Omg this made my heart bleed when I wrote this...
Putting her hand on the iron handle, she pulled one side of the doors open. A blast of cold air hit her in the face before she stepped outside into the courtyard. Standing in the middle next to the fire was a figure. It was a man with his back facing her. His broad shoulders were cloacked by the blue jacket he wore, and the sword on his back gave her a clue as to where he was from. His hood was up concealing the color of his hair, but she already knew. She stopped when the door slammed shut behind her. The sound, though muffled a little by the snow falling around them, drew his attention.
Her heart sped up as the man in front of her slowly turned around. His blue eyes peered out from underneath his hood, making Anna's heart almost stop once again. She knew those eyes intimately as they had stared up at her once before. He did not say anything, only lowered his hood to reveal his white hair. Anna closed her eyes, trying to keep the tears from forming in her eyes.
He was here. Right in front of her after twenty-four years of being without him. She opened her eyes again to see him in the light reflected from the snow around them.
Her son.
Alive and every bit of what she imagined him to be.
Her hands went to her mouth to stop the sobs from coming out, but it was the tears that were let loose. The tears that she kept bottled up for years after she became Matron. The tears she reserved for him alone.
The question was... did he know who she was?
I can just imagine the snow flying around Nero with the fire behind him as Anna is looking at him. Ugh... such a tear jerker moment there.
This excerpt comes from 'Do I Wait For Time to Do What It Does' and won't be published until I finish with the first story in the series.