Kerym’s face pinched, and Raine could tell that while he wasn’t a mind reader, he’d seen too much in his expression.
“Sorry,” Raine mumbled, but Kerym shook his head.
“Don’t… Don’t be.” His eyes flew behind his shoulder for a moment, and Raine knew that if his own followed, they’d land on that strange woman—the one with copper hair falling down her back and eyes that never left Kerym’s. “I want to speak of him. I want the world to remember him. I… I need to remember him.”
Throat still clogged, Raine nodded. “As we always shall.”
A pair of amber eyes shot their way—thankfully not the ones that made Raine’s knees weak—and Elessia slowed her steps, Merrick following like the shadow he was.
“He was a good male,” she said softly. “I’ll never be able to repay that debt, but… if there is ever anything I can do for you, Kerym… I will. I swear it.”
Merrick seemed to be debating whether to kiss her or scold her for promising favors like that—even if they were for his friend—but Raine was grateful when he settled on pulling her closer and nodding. “He was one of the great ones, Kerym.”
The dark-haired Siphon Twin bowed his head. “Better than me, that’s for sure.”
Raine had to squash the urge to laugh that crept up on him.
Guilt. There was so much guilt in this sad group of people.
Everywhere he looked, guilt created creases between eyebrows, pulled lips downward, and made shoulders rise toward ears.
“Gods, we’re a miserable bunch, aren’t we?” he blurted out.
It was quiet for a second, and he winced at himself, ready to start another silent scolding or perhaps get another slap from the little Rantzier, when Elessia giggled.
Then Frelina’s beautiful laugh followed.
Merrick, who apparently couldn’t fucking help himself whenever Elessia smiled, turned his face away as a chuckle escaped him. Then the witches laughed softly, which somehow managed to make Kerym grin.
It was a ghost of a smile, but it was there. It was real.
Despite their wet surroundings, everything they’d faced and everything they would face, something small, barely a spark, flared in Raine’s chest, andhe wondered for a second if he’d lost his mind—perhaps become entirely crazy.
Raine didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when a small hand touched his left arm, and he couldn’t stop himself from looking down. A jolt shook him when Frelina’s eyes locked with his.
Why not both? We really are a miserable bunch. Why not be crazy too?
That did it.
Raine threw his head back and laughed so hard that drops of water found their way down his throat, and he had to cover his mouth when they turned the laugh into a coughing fit, forcing him to wheeze to get any air into his lungs.
Apparently, the others found it hilarious because the laughter continued the entire time they climbed the steep, slippery steps to the large house looking out over the sea atop the high cliff.
Its stone walls were also darkened by soot, the roof charred and burned off in places, with several of the large windows missing the glass that must have once protected those living there from the harsh wind that always wrapped Korina.
The laughter faded only when two rows of guards forced them to walk one by one the final steps leading to the large double doors, one line made up by Loche’s men, still wearing those masks, and one made up by Vastala Fae, clad in their usual dark green uniforms as they glared at the humans before them.
Raine shared Merrick’s sentiment when the latter bared his teeth at the Fae, making two of them stumble back before Elessia shoved at him to stop. For some reason, Raine pulled Frelina up two steps so she walkedahead of him, his hand twitching to keep hold of those swinging by her sides.
You like her.Kerym’s thought burrowed through the walls Raine had put up.
The protection around his mind was weak—he usually allowed his friends in whenever they wanted, as the silent conversations were often entertaining—but it still left unease peppering his skin.
Yeah, I know I am an idiot.No point in lying to Kerym, not when he’d sense it in Raine’s thoughts.
No.A sweep of energy—of pain and guilt and protectiveness and whatever he felt for the small half-Fae walking over the threshold—left him, and he knew Kerym had siphoned it.
Wow, your senses are so clear.Kerym’s surprise bounced within Raine’s mind.And you’re not an idiot. At least not for the reasons you think.
