Page 34 of At The End There Was You

“I’ve never known to be cold, Winter.” He planted about a dozen kisses on her face before pulling her north of the city. “Let’s find you those marshmallows so I can figure out what price you’ve put on your soul.”

“Will you buy it if you can afford it?”

“No. I’ll make sure no one ever can.”

That made Winter entirely too giddy. “How?”

He brought her hand to his lips. “I have my ways.”

Winter let out a gasp when they stood in front of a store with light pink and blue coloured walls and massive glass windows framing a colourful shop lined with shelves and shelves made of sweets. She’d never been a massive indulger of sweets, but she adored their colours and she adored how happy it made others. Besides the dentist. Winter had always thought they never deserved happiness anyway.

She almost but all dragged Azriel inside. Abandoning him at an odd spot as she went to peruse the shelves one after the other, and returning where she’d left him with two paper bags of marshmallows. “For my soul.”

He grabbed them from her and went to pay the cashier with the biggest and widest moustached grin she’d seen. The second the bags returned to Winter’s hands, they were pulled open and a fat marshmallow was stuffed in Azriel’s mouth just as he was about to speak.

She licked her fingers and beamed up at him, waiting for a reaction. “So?”

He swallowed as if he was swallowing medicine. “I’m deeply concerned.”

Winter reached out on her toes and pressed her mouth to his, licking his lips and tasting the sweetness on his tongue. “Sweet.” She pulled back and ate two marshmallows at once, barely breathing, but a sacrifice she was willing to make. She’d had one in the past four years when one of the merchant's children had kindly offered her one. Sweets as many other things that oddly gave people joy, all were forbidden for her after becoming a priestess. She sighed around a mouthful, realising just how many sins she’d committed these past few days.

Something tugged on Winter’s coat and she turned to find a small boy standing beside her, his clothes dirty and torn, his feet barely covered by the scraps of shoes he had on. He put his small hands together and bowed his head to her. “I saw when you got off the train, you’re a priestess. May I be blessed, miss?”

She lowered herself to him. “You may.”

He handed her a small bronze coin. “I don’t have any more to give you to leave a prayer for me at the tree of life, but would you accept this?”

Her throat felt thick as she forced herself to swallow tears back and say, “No need. You save that. I’ll leave a few prayers for you. Where are your parents?”

“By the river. They don’t allow the grown ups to beg inside the city. We snuck in.”

And just like that, Fessas was stripped of all colour in Winter’s eyes.

Azriel crouched down to the little boy’s height and extended him the bag of sweets.

The little boy’s eyes widened beyond belief as he took it from Azriel, and nodded a quick thank you before sprinting off to his friends waiting behind a small alleyway.

“You made his day.”

Azriel frowned at the spot the boy had stood moments ago. “It was just sweets.”

“Not to him.”

“I should call him back and give him money. A jacket. We buy them all a jacket each and some shoes.” He turned to Winter, his face panic stricken, nothing she’d seen before. “Did you see their shoes?”

“What’s it worth?” the old woman behind a tobacco cart nearby said, puffing a few smokes in the air. “We’ll perish in a couple of days, they won’t need them.”

Azriel’s gaze hardened on her and then turned to search for the group of children, but they had vanished from sight. His voice was colder than the sudden wind that blew across Fessas square, “Perhaps the end is for the better. They will never be cold beyond death, never starved or afraid.”

She put a hand on his arm. “Az.”

When he only shook his head, Winter realised that something had faded a little from his eyes. Something like hope and trust. She knew that because she’d seen that look before, and like all the times before, she didn’t know how to help him. Or if she could help him at all. She wanted to—more than anything.

The moment rain had begun pattering on the city’s cobblestone streets, people had hid as if it was rocks pouring on them instead. Except for one person. Azriel stood only a couple feet behind her, holding a large umbrella while Winter let the rain begin soaking her little by little, her hand reaching forward to catch the droplets. She stood there until the rain began to grow heavy.

“You’re wet enough, little sun, come here now,” Azriel called to her.

She was wearing a huge smile when she turned to him, the rain had soaked her hair, letting it mat to her forehead and cheeks. Small droplets of water clung to her lips, nose, to her lashes, some were rolling down her brow, cheeks and neck. “You’re not wet enough.”