Page 30 of New Beginning

“Keep your coat on,” Mikkel said as they went inside.

Teddy zipped his jacket back up, shoved his hat into his pocket and followed Mikkel into the main room. The Christmas tree was shining, but the real show was outside the glass—a full-blown winter wonderland, with fairy lights wrapped around lakeside trees, millions of tiny, golden fireflies trapped in the dark.

“Fancy a skate?” Mikkel asked, casting a sideways grin.

Teddy squinted out the window. “Is it safe? Is the ice thick enough?”

Mikkel gave him a look that was equal parts teasing and exasperated. “I don’t usually drown my dates.”

“Have you had many dates?”

“Not for centuries.”

Try not to gulp. “And how many did you drown?”

Mikkel hmmed. “Let me think.”

Teddy laughed. “Stop it. Answer.”

“None.”

“In that case, I’d love to go skating.”

Mikkel tugged him over to a door that Teddy could have sworn hadn’t been there a moment ago and led him out into the crisp night air.

Teddy pulled his hat and gloves back on. When they reached the edge of the ice, Mikkel caught Teddy by the waist. Before Teddy could ask where the equipment was, the distinct weight of ice skates materialised on his feet and he might well have fallen if Mikkel hadn’t been holding him.

“So,” Mikkel began smoothly, “can you—”

Teddy didn’t wait. He pushed off, shooting across the mirror-smooth surface like a rocket.

“—skate?” Mikkel called to the empty air.

A beat later, Mikkel’s rich laugh echoed across the ice, followed by the crisp shhh-shhh of blades as he gave chase.

Teddy’s chest bloomed with a dizzying lightness. There were just the two of them in a glowing bubble. Fairy lights were wrapped around every trunk and branch of each tree around the shoreline, their reflections bleeding into the ice below so that every glide of their skates felt as if they were carving through liquid gold.

Mikkel swooped to grab Teddy’s hand. The sudden momentum threw them off balance, spinning them into a gloriously ungraceful wobble. Blades scraped frantically against the ice, carving messy arcs before they finally crashed into a stop—chest to chest, breathless and laughing so hard their breath mingled in white clouds.

“Okay, show-off,” Mikkel panted, his hands still firmly around Teddy’s waist. “You’re actually good.”

“I always wanted to learn when I was a child, but that didn’t happen. So I chose to go to Nottingham University because the city has an ice rink. I had a lot of lessons. But I’ve never skated on a lake.”

Mikkel laced their fingers together, and didn’t let go. They set off again in a lazy, synchronised glide, skating around with nothing but the soft whisper of the wind, the bite of steel on ice, and the silent but unmistakable spark crackling between them.

I love him. Teddy didn’t care what Mikkel was. He didn’t care what he’d done in the past. He was good. He saved me. He’s still saving me.

They skated until Teddy grew tired, then made their way back to the house. It was hard to get his head around the fact that they’d skated inside something that didn’t exist. Teddy hoped he got to do it again.

Back inside with warm clothes cast aside, Mikkel took hold of his hand and didn’t tug him upstairs as Teddy had expected but further into the house down a corridor with no doors. Teddy could hear the sound of running water.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“Somewhere to relax.”

Mikkel pushed open the door and Teddy gasped at the thunderous roar of the waterfall cascading down rocks into a pool. Hanging fairy lights and floating lanterns cast a warm glow across the clear water. Pink orchids hung from the rocky cliffs and overhead hung a starlight sky.

When Teddy turned, Mikkel was in his demon form, dressed in black leather, a vest and tight trousers, and he looked…anxious, unsure, vulnerable. Teddy stepped into his arms without hesitation and Mikkel’s dark wings wrapped around him, his tail coiling around Teddy’s leg.