"Do you want to remember?" she asked.
He was quiet for a long moment. "I'm not sure. What if I was someone terrible? What if forgetting was a kindness?"
"I can't imagine you being terrible."
"Can't you?" His smile was sad. "I have power I don't fully understand. Sometimes I dream of forests darker than mine, of thorns and frozen halls."
The description sent an odd chill through her, it sounded too much like the world she'd just escaped. But many fae lords probably ruled over dark forests. It didn't mean anything.
"Maybe some things are better left forgotten," she said quietly.
"Perhaps." He turned his gaze back to the stars. "Or perhaps forgetting means never learning from what came before."
Silence stretched between them, heavy with questions neither could answer.
When she finally spoke, her voice was soft. "I used to take Ally stargazing. Back when... before. She never had patience for it. Always wanted to be doing something." A smile tugged at her lips. "She'd make up her own constellations. That one was the Great Pickle. That was her math teacher, Mrs. Henderson."
Arion’s laugh was soft and genuine. "The Great Pickle?"
Briar couldn’t help but smile. "It really did look like one. She had this whole story about how it was the guardian of all foods that shouldn't exist. Pickle-flavored candy canes and such."
"Do they exist?"
"Unfortunately." And then she was laughing too, the sound surprising her. When had she last laughed? Really laughed? She couldn’t remember.
He smiled at the sound, and it transformed his face. Made him look younger. Made him look...
The warmth in her chest pulsed. Not the thorns marking her arm, that stayed quiet. This was different. Softer. Recognition without understanding.
"There," he said. "That's better than tears."
"I should probably do less of both. Crying and laughing. Very undignified for a..." She gestured vaguely at herself. "Whatever I am."
"Human," he said firmly. "Marked, perhaps. Claimed, legally. But human. And humans need to feel."
They stayed until the air grew genuinely cold, talking about nothing important. He showed her more constellations. She told him about Ally's terrible jokes. Normal conversation that asked nothing, demanded nothing, just... was.
"We should return," he said finally. "You need sleep. Real sleep, in a bed."
"Can we..." She hesitated. It was such a simple want yet she struggled with the words. "Come back tomorrow?"
"If you'd like."
If she'd like. When had anyone in this place asked what she would like?
Walking back, arm in arm because the stairs were steep and the hour was late, she realized in that moment what she would like. It wasn't to escape, or to go home. Not even to be free.
It was to see stars again with someone kind.
They reached her door, and Arion carefully slipped his arm from hers. An awkward moment stretched between them, too intimate for strangers, too strange for friends.
"Thank you," she said. "For the stars. For... everything."
"You should rest." He shifted his weight, looking like he wanted to say more but couldn't find the words. "Tomorrow we'll search for more answers."
"Of course. Answers." She reached for the door handle, paused. "Arion?"
"Yes?"
