Page 31 of New Beginning

“Still love you,” Teddy whispered and fell backwards, pulling Mikkel into the water with him.

Mikkel came up spluttering. “We could have taken our clothes off first.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Teddy grinned, wiping a wet lock of hair from his eyes as Mikkel stood there in the shallow water, his massive, dark wings dripping behind him.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Mikkel echoed, blinking water from his eyes. His pupils, slit like a viper’s, narrowed affectionately. “You’re a bad boy.”

“Oh, poor giant terrifying lord of darkness,” Teddy teased, wading closer and splashing a small wave directly onto Mikkel’s chest.

Mikkel gasped dramatically, catching Teddy by the waist with one large, clawed hand. “You’re playing with fire, Teddy,” Mikkel growled, though the rumble in his chest sounded far more like a purr than a threat.

“Good thing we’re surrounded by water then,” Teddy laughed, winding his arms around Mikkel’s neck. He didn’t blink at the talons resting gently against his ribs, nor at the slight, sharp point of Mikkel’s fangs catching his lower lip as he smiled.

With a sudden, swift movement, Mikkel scooped Teddy up into his arms, lifting him entirely out of the water. Teddy let out a startled shout, clutching onto his shoulders.

“Since we’re already ruined,” Mikkel murmured, a wicked glint returning to his eyes as his anxiety melted away, “let’s see how high we can splash.”

Before Teddy could protest, Mikkel flared his powerful wings—sending a massive spray of water into the air—and launched them both straight up, hovering above the water.

“Mikkel, don’t you dare! What if it’s not deep enough!”

Mikkel grinned, tucking his wings in, and let them both plunge straight back with a deafening splash.

When they broke the surface again, all their clothes had gone, and both of them were gasping, laughing so hard the sound echoed. Teddy slicked his hair back, his heart hammering against his ribs in the best possible way. Mikkel was floating, his dark wings spread flat across the water like two massive sails, a genuine, unguarded smile lighting up his face.

Teddy swam over, resting his chin on Mikkel’s broad chest, rising and falling with his breath. “Now can you fuck me?”

Mikkel reached up, tracing a wet thumb softly across Teddy’s cheek. “You’re insufferable,” he whispered, his tone brimming with warmth. “Absolute nightmare.”

“And you love it.”

“I really, really do.”

Epilogue

A year later

Teddy hadn’t realised how quiet his life had become until the village taught him how to make noise again. Not the terrible kind. Not the sounds that had once followed him into sleep—the sharp crack of collision, the voices he could never quite forget, the silence afterwards that had seemed to stretch forever.

This was different. A hammer striking wood. A saw. A plane.

Laughter from the lane. Someone shouting his name from an open window because they’d forgotten to return the book he’d lent them.

The market on Saturdays.

Life. A new life and it was perfect.

He stood outside the little workshop Mikkel had made for him with a mug of tea warming his hands and watched Zeon roller blade to the shop. Two children tore past him, one chasing the other with a wooden sword Teddy had made three weeks ago from a scrap of oak.

The younger boy spotted him.

“Teddy! Look!” He swung the sword triumphantly.

Teddy grinned. “You’re holding it upside down.”

The boy stared at it. “Oh.”