Chapter 21
DES
Months ago - Athens
Not wanting to risk the chance Darcie changes her mind, I offer up the first café that comes to mind.
After a leisurely walk through the center of Athens, we arrive outside of Tinos.
The family-owned establishment has always been one of my favorites. Lome and I discovered it in the early sixties, back when blending in required far less effort.
We spent years indulging in the homemade meals before our unchanged appearances drew too much attention. Only after the original owners passed did I dare return.
The hostess leads us to the second-story balcony and seats us beside the wooden railing. Our shaded table overlooks the Athenian skyline, the city’s golden glow stretching endlessly, while crowds weave through the streets below.
Our waitress arrives, and we order cups of coffee.
When the mugs are set before us, I notice Darcie doesn’t touch hers. Her hands remain clasped tightly in her lap.
I lower my cup. “Is everything alright?”
“Yes.” She smiles, but her unease lingers between, thick and palpable.
“Are you wondering why you agreed to have a drink with a total stranger?”
Her eyes widen, then she lets out a soft, disbelieving laugh. “Maybe?”
I nod, understanding. Then, reluctantly, I ask, “Do you wish to leave?”
“No!” The answer is immediate, almost panicked.
I can’t stop the grin that pulls at my lips.
“Good.”
She hesitates, biting her lower lip. “Can I ask something, though?”
I gesture for her to continue. “Please.”
“Are you absolutely sure we haven’t met? I…I have the weirdest feeling about you. It’s driving me crazy.”
A familiar ache presses into my chest. I don’t want to lie to her, not completely. “I feel the same way.”
“Really?”
“Really,” I confirm. “It’s why I approached you in the National Garden. I thought you might be someone I’d known.”
“That’s so weird,” she murmurs, more to herself than to me.
“Yes,” I agree softly. “Very strange indeed.”
Her blue eyes study me again, searching, always searching.
“Well… I’m glad I met you. It was nice to have a local tour guide.”
I lift my mug toward her. She mirrors the motion. “To meeting strangers,” I say.
“To new friends,” she replies, clinking her cup gently against mine before taking a cautious sip.
The conversation that follows is easy after that.
Darcie seems to set aside her confusion, choosing instead to enjoy the moment. And I allow myself to do the same.
I shouldn’t.
But I do.
And I learn Darcie is everything I could have imagined my One to be.
Warm. Clever. Kind. Entirely her own person.
There are echoes of the past in her, familiarities that tug at my memories, but none of them compare to the woman sitting across from me now.
It would be so easy to fall in love with her.
Dangerously easy.
I suspect my descent has already begun.
My chin rests on my fist as I lean on the table, engrossed in Darcie’s amusing story about her childhood friend, Kayla, and a disastrously executed prank on her brother, when a faint prickle crawls along the back of my neck.
I stiffen.
It’s subtle. Barely there.
But wrong.
I straighten and let my gaze drift over the balcony, scanning the street below.
People pass by in clusters, laughter and conversation rising with the late-afternoon air. Nothing appears out of place.
And yet…
The sensation lingers. A quiet awareness pressing against my instincts. Like I’m being watched.
I force myself to relax, turning my attention back to Darcie.
“—and it completely backfired,” she finishes, laughing. “Kevin didn’t fall for it for a moment. He just stood there, staring at us like we were idiots.”
I chuckle, though my focus fractures.
Because the feeling doesn’t fade.
If anything… it sharpens.
Low. Persistent.
But I try to ignore it.
Because Darcie smiles at me, her eyes bright, and her guard lowered in a way that feels dangerously rare.
Because for the first time in longer than I care to admit, I feel something close to…peace.
And I am selfish enough to want one more moment of it.
Even as something unseen shifts beyond the edges of my awareness.
Even as the back of my neck continues to burn with warning.