LIFE AND DEATH (edythe's pov)

Chapter 18 Mind over matter

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Solar Midnight: Midnight Sun Reimagined (Life and Death, Book I) by beyondthedawn

Books » Twilight Rated: T, English, Supernatural & Romance, Beau S., Edythe C., Words: 224k+, Favs: 59, Follows: 36, Published: Dec 26, 2020 15Chapter 18: MIND OVER MATTER

Insisting upon driving had been a very good idea.

There were all those things, of course, that would be out of the question if he needed to concentrate his human senses on the road-hand-holding, eye-gazing, general joy-radiating. But more than this, the feeling of being filled to the point of bursting with pure light hadn't dimmed at all. I knew how overwhelming it was for me; I wasn't sure how much it would compromise a human system. Much safer to let my inhuman system tend to the road.

The clouds were shifting as the sun set. Every now and then a lance of fading red sunlight would strike my face. I could imagine the terror I would have felt only yesterday to have been exposed in this way. Now it made me want to laugh. I felt filled with laughter, as if the light within me needed that escape.

Curious, I switched on his radio. I was surprised that it was tuned to nothing but static. Then, considering the volume of the engine, I deduced that he didn't bother much with driving music. I twisted the knob until I found a semi-audible station. It was playing Johnny Ace, and I smiled. "Pledging My Love." How apt.

I began to sing along, feeling a little cheesy, but also enjoying the chance to say these words to him. Always and forever, I'll love only you.

He never took his eyes off my face, smiling in what I could now accurately construe as wonder.

"You like fifties music?" he asked when the song ended.

"Music in the fifties was good. Much better than the sixties, or the seventies, ugh!" Though there were certainly excellent outliers, the artists that were played most often on the limited radio options then were not my favorites. I'd never warmed up to disco. "The eighties were bearable."

He pressed his lips together for a moment, his eyes tensing as if something worried him. Quietly, he asked, "Are you ever going to tell me how old you are?"

Ah, he was afraid to distress me. I smiled at him easily. "Does it matter very much?"

He seemed relieved by my light response. "No, but I want to know everything about you."

And then it was my turn to worry. "I wonder if it will upset you."

He hadn't been disgusted by my inhumanity, but would he have a different reaction to the years between us? In many very real ways, I was still seventeen. Would he see it that way?

What had he imagined already? Millennia behind me, gothic castles and Transylvanian accents? Well, none of that was impossible. Carine knew those types.

"Try me," he challenged.

I looked into his eyes, searching their depths for the answers. I sighed. Shouldn't I have developed some courage after the events behind us? But here I was again, terrified to frighten him. Of course, there was no way forward but total honesty.

"I was born in Chicago in 1901," I admitted. I turned my face toward the road ahead so he wouldn't feel scrutinized as he did the mental math, but I couldn't help stealing a look from the corner of my eye. He was artificially composed, and I realized that he was carefully modulating his reactions. He didn't want to appear frightened any more than I wanted to scare him. The more we came to know each other, the more we seemed to mirror each other's feelings. Harmonizing.