I will myself to calm, to swallow despite the sandpaper that coats my throat. Cullen cannot be here. He’s miles away in the heart of the Dark World with Shaw. I twist myself to my belly and dig my fingers into the stone. My body screams in agony, pain blurring the edges of my vision until it threatens to go black. But I force myself to move, to drag myself inch by agonizing inch until power and water flood my system once more.
I gasp as I’m revived, fresh breath barreling into my lungs. Myotherswirls in agitated rage.
The Boundary men all stare, wide eyed and fearful as I pull droplets from the depths of the earth. It beads along my skin, renewing every part it touches. It pools over my fingers and the handcuffs break with barely a thought.
It was foolish to think I could save my brother by shoving parts of myself away. I began this journey by trusting the wild in me, the part that would never be molded. I won’t abandon it now that it has brought me so far, to the doorstep of my birthplace and the precipice of saving my brother. He is all I have left. I won’t fail him.
I stand up, drawing my chin high. Even Harlan has gone still, watching warily as the water swirls around my hands. I glare at the Boundary men. “Bring me my brother.” My voice is brave and strong, unrecognizable to any who knew me only a few short months ago.
The man beside Harlan hesitates, his eyes on the power that swirls around me as if it will be unleashed upon him at any moment. “That is the Covinus’ decision.”
He is trembling, I realize distantly. This is the first time they’ve witnessed such power and it’s at the hands of one of their own.
“Then bring me the Covinus’,” I command him. He scurries off.
I watch them all in turn, unafraid. Harlan stares back, something flickering in the depths of his eyes that under normal circumstances, I would be trying to decipher. However he came to be here, however he survived, it doesn’t matter now. Nothing matters but healing my brother.
The Boundary man returns, and it occurs to me that the Covinus’ was somewhere close, watching the entire exchange. Surely, if they’d been in their office in the heart of the square, it would have taken much longer to reach the gate.
A lone figure follows behind the guard, stopping just before the invisible line that drained me of power. I realize with a start that this must be the Covinus. It is not a chosen group as they’ve always portrayed themselves to be. It is just a single man.
He is slight in frame and stature. White-blonde hair is combed neatly to one side and his eyes glint black as they study me. “Mirren,” he says, his voice oddly warm for addressing someone who has flouted all his rules and is currently threatening his Boundary men with magic. “We hoped you would come home to us.”
I stare at him from beneath lowered brows. Suspicion wars within me. “Why?”
“Why?” he repeats blankly, as if the question has never been posed to him. It probably hasn’t. “Because you are part of our Community, Mirren,” he smiles indulgently, and something crawls up my spine. “Are you prepared to come home?”
The word chafes.I have no home.
Easton.Easton is my home,I remind myself forcibly.
“I will come after I heal my brother. He is dying and I can’t heal him if I’m inside the Boundary.”
The Covinus tilts his head, mild curiosity the only emotion on his face. I suddenly wish I didn’t choose to do this in front of such a large audience. Maybe if I’d just gone to this mild-mannered man’s office, I could have calmly explained what needed to happen rather than display an ugly outburst of emotions that make me appear unstable.
Some things never change.
“How do you intend to heal your brother when our most skilled Healers cannot?” The Covinus’ voice is calm, belying no emotion aside from moderate concern. It’s the same tone we’ve been told to emanate our entire lives. Kind and gentle. Robotic.
“Bring him to me and I will show you. And after he is healed, I…I will do whatever you ask of me.” The words are so reminiscent of something I said ages ago.I will give you whatever you want.A handsome grin and a sardonic reply in return,what if I want your kidneys?
Nothing has changed and everything has all at once.
The Covinus makes a small motion with his hand and the Boundary men behind him part. Behind them, lies my brother.
My knees weaken beneath me, and everything screams to run toward him, but I force myself to wait as two guards maneuver him over the Boundary. By the Covinus, he’s so thin. His knees, visible beneath his medical gown, look like two balls thrust beneath loose skin. My heart clenches as they lay him gently in front of me. His face is waxen. There is none of his kindness or patience. There is only the same emptiness that has echoed in my heart since the cavern. The emptiness of death.
I fall to my knees and take my little brother’s hand in a way he would hate if he were awake. Most of the Boundary men look elsewhere, the contact making them uncomfortable, but Harlan watches us with an unreadable gaze. The Covinus also watches, his black eyes emotionless.
The feel of my brother’s skin anchors me back inside myself and the numbness of the past two weeks falls away like a torn curtain. I pour everything of my journey since we last saw each other into him. My terror, my bravery, my hatred. My fear and my courage. And most of all, my love. Tears pour from my eyes, and I use those, too. I dive deep into him, myothersinging and crying and screaming along with us until it soothes every ache and stitches every hurt.
When I finally open my eyes, my body spent, familiar hazel irises look back at me. Our father’s green, ringed by our mother’s brown. “Mirren?” Easton blinks slowly.
I thrust my arms around him, burying my sobs in the safety of his neck. He doesn’t put his arms around me, but his whispered words soothe me. I don’t even know what he says, just that the sound is a gentle susurrus in my ear that eases every jagged piece of me.
“I thought…I thought you’d left me,” I tell him, pulling away so I can see his face. Behind the sickness ravaged face is the boy with chubby hands who clung to me at night, who laughed with me in secret.
His lips pull into a gentle smile. “I won’t ever leave you, Mirren,” he says softly.
