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“Ready,” I said, determined.
“Then let’s go, grá.”
We walked up the sloping sidewalk together. How many nights did I dream of this place? Falling asleep to the image of the wind tearing through my hair, the sun on my skin, the world beginning and ending at my feet. I used to dream about flying. Taking off with the gulls and swooping low over the rough seas that slammed into the ancient rock cutting through the waves. I used to dream of standing right here, the ache in my heart gone, and now…
Now it was.
I stopped when we reached the top, unable to take another step.
Over the stone wall, the cliffs cut a jagged path through the water below. The waves rocked into the base, spray kissing all the way up the side. There was nothing but ocean and sky before me and a great and terrible drop below me.
In all my life, I had never seen anything like it.
My free hand came to my throat, emotion ripping its way through my chest.
With the sun warm over head, the cry of the gulls, Wolfe slowly snaking his arm around my waist…everything slid into place.
Every beat of my heart.
Every dark and lonely day.
Every joy, every triumph, every bite of pain.
How lucky to exist. To breathe. To endure. To love.
“It’s beautiful,” I rasped. “I thought maybe—maybe it wouldn’t—”
“Feel so big?” Wolfe asked, lips by my ear. “How long have you been dreaming about it?”
“Sometimes it feels like forever.”
We stood against the wall for a while, just staring. There was a smaller sea stack jutting from the water like a blade reaching for the sky.
“I’m so happy you’re here,” I whispered, leaning into him. I wrapped an arm around his waist, bringing him close to me. Wolfe’s lips brushed my temple.
“As am I. It’s been so long since I’ve seen it. Felt the sun.” He tipped his face back to it. “I’ll never forget it.”
Nor would I.
This would flash before my eyes when I took my last breath. It would be the thing I thought about when I laid my head down to sleep once more—only this time I would dream about him, his arm around me, the scent of him tangling with the sea air, the way his eyes turned to amber in the light.
“It’s nice to feel small,” I murmured. “The world feels so big—so loud—so much of the time. It’s…nice, in a way, to realize I’m just a speck of dust in the universe.”
“You could never be a speck of dust, Avery,” Wolfe said, words drifting in the breeze. “You’re the sun.”
I snickered. “Maybe the moon.”
“Whatever you are,” he breathed, looking only at me, “I am forever lost in your spell.”
It didn’t matter that the walkway around us was full of people—full of friends taking pictures, children laughing, gasps of awe, shrieks of terror at the drop—for a moment it was just us, suspended under the sun for one perfect moment.
“Let’s walk,” he said, tipping his head up the path. “There’s more to see.”
We made it all of two steps before a girl stepped into our path. Her hair was dark and braided back from her face. She couldn’t have been more than sixteen. A polaroid camera hung around her neck.
“Um, sorry.” She held out her camera. “I hope you don’t mind, I—I took your picture. I thought you might want it.” She held out a white frame. “It looked too good to miss.”
I stared, vision blurring, as the photo formed. For a horrific moment, I thought he might not show up against the grain, but as the colors formed, there he was. His arm around my shoulders, his cheek pressed to the top of my head. The sea—the world—before us.
