“Resent it all you want. You tried to impress Aisling by setting your own hair on fire.”
“It was supposed to be a controlled burn! A demonstration of mastery over flame!”
“Your eyebrows didn’t grow back for a month. She had to look at your surprised face for thirty days straight.”
“She said it was endearing!”
“She said it was ‘the most ridiculous thing she’d ever seen’ and that you were ‘lucky she found incompetence charming.’”
Drayke pinches the bridge of his nose. Auren returns to his book with the air of someone who’s heard this argument before and has no interest in hearing it again.
And despite everything—the sleepless night, the uncertainty, the three centuries of grief that haven’t quite learned to believe in hope again—I feel something in my chest loosen.
This. This mess of brothers and mates and terrible advice and stolen toast. This is what I’m offering her. Not perfection. Not polish. Just... family. Broken and chaotic and real.
I hope it’s enough.
I see her at midday,from across the training yard.
Selene has passed her off to Aisling—the two Fire-Bringers walking along the upper balcony, their heads bent together in conversation. Nasyra looks less hunted than she did last night. Still guarded, still watching everything with wary attention, but something in her posture has eased. She’s wearing clean clothesthat actually fit—Selene’s doing, probably—and her dark hair is pulled back from her face in a simple braid.
She’s beautiful. The thought surfaces before I can stop it. Even now, with death between who she was and who she’s become, she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
Her gaze sweeps the yard below, cataloging the dragons sparring, the weapons racks, the exits. Survival instincts, honed by paranoia. Her attention catches on me, and for a moment, neither of us moves.
Something flickers in her expression. Not hatred—not the cold fury I’ve become accustomed to. Something more complicated. More conflicted.
Then Aisling says something, and Nasyra’s attention breaks away. The moment shatters. Nasyra walks toward the keep. I’m left standing in the training yard with my heart pounding and my shadows reaching toward her without permission.
“Pathetic.”
Aisling’s voice makes me start. She’s appeared beside me—must have come down from the balcony while I was distracted. Her arms are crossed, her expression thoroughly unimpressed.
“Thank you for that assessment.”
“You’re welcome. Someone needed to say it.” No hint of apology. “Selene told me about the breakfast intervention.”
“It was somehow worse than it sounds.”
“I believe it.” Aisling studies me with the clinical attention of someone used to assessing damage. Her green eyes miss nothing. “If you try any grand gestures, I will personally ensure your suffering. That woman has been manipulated, tortured, and had her memories rewritten. The last thing she needs is some lovesick dragon swooping in to ‘rescue’ her again.”
“I wasn’t planning to swoop.”
“Good. Keep not planning to swoop.” She uncrosses her arms, her posture shifting to something slightly less hostile. “She asked about you. Up there.”
My heart stutters. “What did she ask?”
“Wanted to know if you were always this watchful. If you stood around staring at people like they might evaporate if you looked away.” Aisling’s mouth quirks. “I told her the truth—that I’ve known you for months and I still can’t tell if you’re standing guard or waiting for someone to give you permission to exist.”
The observation lands harder than it should. “That’s... uncomfortably accurate.”
“I know. I’m perceptive. It’s a gift.” Aisling’s expression softens slightly. “She’s fragile, even if she’s pretending not to be. I know what that looks like. I’ve been there.”
“What else did you tell her?”
“That we’re all disasters in our own ways. That Rurik nearly burned his own face off trying to impress me. That Drayke spent weeks circling Selene like a confused wolf before admitting he had feelings. That Rurik thinks Auren shuts himself away because he’s probably the one most afraid of being hurt.”
I wince. “Auren is going to kill Rurik for spreading that story.”
