“What is it?” Tarrin whispered to me.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I can’t hear anything.”
Sidrick frowned down at me as if he was disappointed that Icouldn’t hear what he did. I frowned right back at him, before focusing on the treeline with rapt attention—ready to fight if needed.
Then, a figure emerged from the wall of spotted white.
“Kaelun,” I gasped, bolting toward him across the wide valley, the others hot on my heels. I scanned for injury, but aside from the dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, he looked unharmed. I tore across the land, heart racing, not realizing just how scared I was for him as tears pricked at the back of my eyes.
Now only seconds away, Kaelun offered me a soft smile as I continued running, not stopping as I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tight.
A harshoofleft his lungs as we collided. Catching our balance, Kaelun’s heartbeat thundered, but he held his breath for a moment before wrapping his arms around me, and I sank into his embrace like it was a lifeline. Like it could keep us safe. Like we were going to be okay.
“Lady Nyleeria,” he whispered in my ear, the words holding a strange hesitation.
Pulling back a fraction, I held his deeply honest eyes. “What is it, Kaelun?”
A soft smile tugged at the sides of his mouth. “Your heart,” he said softly, “I’m pleased to see the scar tissue has softened it instead of callusing it.”
My brows furrowed as I looked up at him, trying to understand his meaning.
Then, without a word, he squeezed me a little tighter, and I understood.
Hewas holding me. AndIwas holding him. Tears blurred my vision as the ramification settled over me. I’d been afraid of touch. Had viscerally reacted to it so harshly that a part of me had come to believe it was permanent. It was then that I realized I would be okay.
“I’m not broken,” I whispered.
Cautiously, he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss against mycheek. “You never were,” he whispered back, then stepped away, allowing me to claim this truth.
I stood there, feeling… different. Perhaps lighter, like a snake that has shed the layer of skin it no longer needs.
“Ny,” Tarrin said from my side. “You okay?”
Nodding, twin tears slipping down my cheeks. “Yeah, I think I am.” He smiled, and for the first time since he’d come back into my life, he looked hopeful.
Wiping my face dry, I focused in on the brothers who were pulling away from their own embrace. I looked past the trees to where Kaelun had emerged and focused on my fae hearing for Artton, but I came up empty. Fear gripped my heart as I turned to Kaelun. “Where is he?” I asked, voice betraying my fear.
He shook his head, and the joyous relief slipped from his face, replaced with something darker. Kaelun looked at his brother apologetically, and my hand flew to my chest, clutching my bandolier as I braced myself. “I’m sorry, Sir,” he began, and my heart plummeting from the formality.
“Go on, soldier,” Sidrick said, as if knowing he needed to anchor to his commander—not his brother—to share this news.
Kaelun swallowed and shifted uncomfortably before finally speaking again. “They have him, Sir. They have Artton.”
The world spun around me.
“Explain,” Sidrick commanded.
“I’m not sure I know how, Sir. We kept them from following, though—I see we did a poor job,” he said, looking past us at the valley littered with bodies.
“They didn’t follow us,” his commander offered, “they appeared out of nowhere.”
Kaelun nodded, soaking in this information, and I had to stop myself from demanding answers—stat. Clearly my shadow was feeling the effects of shock, something I was all too familiar with, and getting upset wouldn’t help.
“Everything happened so fast,” he finally continued, “onemoment we were holding our own—no, more than that, we were about to break through their defenses. Then the next, the commander had some sort of arrow lodged into his shoulder just below the clavicle here.” He pointed to his chest, about three fingers below the collarbone. I winced, personally knowing how much that hurt. But it wasn’t fatal.
“I couldn’t sense where it came from, or that it possessed magic, so I ripped it out.”
I closed my eyes, hearing Endymion’s instructions in my mind as we’d carefully removed a similar object, courtesy of the Autumn Court’s experiments.
