TEMPEST
Vexxion, my aunt, and I ate a quiet dinner together before we retired to our rooms for the night. With our door shut, I walked over to Drask’s perch, and he hopped off to land on the windowsill, peering out through the closed glass.
Vexxion followed and wrapped his arms around me from behind.
“Do you think he wants to go outside?” I asked.
“We can open the window. Then he can decide.”
“When I found him, he was horribly injured. His poor wing still doesn’t work right.” Like me with my scarred leg. We were quite the pair. “Someone hurt him badly.”
“I’ve thought about this. I found him in an abandoned nest and raised him.” He sighed. “I was scared.”
“Did you think he’d die?”
Drask crooked his head to look our way before turning back to the window.
“I worried he’d live,” Vexxion said.
“You thought Ivenrail would kill him.”
“He threatened to do it often enough. For whatever reason, he was afraid of Drask. He’d snarl whenever the crow came with me to the throne room. I wasn’t as bold as you, bringing him to the dining room.”
“That’s me. Impulsive.”
“Loyal. You know Drask stresses when you’re not around.”
He did. I didn’t know if the Drask who was left cared about me one way or another. My heart hurt, though it shouldn’t. What had I truly lost?
Something I didn’t even realize I had.
“I didn’t give him a name,” Vexxion said. “And I regretted that after he was gone.”
I stroked Drask’s back, and he preened, peering up at me with inky eyes full of . . . nothing and everything. I couldn’t tell what might be left. “I think your mother’s spirit was with him all this time.”
Vexxion paused, clearly thinking, before he finally nodded. “I believe you’re right. When he was with me, I could feel him supporting me if only in a birdlike way. When he left me, she went with him. She knew you needed her more than me.”
“I think she also needed to make sure Reyla was alright. I wish I’d known it was her all this time.”
“Would you have treated him any differently?”
I shrugged. “I might not have scolded him every time hefollowed me to the bar. I worried someone would hurt him. His wing healed, but it was never the same. You see how he flies.”
“He’s still your Drask.”
I turned in his arms, taking in the sadness on his face, the way his soul appeared equally cratered. He would’ve given anything for even one more moment with his mother. I’d had her with me and hadn’t even known she existed.
“I’m grateful she was with you,” he said. “She watched out for you and Reyla when I couldn’t. I believe she guided me there that day. She knew it was time for me to find you.”
“To put all of this into motion.”
“To love you, Tempest. Forget the king and the dregs and whatever it is that Liege plans to do with the sack you gave him.”
“Five hearts from Ivenrail’s room.” The third part of my bargain.
“You returned there?” he rasped.
“I had to. We both do what we must. Always.”
