I lift the cup to mylips as I watch the sun begin to dip over the horizon.
The light is dimming with its deliberate quell, the last golden sun rays beginning to drift away. I sit here with my back against my golden tree, watching the sun lower to sleep. Feel my own magic tingle in response, like a banked fire left to cool for the night.
I breathe in the blue steam from my cup before setting it beside me. Tali, the Orean villager who lives in the home just across the street, always comes out to bring me a cup of the flowery brew each time she sees me come to sit here and soak up the last minutes of the day.
Everything here on the street looks renewed. The golden tree I made when I first visited Bryol is now a sort of landmark, and the ground is cleared and even, with a patch of new grass springing up around the metallic roots. The rest of the road behind me has been smoothed, no longer left in chunks of scorched rubble. Instead, fresh oat-toned bricks have been laid,and they edge behind the tree, lifting up into a short decorative wall that semicircles around it.
This is my favorite spot. I like to sit here in the grass and look out past the flowering plants, toward the view of the rolling meadows that bend against the horizon.
“There you are,” Slade says as he comes walking up.
Smiling, I look over my shoulder as he approaches, and take his offered hand to let him pull me to my feet.
“I just wanted to watch the sun set,” I tell him as my ribbons flick forward, drifting over his arms in flirtatious greeting. One of them curls around to his ass.
“Absolutely shameless,” I say with a shake of my head before tugging it away.
Slade grins and leans down to kiss me.
“Did you and Argo enjoy your flight?” I ask, leaning into his touch as he cups my cheek.
“We did,” he says quietly before he takes my hand. “But I have something I want to show you.”
My brows lift. “What is it?”
He tilts his head. “Come on.”
We turn, and I get the view of the newly built townhouses along the road. They all stand at least two stories tall, with bright colored doors adorning each house.
Except for right here, in this open space, where my parents’ house used to stand. I decided I didn’t want to build over this spot. So we turned it into a garden instead. A notch in the street where my golden tree stands to watch over it. And if you walk through the garden, you’ll see a hundred or so Vulmin charms and pins and buttons left to gleam in tribute.
For my parents. For Wick’s parents. For all those who lived and died in Bryol.
I walk with Slade back to the street, just as the first of the night’s veil begins to drape.
“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” I ask as I look around.
No longer is this place charred and left in piles of wreckage. As soon as the Vulmin heard I wanted to rebuild it, they came in swarms and in trickles. Fae from all over Annwyn arriving to help with might and magic.
In just a couple of months, we’ve managed to rebuild this entire street.
And the village just outside the city’s walls—the Clamor of the Blaze—they were the first to show up, ready to help. Ready to raise their sounds for a fresh start and to finally mute the reign of the Carricks and all it represented.
Starting right here.
As Slade and I walk back toward our own house, we pass by fae and Oreans walking, and they wave and smile at us. This city is no longer just cluttered ruin and painful grief. It’s promise and healing.
I take a deep breath as the first coos of the nightbirds swoop up toward the sky, their shimmering underbellies glinting like stars.
Up ahead, I see Osrik and Rissa walking down the street, hand in hand, and my heart squeezes at the sight of them. They’ve settled in well. I think, because they have each other, they don’t really care about the where.
They’re just happy to be together—though the constant bickering might confuse some, but not me. They’re perfect for each other.
Lu doesn’t have much trouble either, so long as she stays busy. Which she does, because she’s taken on the role of city captain, training new recruits to be Bryol’s guard.
Speaking of guard…
I smile when I spot Digby.
