And it would be over. We would return him to us.
We absolutely would.
Zayn found an area protected behind magically imbued glass for him to create his Flamecraft shapes and animations. It was just a few feet from my sculpture workstation.
And a little further along, I’d created a space for Evira, a large sleek gray metal desk with special volumes on political strategy,negotiation tactics, alongside my private notes of what I’d learned over the years. Something to assist with the trajectory I’d recognized she was on with Exalt.
There was also a sparring area I’d created in the basement of the house. Well, the access point was really the basement, I’d tunneled deeper to see to it. She enjoyed hand-to-hand combat even more than I did, and the way I’d forged the space would ensure she wouldn’t have to tone herself down at all. I’d show her after we took some time, as what I’d already shown them they were still trying to process.
“This isn’t just your house, not just a break from things, is it?” Evira questioned.
I smiled, looking out at them both. “I prepared it for the four of us.”
“It’s fucking awesome, Vax. Seriously.” His voice cracked as he uttered, “You doing all of this… it’s really something.”
Emotion welled in his eyes and he looked away, then meandered over to Winter’s station, fondling the implements there.
Evira came to me and stroked my forearms over my blazer. “You built a future for us.”
“Well, Zayn will be leaving Loxley Academy after this final year and he needs somewhere to go. You, Winter, and I will be there for another few years yet. My proposal is that we leave the dormitories and reside here, while attending classes. So the four of us remain together.” Truth be told, I had come to even resent that we had separate dormitories at this point in our relationship. Yes, it was clearly my possessive and territorial nature at play. However, that was at least channeled in a healthy way with my loves, due to the dynamic we’d forged.
“It’s so lovely,” she said. “Thank you, Vaxan. What you’ve done here is incredible and so touching and extraordinarily thoughtful.”
Zayn joined us, confessing, “I want this. So much. But… Win… he…”
“We will retrieve Winter,” I assured him.
“That’s not even a question,” Evira rumbled with that draconic protective ferocity I adored about her.
“Even when we do, though, it’s just that… Sylas being gone… Win is so close to his family… how is he gonna make it through that. The grief… it’s… it’ll shatter him.”
“I know, Zayn,” Evira said, stroking his hair. “But we’ll be here for him.”
“We’ll soothe him,” I added. “Ease him through it, doing whatever we must to help him heal from the depths of grief.”
“Yeah, we… we can do that. We can be that for him.”
“Absolutely,” Evira told him, her gaze discreetly flicking to mine with some uncertainty.
That was to be expected. This wasn’t a scientific matter, or a tactical strategy… it was part of Winter’s heart and soul being torn away through the loss of his dad.
And that grief wouldn’t just belong to him. His mother and his other two fathers would be carrying that also, their foursome broken and now incomplete.
“We’ll see to it,” I spoke, my voice coming out steady and full of conviction.
Sometimes when things lacked certainty, that was desperately needed, the impression of it was enough to hold onto hope.
Relief flooded me when Evira brightened and Zayn nodded.
“About pulling Winter back to us,” he mused. “How on earth can we—I mean, Vax, you said you couldn’t pull on the vibrational tracking tether you have on him, right? And Ketheron and Ambrose are trying to find entry points into Sanctus, but there are so many fake ones from Ruxnoth that’s slowing them down so much. And now with Sylas… gone… theycan’t even use the necromantic link to find him. And Velra as Win’s mom can’t track him by blood because of that blockage she put in place to protect Win from ever being tracked through her by any enemies.”
“There are other means to locate him. Also, my vibrational tracking is just unable to be used for right now—I need access to more power.”
“You have Celestial magic from Taen,” Evira pointed out, as I’d told her about that earlier. I’d had to in order to explain what I’d been doing there battling against Ruxnoth with Sylas, Kai, Ryker, Velra, and Cassius earlier.
“Further Basilisk power will be integral, the Celestial aspect will just boost the speed with which I can complete the task, and allow me to push past obstacles. But with Sanctus being on another metaphysical plane, it poses further complications. There is also the issue of the Necromancy protecting Sanctus. For that… without Sylas… perhaps Ambrose could be an alternative. Or a workaround from Kai could be found.” I held up my hand. “But none of that can be dealt with until cooler heads prevail. Certainly not right now at this moment in time. Sylas’ family is deeply steeped in grief, as is Kai.”
“He’s right,” Evira told Zayn. “We recuperate tonight, maybe tomorrow as well.”
