Aurora found you, he said. Not a question.
Yeah.
He nodded, turning his highlighter over in his hands. Good. She’s been wanting to. He glanced at Raven, who was watching us now, and something passed between them—the shorthand of people who’d spent months in the same small crisis together. I’ve been saying she should.
I should have come sooner, I said. To both of you.
You were busy saving the world.
That’s not an excuse.
He looked at me then. He was taking stock, deciding something.
No, he agreed. It’s not. But it’s a reason. He set the highlighter down. I’m not angry, Mari. I’m just glad you’re here now.
His bird ruffled its feathers once before settling again. Lucas picked up his things and moved to a chair two tables away with the quiet efficiency of someone who’d learned to give people room when they needed it.
She was watching me with those steady dark eyes. Boris had stopped moving.
Hey, I said.
Hey. She closed the book—slowly and deliberately, the way she did everything now. You talked to Aurora.
She found me first.
Raven’s mouth curved. She’s been planning that conversation for weeks. Kept rehearsing it at me while I pretended to sleep.
That surprised a laugh out of me. Did it work? The rehearsing?
Apparently. She tilted her head—a gesture I recognized, though it came slower now, with more intention behind it. She got to you.
She got to me, I agreed.
A pause. Boris chittered once and went still again.
How are you? I asked, not reflexively, actually asking.
Raven thought about it the way she thought about everything now—all the way through, turning it over. Different, she said finally. Not worse. Just… She touched the edge of Boris’s shell, tracing the familiar pattern. There are things I reach for and they’re not there the same way. The way I used to be able to hold three thoughts at once without losing any of them. A pause. I’m learning to use what I have instead.
What do you have?
She considered. Patience. I never had patience before. Something wry moved through her expression. Couldn’t stand waiting for anything. Now I wait because I have to, and I’ve found out there are things you only see if you stay still long enough.
Boris climbed up onto her hand, and she let him, watching his slow careful progress.
I’m still me, she said. The important parts. The parts that chose Lucas and chose you and chose to fight back when he had his hands inside my head. Her eyes came up to mine. He didn’t get those.
No, I said. He didn’t.
You made the corruption mortal. She said it simply, without performance. That’s why I’m still here with anything left to recover. A pause. Don’t apologize. You did what could be done.
The weight of it—of being seen clearly, by someone who had every reason to be less generous—settled warm and complicated in my chest.
Friday nights, I said. Study group. Aurora already drafted me.
Raven’s smile came slower than it used to. But it reached her eyes, which it always had, and that hadn’t changed at all. Lucas too. He doesn’t know yet. He’s going to pretend he’s too busy and then show up first.
Across the library, I could see him at his table, highlighter back in hand, not looking at us. Giving us the room. Being exactly who he’d always been.
