her standing before me, I freeze.
“Tempest?” I rasp.
Rich navy locks with a large chunk of silver frame the left side of her glittering porcelain face. Those icy-blue eyes still hold their same shade, only now they shimmer in captivating facets like two aquamarine gems. She’s beautifully ethereal in a way I could never imagine. Wouldn’t dare to. A cream-colored tulle skirt hangs just below her knees with a matching cropped sweater exposing an inch of skin. There are no marks adorning it like mine.
Not yet.
The corner of her mouth lifts, a sharpened canine glinting back at me. “You said you’d always find me, so I figured I’d return the favor.”
I take two weak steps toward her, my feet dragging across the floor, until my forehead rests against hers. Our chests heave in unison, her faint periwinkle lips only a breath away from mine.
“Why?”
Fate stands behind her, and I shoot her the pain I can’t bring myself to show Jolie right now. How many times have I dreamt that she’d be here by my side? Envisioned our life raising young Frosts and dancing among the mortals, building flurries and blizzards and marvelous winters.
“Did I do something wrong?” I knew her time was borrowed. Fate had warned me all those winters ago when I’d sought her out. But I thought she’d have more of it. “When I saved her, you said there was no guarantee she’d become a harbinger. That I might have doomed us both.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Fate says, tone calm and silvery, like she’s talking to a wounded animal. In a way she is. “You were willing to wait forever.”
Jolie grips my chin and directs my gaze back to her. “But I wasn’t.” Her palm sweeps along my cheek, no longer leaving a trail of fire, but my skin still tingles beneath her touch. “I called on Fate, not the other way around.”
“But how are you one of us?” I swallow down the last bitter dregs of fear. She’s mine and she’s here, and that fills me with a joy I don’t deserve. She should still be out there, doing what she loves. “I sacrificed to give you more time. A full life.” Something I’d never gotten the chance at. “The day I found you in that lake, I saw your wishes, your hopes and dreams. I wanted you to have all of them.”
“That’s the problem. Those dreams, those wishes, changed.” Jolie lifts to her tiptoes and nuzzles her nose against mine. “There is no full life for me without you, Jax.” She reaches for my hands and folds them into her own, bringing them to her mate mark. Then her lips brush along my jaw, my cheek, grazing the shell of my ear. Her whisper hums through every part of me. “ This is my full life. Our full life.”
Visions of skating along the city center, sipping frozen cocoa, burying myself within her for hours with nothing but the breeze kissing our skin, all dance through my head. We’ll do it all. And more.
Time is no longer borrowed. It’s as infinite as we are.
“ Ours ,” I repeat.
And though we’ve already claimed each other many seasons ago, the word has never been full of more promise.
More hope.