ALEK POV
I couldn’t have chosen a better place for our first real date.
Leaning against the SUV, I watched as Amber took in the scenery, her breath curling in the crisp air. The ground was covered in untouched snow, smooth and glistening like powdered glass beneath the pale daylight. A river wound through the trees, its surface impossibly clear, untouched by ice despite the cold. Wisps of steam rose from it, curling and twisting like phantom breath.
Icicles hung from the branches above, catching the light with every shift of the wind, scattering tiny rainbows across the snow. And throughout the clearing, nestled between the towering pines, hovered clusters of glowing orbs—soft spheres of golden light pulsing gently, casting warmth against the frost.
This place hadn’t changed. Eve
