She nods without looking up, setting the bowl onto the floor. I stand for a second longer, watching as she eases Caelum up into a seated position, then quietly take my leave, and go in search of Serath.
She’s sitting on a pile of furs, eating an apple when I push through the entrance to her shelter. When she sees me, a smile lights up her features.
“Cairn.”
“Serath.” I lower myself to sit across from her. “Vel said you were speaking.”
“Trying.” She sets down the apple. “The words are … all there. Getting them from my head to my mouth is the hard part.” Her voice is stilted, with long pauses between the words. “It’s as though there’s a wall between what I think and what I want to say. I have to find my way around it.”
“It’ll get easier.”
“Maybe.”
“I choose to believe it will.”
She considers that, her eyes tracking over my features.
“Caelum?”
I shake my head. “I’ve been talking to him. I don’t know if it helps.”
“It might … or it might not.” Her mouth curves. “That’s all any of us have right now, isn’t it? Might or might not.”
“It’s more than we had a week ago.”
“Truth.” Her smile widens. “I can feel the thread linking us again. To you, and the others. It’s faint, but it’s there.”
“Good. That’s good.”
“It is.” Her expression softens then. “I didn’t think I’d ever feel it again. Any of it. I thought—” She takes a breath, and then she’s moving, crossing the small space between us. Before I can react, her arms are around me.
My body locks up, breath freezing in my lungs. The urge to shove her away, to put distance between us and get her hands off me surges fast.
Fingers in my hair. Mouths against my throat. Bodies pressing me down. Using me. Taking what they wanted.
No. This isSerath. The sweetest of my warriors.
I force myself to breathe, and lift my arms to hold her back instead of pushing her away. She’s thin. I can feel every rib, every knob of her spine. And she’s shaking, her face pressed into my shoulder, her fingers gripping the back of my shirt like she’s afraid I’ll disappear.
“You came back for us.” Her voice is muffled against my shoulder.
“Of course I did.”
“I know. I just—” A shudder runs through her. “I couldn’t let myself believe it. Even when I saw you standing there, whenthe collar broke, I couldn’t believe it was real. I kept waiting to wake up and find myself back in the cage.”
I tighten my arms around her, resting my cheek against the top of her head. “It’s real.”
She pulls back, wiping her face with the back of her hand. Her eyes are wet, but her jaw is set, embarrassed to have shown weakness.
“Don’t tell Vel. She’ll never let me hear the end of it.”
I lift one eyebrow. “Tell her what? I didn’t see anything.”
She laughs, a rough startled sound. “There he is.”
Her hand cups my cheek. I turn my face and press a kiss to her palm, then take her hand and help her to her feet.
“Rest. Eat. Get your strength back.”
