A muscle twitches in Kalden’s jaw as he stares at his empty glass. “About nine months ago, my older brother, Aurick, came to me in a panic after his partner didn’t come home the night before from his hunting trip with his sister. Aurick wanted my help in casting out an electromagnetic wave to detect where he went. You’ve probably already noticed that Sols can sense each other’s energy. And the more often we’re around someone, the more we pick up on their unique essence. It’s almost as easy as breathing, especially when we’re in close proximity. But the farther we are from the person we’re trying to detect, the more it drains our power.”
Kalden’s eyes gloss over as he continues recalling, “I’d already spent a good amount of energy that day, so I tried to assure Aurick that maybe his partner had extended his trip. I honestly thought he was overreacting. So, Aurick decided to do it alone.”
The wine sloshes uneasily in my stomach, my gut sensing whatlikely happened from there.
Niles rests a hand on his friend’s shoulder, and Kalden exhales slowly.
“It happened so quickly. One minute, I was grabbing produce from the greenhouse. The next, I felt his essence burning away. Smelled the bitter ashes of it. By the time I got to Aurick’s home, it was too late. He’d burned through it all—his clothes, his skin, and his humanity.” Kalden blinks, releasing twin beads of tears down his cheeks while making no attempt to wipe them away. “I kept him restrained for a week while I tried everything to bring him back. Even let him feed from me, hoping my essence would replace what he lost. Probably would’ve died if it weren’t for Niles barging in to get him off me. I knew then that it was time to put an end to it. My brother had already died, and I couldn’t keep pretending I’d find him in the mockery of his corpse.”
An icy pressure weighs on my lungs as I imagine the devastation of losing a sibling in that way, and no one speaks for a long minute. What’s the right way to respond to that level of horror? Perhaps there isn’t a “right” response, no right words beyond a simple acknowledgement of his grief.
“I’m so sorry,” I say.
“Me too,” Gem echoes.
Even Twilynn nods her agreement.
Kalden fidgets with his empty glass before pushing it away. “I didn’t tell you that to gain your sympathy. I just thought you should know that I’m not the hero you think I am. If I weren’t so selfish, Aurick would still be here.”
“Aurick knew the consequences of channeling that amount of power by himself,” Niles says gently. “He could’ve asked someone else for help.”
“Two things can be true,” Kalden admits.
I sense Gem’s eyes on me, and I turn to find her jade irises glittering.
Two things can be true.
Like Kalden, I made a selfish decision that pushed Gem away. But I’m not the only one making choices.
Gem could stay with me. Now that she’s had some time to get to know Kalden and come to her own conclusion about the Sols, I suspect part of her wants to. But I also know a larger part of Gem could never choose to turn her back on her twin, even if it means going back to the stifling darkness of Caligo. And as much as I’ll miss her—miss them both—I can’t blame Gem for choosing Taur over me.
I nudge my boot into hers beneath the table. She nudges mine back.
Heavy silence compresses against the glass columns of the domed pavilion.
“Your mothers,” I begin to ask, hopeful my prodding doesn’t build onto the thick quiet. “Are either of them here?”
Niles’s smirk returns. “Eager to meet the parents already, little nova?”
I share a soft smile. “I’d like to meet the two women who survived the Hunt and made a new life for themselves.”
Eyes filling with pride, Niles shares, “I could take you to meet my mother in a couple days, if you’d like. Once you’ve had time to settle in. And Irene is away on travels, though she should be coming back soon, right Kalden?”
Kalden nods, but I barely notice as Niles’s words scratch at something I heard earlier.
“Irene’s birds,” I say, repeating what the stranger had said after we left the menders.
Both men share a look before turning their full attention towards me.
Brows arching, Kalden asks, “Who told you about that?”
I fiddle with the cloth napkin, folding it into squares. “There was a woman on one of the bridges earlier—the one with the people and their wired poles.”
Niles cuts in. “You mean the fishing deck?”
My forehead pinches, recalling how she’d reeled in a speckled fish. “Maybe? Anyway, she told me she’d been in a past Hunt and that she survived because of Irene’s birds.”
Twilynn perks up, quietly chiming in to ask, “Like the ones Jacqueline saw?”
