“Here, you’re shivering,” Ilyas said, tossing a blanket that he procured from gods knew where around my shoulders. Folami tucked it around me, covering as much of me as possible before pressing herself against my side. The warmth of her body bled through the wool, and I moaned slightly at the feeling.
Pins and needles erupted across my skin and extremities as blood began to flow once more.
Lex, hearing my sigh of contentment, pressed himself to my other side, while Ilyas encased me at the back.
Within seconds, I was warm, their body heat and overpouring of love bringing me back from the dead.
“Color is returning to his cheeks,” Folami muttered absently, grasping my chinwith her hand and turning my face both directions. “Are you warm enough? What else do you need?”
“Food, but I can wait on that,” I said quietly, my eyes searching hers for the darkness that took hold after Itanya disappeared.
“Where did you get this blanket from?” Lex asked Ilyas. Ilyas’ rumbling chuckle vibrated my whole body.
“Our little wife has taken to sleeping out here some nights. Thought she should have something to keep her warm.”
I felt Folami blush as she turned her face away from mine.
“It’s where I felt closest to you,” she muttered as I kissed the top of her head.
“How did you survive?” Lex asked, urgency and curiosity burning in his brown eyes. I saw the same questions reflected in Ilyas’ ocean orbs, though Folami avoided my gaze.
Interesting.
I shrugged. “I fell beneath the waves. Heard Finian’s voice again before a hand gripped my ankle and pulled me under. Something about the ocean giving and taking.”
I felt Ilyas tense at my back as Lex settled back into my side.
“The ocean gives just as it takes,” Folami repeated quietly, the rightness of her words resonating.
I frowned. “Yes. How did you know that?”
She shrugged, clearly avoiding the question. “Just something I heard once.” None of us pushed, knowing she’d come to us in her own time, if she did at all.
We sat like that, all four of us tangled together, for hours, basking in the silence and surety that came with each other’s presence. Eventually, the sky began to brighten, the stars winking out as pinks and oranges invaded the sanctity of night.
The sun rose, brilliant and gold, warm and full of hope.
Elyria was broken. Twisted almost beyond recognition but not beyond repair. But the sun would rise each day, and with it, our hope for a better future for us all.
Part Three
FIVE YEARS LATER
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine
The Bondsmith
“Do you have your extra clothes? The new boots Rohak bought you? They’re fur-lined, remember. And the books Faylinn found in the Valley?” Folami asked, constantly running her hands over her daughter’s body and hair, fixing clothing that didn’t need to be straightened and pushing hair from her daughter’s eyes that was already tightly braided back.
“Yes, Mother.” Itanya rolled her sightless eyes at Folami’s antics.
Despite the fact Itanya was now an immortal being beyond the bounds of time and reality, she was still a fifteen-year-old girl, and Folami was still a mother.
I’d let Itanya stay in Alvor with Folami for as long as possible, the two of them filling their days and weeks with activities they could only do during this time of peace directly after the Second Sundering. They’d traveled—Folami took her to the southernmost tip of Elyria to see their ancestral home and spent a few months with Ellowyn and Torin in the Valley—before deciding to ultimately settle in Hestin.
While Rohak and Faylinn had begged Folami and her quad to settle in Vespera with them, the city simply held too many traumatic memories.
Itanya, however, was destined to have no home.
