I entered the throne room to find Ravinder standing by himself with his hands clasped behind his back, staring at the vacant throne. My steps echoed off the spotless floor, but he didn’t move or say anything as I came up to his side.
“How does it feel to be back here?” I asked.
Rav donned his most formal vest today, his appearance unchanged from any regular day except his hair gathered in a bun, and a new piercing in his other nostril. He inhaled deeply. “It feels empty. Broken.”
Our gazes locked, and I knew what he meant. It felt empty to be back here because he had lost his brother and half of the people under his care.
“You’re going to make it whole. The Wind King of Windguard they’ll call you.” I motioned as if reading the title off a placard.
He smiled, the most joy I suspected he’d allow himself to express today.
“He would be happy for you. Radhak dreamed of his people returning home.” I swallowed down my rising grief, but my eyes stung as they welled.
“Yeah, but he’ll never be able to see it.”
“He’ll see it.” I placed my hand on my friend’s shoulder. I didn’t know what I believed about the gods, if they’d been real or if people created legends based on those kernels of magic, but the way everything had played out for us to be standing here made me believe there was at least something out there. Who was to say there wasn’t a celestial place where our loved ones watched over us? Though, I was sure revelry and afterlife affairs would be much more entertaining than watching us fumble our way through life.
“If he does, they will, too.” Rav looked at me, empathy in his eyes over the family we’d never hold in our arms again.
With a contemplative nod, I scoured the room one last time. “You should redecorate. We can talk design over that beer you were going to buy me.”
“Demolish is more like it. I want this place to be unrecognizable.” He folded his muscled bare arms in front of him, the planning already beginning.
“I have every faith in you that it will be.” I left him in his throne room with confidence that Windguard today would be completely different from the Windguard tomorrow. There was no one better suited for the task.
Dae waited on the front steps. I snuck up silently behind him, sliding my hands over his shoulders and placed a kiss upon his cheek. “Are you sure you’re ready to leave this place?”
“Jai is excited. Kaval would have loved to have seen what this place will become.” Dae absentmindedly rubbed his hands together. I placed my palm over his scruffy cheek, pressing my nose and forehead to the side of his face. His grief radiated from him in waves that I’d spent nights holding him to soothe. But these types of hurt took time to heal. We ruminated in silence, processing the traumatic hardships that had been inflicted upon us.
He wrapped his arm around my waist, stroking my ribs with his thumb. “Think we should go feed the horde?” Dae asked, massaging the growing scruff on his face.
I snickered. “Won’t take much.”
We returned to our rented room in Kabash. There was no sum in all of Myelle that could have convinced me to sleep in that castle until Taja’s reign officially ended.
Braxius rushed over to me, fluttering around my head before landing on my shoulder.
“Hey you,” I laughed the words as he nuzzled into my neck.
“What, I don’t get a greeting?” Dae said, crossing his arms with a smile.
“Tell him he’s my second favorite.”
“What about Mira?”
He paused briefly.“Okay, maybe third.”
I giggled. “Are you hungry? Any of you?”
Nine other little dragons zipped around the room, all confirming how hungry and thirsty they were in a cacophonyof replies. When the dark magic receded, it was taken from the dragons as well. They returned to the size they’d been before they’d entered the Black Pool.
In the era before dark magic plagued the land the first time, the Black Pool had been a rite of passage into adulthood. Dragon ceremony, of sorts. Though the Black Pool still remained, Tyberius decided to leave those dark waters undisturbed, meaning the once terrifying horde would remain a tiny little swarm of cuteness.
Even Witches Pass all the way through to Argora Vale showed no signs of the death magic, from recent events or prior. The Cursed Kingdom was no more, returned to a thriving fertile land awaiting those who’ll call it home.
Dae set down the basket of raw meats he’d procured from the market. They attacked their meal. Watching Braxius interact with his old family made my heart smile. He loved all he got to do in the world, being tiny like that. Now, he had a chance to show them what life could be like, away from the confines of the mountain. His tail wagged as he ate.
Dae’s hands slid around my waist from behind. “You know, I think I could eat, too.”
