I am and I will be
Always where my love is
Finally, Sarah was asleep, tucked inside Sean’s sleeping bag. The only two left awake, Niall allowed himself to kiss Winter’s soft lips. It seemed so incongruous, so reckless, to be kissing when the world was crumbling around them. There was never time, never enough solitude, to do anything more than steal a few moments together and wrap their arms around each other, before they’d be interrupted.
What are the chances of meeting the love of your life when you’re about to die? Niall wondered.
Winter was the most vulnerable in the group. As the daughter of a water Elemental and a human, her only real power was turning into a seal at will. She was not a fighter, and Niall was worried sick about her. He’d tried to convince her not to go with them on what seemed like a truly suicidal journey, but she’d refused. She couldn’t bear to be away from him.
Niall Flynn was the heir of the Irish Flynn family. He was a shape-shifter and master of a powerful song that could control the weather and even kill living creatures. All Secret heirs were trained to fight – but he had never thought, growing up in a windy, wild place in the north-east of Ireland, that one day he’d be somewhere in the heart of Europe trying to save the world as they knew it from annihilation. His family were still in Ireland – his parents in the Flynn homeland of Donegal, and his sisters hiding somewhere in Dublin. Or so he hoped. He had no way of knowing whether they were alive or dead. The voices of his little sisters, Cara and Bridin, always filled his dreams.
It was too painful to think of them now. He had to concentrate on what was in front of him, the people he was with and the mission they’d vowed to complete. Because if they failed, there was no hope for anyone, including his family.
“We’re like a bunch of superheroes. X-Men or Avengers,” he whispered in the darkness with his Irish lilt. Niall always found a way to make light of things, even in the darkest of situations. Sean had found it bizarre at first, but he’d grown to rely on Niall’s constant good humour.
Winter laughed. “Absolutely. Nicholas is Magneto. Sarah is Wonder Woman—”
“Can I be Thor? I like the hammer thing.”
Winter placed another kiss on his lips. And then another, and another . . .
They both had a weird feeling like they were dancing at the edge of a cliff. Yes, that was exactly what they were doing. They were all about to fall.
“I wish you could go home,” Niall murmured, suddenly serious. He looked into her eyes, so like his own. They both had eyes grey like the sea in winter. Both of them were “of the water”, like she’d said when they first met.
“Home is with you,” she murmured, entwining her fingers with his – and in spite of the danger, in spite of the fear, a wave of happiness swept over them both.