ON SALE APRIL 2018
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EVEN IN THE wildest hypothetical scenario, Jo wouldn’t have been prepared for the man who met her on the other side of her door.
Snow, even untouched by the Paris skyline that illuminated her bedroom windows, still radiated moonlight. His silver hair swept over an eye, but seemed looser and rougher at the edges. His eyes were sunken, hollow.
This wasn’t their fearless and stoic leader. This was the man in agony she’d seen through the Door months ago—the man she’d forced herself to all but forget. There was clearly no path forward to discovering anything more about him.
No path, until he presented one to her.
“I don’t know why I’m here.” His voice belonged to someone who’d spent hours screaming at the shadows in the corners.
“Come in.” She moved on instinct, an invisible tide that ebbed and flowed between them. If he was the moon, then she was the sea, pulled along by the mysterious aura that he wore like couture.
“I shouldn’t.”
“Why?” It wasn’t a particularly good argument, so his lack of fight when he did surrender was all the more glaring. While she was used to his feet seemingly never touching the ground, the wounded, once-majestic creature now walked with a heaviness of a body robbed of all ethereal grace.
Snow closed the door behind him, leaning against it as if to draw space between them. There wasn’t much, and it pulled her a half-step closer in… what? Fascination? Concern? Sympathy? He was all of it wrapped in the most beautiful enigma she’d ever seen.
“I shouldn’t be here,” he repeated.
“Well, you are, so that’s that,” Jo said as gently as she could through her exasperation. “Snow… What happened?”
“Warning you is pointless.” He pressed his eyes closed and hung his head. “It will do no good. You can’t stop it, none of us can.”
“Stop what?”
“And now, now we must do this.” He shook his head again and the long bangs all but concealed his face. “Why did I come? Telling you will do no—”
Jo summoned magic she didn’t realize she possessed and silenced him with a touch.
It was the most delicate, timid touch she’d ever given. Lighter than a butterfly landing, her fingertips on his cheek. Right first, then left.
He was warm. Warmer than she thought he would be for a man who looked so much like his namesake. Had he been this warm when he’d taken her hand at the Ranger compound all those months ago? Had he been this warm when she’d helped him most of the way back to his room after he’d allowed her to witness his magic?
When he didn’t flinch or pull away, the pads of her fingers made indents in his skin as she pulled his attention forward. Look at me, she wanted to say, let me see you. Her lips were still, voice silent, but everything about her was alive.
Perhaps it was some residual magic that lingered between them from his pulling her into the Society… But this man made her feel something indescribable. Something she’d never felt across universes or realities. In a fake world outside of time, this was real.
It was something she’d been missing all along. Something she longed for. Something that was almost like… a reunion.
“There’s been a wish, hasn’t there?” she whispered.
He nodded and pressed his eyes shut again, as if in pain.
“Tell me.” He’d have to sooner or later and if he did it now, he’d have practice keeping his composure for the rest of the group.
As if reading her mind, Snow took a shuddering breath. Then another, slightly more stable one. And then, he found length in his spine and strength in his shoulders. He rose to his full height and looked down at her. His carriage wasn’t overbearing, nor was it the aloof comportment she’d seen him muster so many times before.
He looked like a stumbled Atlas, finding the will to stand and carry the world on his shoulders once more.
“We are to prevent the loss of life.”
“Wh-what?” Appreciation for him telling her in advance hit Jo like a Mac truck. She would’ve never been able to keep her composure in the briefing room when he broke the news. She could already feel it ripping at the seams of her facial composure. Scenes of wide-spread carnage from the news they’d been watching for nearly a month all flashed before Jo’s eyes in a visceral assault. “It’s too much, this time. It’ll be impossible.”
“We’ll think of something.” He glanced away.
“No, we won’t.” Jo grabbed his hands, taking a full step closer to him. Their hips were almost touching now. “Snow, this isn’t hacking into a mainframe or getting revenge on a mob boss. This is a volcano.”