Midnight Eclipse (Paranormal Viking Romance, Completed)

Epilogue: Other Shores

2 months later

The smooth white sand feels unfamiliar beneath my feet. Back home, only harsh cliffs dip into the watery depths. I must say that this is a nice change of pace, as much as I appreciate my native polar shores.

Grabbing a towel, I sit down on the shore and use wrap the fabric around my shoulders. Water run down from my hair onto my forehead and I swipe with my hand to remove the drops. If I were home, on Greenland, plunging into the sea during late summer would soon put me in danger of hypothermia. But here, at Saga's family's summer house by the Baltic Sea, the waves are still at a comfortable temperature for an evening swim.

Yells and laughter come from the shallow waters, where Saga plays tag with her nieces Elvira and Hanna. Unable to keep up with the energetic kids for long, I need to catch my breath for a bit while admiring the surrounding nature, so unfamiliar to my eyes. The tones are much warmer here than at home. The trees fluctuate between soft green and bright yellow while the sea wavers in muted light blue. The cottages dotting the shoreline are picturesque painted in red with white trims. Fluffy white clouds, signaling neither rain nor storms, bob in the calm sky.

We've been in Sweden for a few days already, to visit Saga's family and also pack up her remaining things for Stefan's apartment. Luckily, her ex-fiance is abroad at a conference currently, which is why she found it a perfect time to come here.

So far, I've found nothing about these foreign shores to be truly terrifying, not even the bumpy plane ride. Whale safari tours sway much more than commercial airplanes anyway. And while the city of Stockholm teemed with people, the ability to actually disappear in a crowd kind of appealed to me. Here, no one will tell my mother exactly where I am at all times.

Speaking of my mother... I should probably send her a postcard, or maybe even facetime her. Otherwise, she may contact Interpol to research my whereabouts.

An email may suffice. Then she knows I'm well in current time, but I won't have to dodge annoying questions.

I do look forward to returning home eventually though. I will show my parents, Ina, and other relatives all our photographs from the trip. And then, my and Saga's life together will start for real. While the summer has been a whirlwind of romance the fall is promising to be a cozy haven of domestic bliss. While I continue to run whale safari tours, Saga is set to start a part-time job teaching programming at Nuuk's community college. The rest of her time she will spend assisting me in setting up a digital project about Greenland's past and present. Using my paintings as the backdrop, users will get to follow a polar bear called Björn through the last 600 years of the island's history. I bring the art, Saga brings the technical skills, and the island brings the history.

A splash of water disrupts my thoughts. "Are you cold?" Saga asks as she appears from the waters, her lime-colored bikini with a palm frond pattern hugging her body in a way that makes my mind wander into naughty territory. Considering her nieces are nearby, such urges need to wait until later though.

I evade the maneuver by moving backward toward the grass that surrounds the sand. "No," I lie, trying to hide the fact my teeth are chattering. The treacherous winds of August are chilling my still-damp skin."I'm from Greenland. I don't freeze."

"Then why are your lips blue?" my girlfriend asks, seeing right through my white lie as she walks closer.. Her warm and salty lips press against mine, heating my body temporarily.

"Just a slight chill," I mumble, pulling her closer for warmth.

"If you say so, tough guy." Saga bops my nose. "I think maybe you're not used to going swimming though."

"Not much swimming back home," I admit, grabbing something in the grass behind me, right where the beach meets the woodlands. Something in a familiar shade wavering between blue and purple has caught my eye.