And he wanted it. I could see it in his face. He wanted it so bad. “Erin…” His voice was strained and when his fingers squeezed mine, I could feel the tension running through his body. “I never…” He glanced away for a second, then looked back at me and those green eyes were blazing. “I never met anyone I wanted to be with as much as you.” he said in a rush.

I lit up inside like someone had thrown the Christmas lights switch. Deeper down, the fragile silver wires that Toby had stamped into a crumpled mess at the bottom of my soul unfolded and straightened, almost pretty again. But as I felt myself start to lift, I clamped down hard on the feelings. I knew what was coming next.

“But I can’t be with you.” He said the words as if they tasted bitter. This went against everything he was: he never let anyone stop him doing anything. He never cared about the rules.

But he cared about JD.

I nodded that I understood and went to drop his hand. But he squeezed mine, not letting go. “You promise me something,” he ordered. “Promise me that when we get back, you’ll find some guy who’ll kiss you awake and tell you every day how gorgeous you are. Who’ll hold you tight when the movie gets scary. Who’ll put love notes under your pillow. Who’ll fuck you so hard you can feel it the next day. Who’ll annihilate anyone who tries to hurt you and who will never, ever break your heart. Because you’re a princess and you don’t settle for anything but a fucking prince. Got it?”

I pressed my lips together very, very hard to stop them trembling and managed to nod.

He dropped my hand and I marched off towards the sunset so he couldn’t see the tears filling my eyes. We were nearly at the village. We’d meet up with JD and the others, we’d get back to the US, I’d go back to Vegas….

And I would never, ever, find anyone like Danny again. I knew it like I knew my own name.

It would have been okay if I’d never known he existed. But the universe had tossed us together just long enough for me to be sure. Danny Briggs was the one. And we’d never be together.

Something cracked under my foot and I looked down, thinking it was a stick, but there was just snow. I took another step and there was another crack, this one as loud as a gunshot.

The ground shifted. And as realization hit, my stomach dropped through my feet.

I knew now why the land was so flat, why nothing grew here. There was no soil beneath us, just deep, black water.

We weren’t on a plain, we were on a gigantic frozen lake. And the ice was cracking.