“Oh, Noxloveshis parties,” Arowyn drawled to my right.
Devora’s eyebrows inched higher and higher up her forehead, as if she couldn’t possibly believeIcould have fun. I liked a little challenge, and this woman constantly asked for one.
“Arowyn, darling, remember the night last year at the capital when we snuck that bottle of Luxe?” I grinned at the Strider.
Arowyn snorted. “There areyoung mindspresent, Nox.” She nodded toward Everett and Devora, who rolled her eyes.
My stare lingered on her. I sometimes forgot how young she was. Twenty-three—ten years younger than me. Only a couple of years older than my sister.
But there was nothingsisterlyin the way I found my thoughts straying to that smart mouth of hers.
I quickly looked away. A passing Shadow Wielder held out a half-drunk bottle of something that smelled like raspberries, and I snatched it.
“Feel like sharing?” Everett’s deep voice asked behind me.
I held the sweet drink out to him. “After you.”
I hadn’t spent much one-on-one time with the Illusionist since we rescued him from Scarven three years ago. He’d been a wonderful asset ever since then, especially with the children. His illusions and ability to dreamwalk soothed them.
Everett Swift wasn’t a particularly outgoing fellow—mostly stoic and pensive, with occasional spouts of dry humor that had me laughing out loud. But he was compassionate, in his quiet way. When the children had nightmares, he always seemed to know. He was at their side in an instant, drawing on his illusions to craft visions of warmth and comfort in their little minds. He was a natural.
And fiercely determined. Something crouched behind those mismatched gray and green eyes, something desperate and longing. He was the only other one in our Order besides me who knew the pain, loneliness, and despair of those cells. After so many yearsas part of Scarven’s experiments, he had a vendetta. A personal obligation I could see burning inside that closed-off exterior.
I could work with that.
We walked in silence to get away from the busiest area of the square. Arowyn and Devora had ventured to one of the bonfires still in my line of sight. I watched as Thecae introduced her to a couple of people, and she shook their hands with a smile.
People all around were dancing, cloaks and skirts swirling across the ground to so many different tunes that it made it difficult to concentrate. Shadows seeped from their feet and billowed up into the sky. To my left, one man grabbed a large stick and lit it in the nearest bonfire, then slowly lowered the flame down his throat to the cheers of many bystanders. He took a deep breath and let it out, and a cloud of shadows burst from his lips.
“You know,” Everett said, “there was this girl I knew. Down in the cells.” He paused, and I didn’t risk looking at him and ruining this rare moment of openness. “I think she’d like this.”
I hummed, absentmindedly watching as Devora twirled around a campfire. Her body moved like smoke, so natural and carefree. “Were you close?” I asked Everett, forcing my attention back to him.
“You know how it is.” He cleared his throat and took another drink. The movement caused his tunic to shift, revealing the very tip of a black-inked design on his dark chest. “Nothing and nobody last long. We didn’t even tell each other our names. It would’ve made the cells feel too…permanent.” He paused, a far-off expression on his face. “But yeah. We were close. It was…it was real. As real as it could be.”
I nodded in understanding. Down there, you had to keep things at arm’s-length. It was the only way to protect your mind from giving in to the darkness completely.
“I had someone like that,” I offered after a moment. “Her name was Sage. We planned to run off together, after everything.”
“What happened?”
Grabbing the bottle from him, I took a long swig. “We did. Runaway together, that is. But we were caught.” I rolled my neck on my shoulders to look at the sky. “She didn’t make it.”
“I’m sorry, Nox.”
A moment passed, then I asked, “What about your girl?”
At first, I didn’t think he was going to respond. He crossed his arms over his chest, staring into the distant mountains. Finally, he said, “She’s still down there.”
My spine straightened. “What? Why haven’t you said anything? We could try to get her out, Everett.”
He shook his head. “I look for her. Every time we go back. But he must have moved her. I haven’t been able to find her again.” His voice trailed off as he took the bottle and drained it. “I promised her I’d come back for her. We were young, but…I promised.”
We went silent after that. I was sure we were both thinking the same thing—if he hadn’t been able to find her, she was probably gone.
But I knew better than anyone what that kind of hope felt like, and Fates help me if I was going to be the one to take it away from him.
I found Devora again. She threw her head back and laughed at something Arowyn said, then turned to lock eyes with me. Her smile fell, but it still lingered on the edges of her eyes, and she tipped her chin toward me.
