I still had visions of that night. I would watch Scarven stab Nox with my dagger, then the moments right before he almost slit his throat. I would see Nox running toward his death as Kieran held me back. I could feel the scratchiness of my throat as I screamed, like claws scraping down the inside.
I looked around the library, my gaze snagging on familiar navy blue at the entrance. Nox leaned against the doorframe with a smile as he watched me. My chest always eased when I saw him. He grounded me in those moments when the memories took over, reminding me that this was real.Hewas real.
We had survived. And we could finally let ourselves behappy. We could let ourselves dream of a future not cloaked by fear or consequences.
But with the light came brief spots of shadows. Not everyone was healing in the same way we were.
“Ready for dinner?” heasked.
I nodded and gathered the children into single-file lines so we could make our way to the dining hall. Tessa led the group while Nox and I took up the rear. “Is Vera coming?” I asked quietly.
He shook his head, and his jaw twitched.
I sighed. We’d tried to get her to eat meals with us, but she preferred to be alone most of the time. Nox was concerned about her.Noneof us knew what Vera was going through. None of the others had been as close to Scarven, had been under his mind control for as long, nor had taken as many lives at his command.
A vast majority of the refugees bonded over their trauma and found ways to help each other through it all. But Vera kept distancing herself. Nox was the only person she felt even remotely comfortable with. I thought something was going on between her and Everett, but he quickly disappeared to complete a task for Nox a couple days after the battle, so I didn’t get the chance to snoop my way to the bottom of things.
I rubbed a hand along Nox’s arm. “Maybe next time,” I said reassuringly. “It only takes one time.”
He gave me a soft smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
Every day, we felt her drifting further and further away. And every day, I saw it weighing on Nox like an anchor. He was afixer. He liked to take what was broken and make it whole again. It was why I thought he loved carving his wooden figurines so much. It was why he offered to take responsibility for me all those months ago instead of letting Clarissa do it, and why he formed an entirerebellionto save the weak and lost.
But he couldn’tfixhis sister, and that was killing him.
Little did I know, my dragon had a plan.
Ten days after we destroyed Scarven’s mansion, Everett returned to the Keep. And he wasn’t alone.
84
Nox
Most of us were leaving the dining hall and making our way to the workshop, like we often did in the evenings. I hadfinallyconvinced Vera to join us for a nightcap. The doors to the entrance hall burst open as we passed, letting in a blast of icy air and flutters of snowflakes onto the rug.
Everett was back.
Laughter echoed down the hall from some ridiculous joke Tessa had just told. Devora leaned further into my side to escape the chill, and I wrapped my arms around her, waiting. Holding her tight enough to hold myself together for what came next.
“Where you been, Ev?” Arowyn called out when his familiar form came into view, silhouetted against the night sky.
Tessa turned around in surprise. “Oh, would you look at that? I didn’t even know he was gone.”
“Tessa,” Kieran sighed, shaking his head.
But when another woman hesitantly stepped out from behind Everett’s broad form, cloaked and travel-worn, everyone came to a halt.
Her blonde-and-gray hair was flecked with snow, her frame even leaner than the last time I’d seen her. And yet her eyes were as sharp and steady as ever.
Vera gasped at my side, and I looked down at her. The air warmed as her gaze burned gold. For the first time since Scarven’s death, I felt that restless energy in her still.
I took a staggering step forward, my chest squeezing. Our mother didn’t speak. She simply crossed the floor with surprising speed and pulled me into her arms. My body shook against her, my head bowed to her shoulder like I was a boy again, not a man who had carried a rebellion on my back.
She pulled away and patted my cheek, tears glistening in her eyes. “Hello again, my son.”
“Welcome home, Mama,” I choked out.
Her gaze trailed over my shoulder, and I turned to see Vera still standing there, arms crossed tight and flames flickering in her eyes. She looked ready to bolt, to vanish into the shadows the way she did when the world pressed too close.
