Bound by Forever (True Immortality #3) - S. Young Page 0,89

It’s the accepting of the fact that life is imperfect and therefore we should appreciate the beauty in the imperfect things. There is light and dark in all of us, Niamh. Sometimes life causes us to let in a little more dark than we’re comfortable with. But as long as we remember the light exists to chase away the shadows, we’ll be okay.” He glanced at her meaningfully. “The dark is our imperfect natures, but without it, we’d never realize how beautiful the light is. How beautiful it is as it dances with the shadows. I know you’ll be okay. Astra won’t pull you all the way into the darkness, Niamh. I won’t let her. More importantly, you won’t let her.”

Emotion consumed her as she stared at his profile while he drove them onward.

His belief in her was something she never knew she’d needed.

And while it was wonderful and exhilarating … Niamh was afraid to need anything from him.

21

The cabin wasn’t exactly what Niamh was expecting. It was definitely more of a lodge on stilts. It only had one floor, accessed by an exterior staircase. The lodge had a triangular roof and a deck overlooking the somewhat misty pond it was perched above. As ever, the cold didn’t bother her, but she was aware of how much the temperature had dropped at this elevation.

Nature was dark with brown and rusty bracken, but hints of green peeked through, suggesting the season was about to turn. Icy patches of snow could be seen here and there on the forest floor as if it had only snowed a few days before and was still in the process of melting. The air felt fresher, crisper, and clearer up in the mountains, away from the pollution of the city.

“Will it snow while we’re here, do you think?” she’d asked as Kiyo wandered around the lodge, checking things over.

“Possibly.” He seemed distracted.

The lodge was minimally furnished and was a mismatch of cultural ideas with tatami mats and shoji screens but a comfortable-looking old leather sofa on either side of a beaten-up coffee table. There was even a log-burning fire in the middle of the room with a flue that went right up and out of the ceiling. One shoji screen opened into the bathroom and the other to the bedroom.

“One bedroom?” she asked.

“I’ll be in wolf form throughout the night while you’re sleeping.” He dumped his bag on the small kitchen’s only countertop. “You can take the bed during the night. I’ll take it through the day, if that’s okay with you?”

Disappointment niggled at Niamh. She hadn’t realized they wouldn’t be spending any time together, but of course they wouldn’t. This wasn’t a vacation. Yet, she was still reeling from the outpouring of his story during their drive. As much as she (and he) might fight it, she felt closer to him than ever and didn’t want to be far from him.

As if he sensed her feelings of disappointment, Kiyo’s lips twitched. “You can conjure a book or two to entertain you, right?”

Instead of childishly sticking her tongue out at him like she wanted to do, Niamh gave him an imploring look. “Or …”

His expression was wary. “Or?”

“You could let me run with you?”

Kiyo’s chin jerked back in surprise. “Run with me? While I’m a wolf?”

She nodded, feeling like an excited child at the prospect. “When you were describing what it was like, it sounded wonderful. I want to experience it.”

“You’re not a wolf.”

“Intelligent observation, Sherlock.”

At his answering glower, Niamh switched back to imploring. “Please. You know I’m super fast and will more than keep up with you.”

Kiyo seemed lost for words. “I’ve just never … I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t a wolf who wanted to run.”

“It’s safe, isn’t it? It’s not like you lose a sense of who you are when you’re a wolf?”

“No, I’m completely self-aware.”

Niamh snorted incredulously but covered it up with a pretend coughing fit, even though his raised eyebrow said she wasn’t fooling anyone. She threw him a sheepish smile and persisted. “It shouldn’t be a problem, then.” But then something occurred to her. “Oh, goodness, unless it’s, like, an extremely private moment and my asking is unforgivably rude and against all werewolf etiquette?”

He grinned.

God, she loved his smile.

“It’s not private and it’s not rude. You can run with me. But I’m out there as long as the moon is out.”

“I have a lot of stamina.”

Something like sexual avarice flickered across his eyes before he quickly looked away. “I could