The Night Children

Chapter 61

"I knew as soon as I told you I was a Parade member that you would be more determined to understand my world. With Miss Andersons inputs and Aaron struggling to keep his mouth shut, it didn't surprise me that you soon realised what I was," he regarded me carefully, his eyes playing tricks in the gathering moonlight, casting his face into blackened speckles. He was beautiful, his golden hair tousled, his lips parted from the cold, wisps of a breath escaping them in the icy wind. But then his lips down casted and he gave me a troubled look, his pupils narrowing. "Why weren't you afraid of me?"

I took him in. I saw the way his shoulders arched back, the way he held himself despite being defeated only a mere few minutes ago. He was careful, his body poised ready to leap at any second however he seemed at ease, his muscles relaxed. But I knew he would be at the ready if anything happened, on his feet in the blink of an eye if there was even the slightest motion around us.

His fingers, gentle but slender. I had called them hunters fingers despite him being the one hunted. For someone roughed with the past, it was hard to register the gentleness of his touch. The way he treated my skin like glass, enough for his fingerprints to barely scathe me in case I broke.

But then there was his eyes. The eyes that I had always wanted to draw, but I self-consciously had. I had drawn the eyes of my wolf, trapped within the golden gaze of danger. Even now I could see the hint of gold melting through his irises in the way that his flecks seemed to act like molten lava in his pupils, matching the golden tinge of his hair.

"I would never be afraid of you," I said breathlessly, searching his face for any reaction. "I wouldn't ever fear you if you told me you were a Parade member or a Forsaken," I gripped his fingers that lay tense in my open palm. He glanced down at them, his expression hard to read. "Because I know you Isaac. I know who you are and I know you would never intentionally hurt me."

His hands slowly encased mine, trapping them in a caring cage of protectives, as if he was protecting a wren from a falcon. "I don't deserve your trust," he said softly, his eyes still on our clasps hands.

I stared at him, my heart fluttering in my chest. I had never seen him so vulnerable, his deceiving smile gone, his eyes reddened and downcast. "You deserve every scrap of trust I have," I ensured him, my voice as soft as the snowflakes that began to gather in his curls. "I could list how many times you've saved me. The vomiting, the warehouse, the bullet, Miss Anderson, the wolves," I paused to take a shaky breath, attempting to control the level of frustration that touched my voice. "I would have died a long time ago without you. I trusted you with my life and you never let me down."

But then he lifted his head, however I wished he hadn't. His eyes were darkened pits of worry and frustration, glassy with a sense of forbidden that I struggled to comprehend. His face was tense but loosened with misery, and his fingers slackened in my grip to fall into the snow. "Aaron nearly killed you Renee. My dream was reality," he whispered, his eyes searching mine. "My darkest nightmare came true, and the worst part was I didn't stop it. I saw the dagger tear through your chest. I saw the blood well from the wound. I saw you die Renee," he shuddered slightly, as if the cold had gotten to him but I was sure it was a combination of something else. "I made a promise to keep you alive, and I broke it."

I shook my head, empathy flooding through me. "Isaac, you were the one who nearly died. Your heart physically stopped beating, I felt your pulse and nothing was there," I reached out with a hand to press it against his chest, right above where his heart was. I felt it thrum against my fingers, jumping slightly as my palm pressed into it. "None of us failed each other. All this time it was us against the world and we won Isaac," I looked into his eyes, watching as a slight flicker of hope sparked beneath them. "We won and both of us lived to see it."