Wings of Starlight

by Allison Saft

Winter and the warm seasons were truly meant to be apart, then why did this bridge exist at all?

Without thinking, Clarion turned her face into the crook of Milori’s neck and tried not to notice the way his breath hitched.

He was gazing at her like she was something to marvel at. His expression went soft and unguarded when he noticed her staring back at him, as though he hadn’t expected to be caught but did not mind it overmuch. There was no mistaking the wide-open yearning in his eyes. He had looked at her like this once before, she realized: the very first time she’d crossed into Winter. She wondered exactly how long he had wanted to kiss her—and felt very foolish, indeed, for being so oblivious.

He threaded his fingers in hers, and Clarion did her best not to melt. His touch grounded and thrilled her more than she cared to admit.

“I like you,” she continued breathlessly. “Far, far too much.”

How painful it would be to lose

you. “I meant what I said. I don’t regret a thing. I am glad it happened, but it cannot happen again. Going forward, we should maintain a formal distance between us. Before it becomes too painful.”

“I do not think I’ve been subtle about it, but I feel I should tell you that I like you, too.”

Even after he dropped her hand, his palm still rested steadily on the small of her back.

“I don’t want to leave.” Milori looked as though he had been waiting his entire life for those words. A dam had given way within him, and the emotion burning in his eyes broke over her like a wave. His hands came to rest over hers, his fingers encircling her wrists. She could feel the wild thrum of his heart beneath her touch, the chill of his skin seeping into hers. “Then don’t,” he murmured into the bare space between them.

“Did you know that I saw your star fall?”

“I didn’t know at the time that it was bringing us a new queen. I’d never seen a shooting star before; they fall so quickly. But I caught the exact moment it soared across the sky. I remember feeling so…” He trailed off, his voice softening. A bittersweet smile stole across his face. “I had not felt hope in a long time, but I felt it on that night. I even made a wish.” A wish? One was not supposed to share their wishes, she knew.

“I wished that there could be a different future for me in Pixie Hollow,” he said quietly. “One where I was not bound to the Nightmares. Where maybe our worlds were not so divided.” A beautiful wish.

How beautiful, to see the exact moment he fell in love with her. Perhaps he had always loved her, on some level, ever since that night he allowed himself to hope again. But with darkness encroaching—with her mind floating somewhere beyond her—she could not convince herself she hadn’t imagined it. Surely, she thought, something so lovely had to be a dream.

“Clarion.” He said her name like a plea. “Weighed against your life, they are nothing to me. I would make that trade every time.”

What fools their hearts made of them.

“She’s worth protecting.”