The breath I draw feels heavy.

She’s beautiful. Beautiful and awe-inspiring and strong; I don’t deserve her.

I lurch at the sudden ring of my phone. “Cold As Ice” by Foreigner belts through the room and I rush to the bed to silence it. My former Handler’s smug face fills the screen. I didn’t pick the ringtone—Chill did—and no matter how many times I change it back to something that doesn’t make me want to rip my skin off, he manages to hack my phone and swap it out again.

I answer with a sigh. “Hey, what’s up?”

“I sensed a disturbance in the Force.”

I tuck the phone under my ear and peel back the edge of the curtain. Fleur’s still on the phone. And now I know who with. “Poppy told you, huh?”

“Nah. But they’ve been on for almost an hour, and she keeps putting my calls to voice mail. I only managed to get through once, and all she said before she hung up on me was that I should call you. Trouble in paradise?”

“No.” I carry the phone down the hall, slip inside my office, and close the door. I fall backward onto the couch, an arm slung over my eyes. In the drawn-out silence, with my old roommate’s voice in my ear and the sagging cushions of the ratty old couch folding around me, I can almost imagine I’m back in our dorm room.

“Because you can tell me—”

“There’s nothing to tell,” I grumble. When I open my eyes, Fleur’s lopsided evergreen is right above my head. I sit up and swing my feet over the edge of the couch. “It’s nothing. We’re fine.”

“Got it,” he says quietly. And by the grace of Gaia, he lets it go.

“Where are you anyway? Winter’s almost over. Shouldn’t you be home, in stasis?”

“I’ve got a few days left until Jarek gets here to take over. I’m ready to get home to Poppy. I plan to Netflix and chill with my girl for the rest of the summer.” Poppy—Fleur’s former Handler, the girl Chill swore he couldn’t stand until he was offered the chance to spend eternity with her—is Chill’s Handler now. Chill became a Winter during the battle at the lake, when he was mortally wounded while trying to save me. I passed on the opportunity to take Lyon’s old Winter magic so Chill would survive, and in turn, he saved Poppy by choosing her for his Handler. In a few days, his season will be over and she’ll drag his matter—his soul, magic, and energy—through the ley lines, back to the home they share in Fairbanks, Alaska. After some time in stasis, they’ll have the rest of the year to spend together.