The doorto the meeting room opens, and Therin is framed in the doorway. He leans against the frame, that familiar smirk pulling at his mouth.
“Miss me?”
Before I can reply, he steps aside, and I see the three people behind him.
The dark-haired human female he took when I went to the palace for Alleria, Serath, and …
Caelum.
My eyes return to the human, then move to Therin. I raise an eyebrow.
“I figured she belonged with her mistress,” Therin says. “I’ll find her and get this one settled.”
Then he’s gone, and my attention goes back to Caelum.
I’d known they were coming. I could feel it through the threads linking us together. But knowing, andseeing… well, that’s completely different. And I wasn’t entirely certain what I would find when Caelum arrived.
He’s still thin, clothes hanging loose on a frame that usedto be solid with muscle. He was treated the same way we all were—fed just enough to keep the body breathing, but never enough to give it strength. But he’s walking. His eyes are open. And when he sees me, his mouth curves.
“You look terrible.”
There he is. Somewhere under the gauntness and the shadows, there’s still the male who once told me my battle strategy was ‘adequate at best’ while we were surrounded by enemy forces.
I cross the room and grip his shoulder. “So do you. Come. Sit.”
“I’ve been on the back of Crasos for two days. I think I’ll stand for a while.” Caelum moves to the window, and looks out.
Of course he won’t sit. Caelum never did anything the easy way. In all the centuries I’ve known him, I don’t think he’s ever taken a suggestion without arguing about it first. Even when we were young and stupid and convinced we knew everything, he’d push back against orders just to see if he could. It drove the elder fae warriors crazy.
It drovemecrazy, as well.
I’d forgotten how much I missed it.
Serath settles into one of the chairs, with a sigh that comes from somewhere deep inside. I exchange looks with her, and she smiles. There’s more color in her cheeks than when I left. More life in her eyes.
“How are you?”
“Stronger every day.”
“That’s good.”
“It helps, having him back.” She glances toward Caelum. “Having something to focus on besides my own head.”
“Stop looking at me like I’m going to shatter.” There’s an edge to Caelum’s voice, something that sounds almost like the male he was before the Sealing. “I’ve had enough of that from Serath.”
“She worries. We all do.”
“I wasn’t the only one who spent centuries in a cage, Cairn. Yet I’m the one being treated like I’m made of glass.” There’s no real irritation behind his words. “I survived the Dell. I survived the iron and the dark and everything they did to break me.”
“I’m not going to argue with you.”
“That would be a first.”
Despite everything, my mouth twitches. “Don’t push it.”
His head turns and his eyes meet mine. For a moment I see everything he’s crawled out of. The darkness. The drowning. The long slow suffocation of being trapped inside his head while his body kept breathing.
I know that place. I lived it in myself—awake, aware, and unable to do anything but endure. Caelum had it worse. He couldn’t even reach for the rage to keep himself warm.
