He takes a step back, glancing away for only a moment, but when his eyes meet mine again, I can see the agony there. “You’ve hated me for something I would burn the world to undo.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? You had to have known what I thought. Why else would you have stayed away?”
He hesitates. “I deserved your hate. They were my father’s orders, and I failed to stop them.”
“I needed you. You were my closest friend, andI needed you, Dimitri. I didn’t just lose the male I loved that day. I lost you, too. You were my best friend, and you justleft methere…crying, surrounded by my fallen soldiers and covered in Kallan’s blood,” I say quietly.
He flinches, not even trying to hide the pain in his eyes. Silence stretches between us. When a tear slips free, unbidden, he takes a step closer. “Serenya—”
I turn away, tossing my sword to the ground. The sound of steel against stone echoes as I leave the hall without another word. But the image of the silver-eyed vampire standing in a field of his own dead, blade dripping with blood, refuses to leave my mind.
The night is still, the gardens nearly empty, lit only by pale moonlight and the faint glimmer of moonstones lining the edge of the stone paths. I slip away from the palace, needing the quiet, the cool grass beneath my palms, the chance to think. My chest feels heavy, thoughts looping back to Dimitri and everything he said…and didn’t.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Ravelle’s voice comes softly from the shadows. I look up to see her stepping lightly into the grass.
“I needed quiet,” I admit, tilting my head back toward the sky. “And space to think. About…well, everything.”
“It’s been hard on you,” she says, sitting in the grass next to me, where I sit by a small stream that flows through the gardens.
“It’s more than that,” I say, my voice low. “He let me believe that he had a part in what happened to Kallan. That he didn’t care enough to stop it.” My hands fist in the grass. “All this time, almost three decades, he didn’t tell me the truth. He didn’t tell me what he did to save me. I–I needed him then, andhe just left me on that battlefield, crying over Kallan’s body, to hurtalone.”
She looks away, a shadow crossing her features. “It was hard on him too, you know.”
I glance at her, surprised. “Dimitri?”
“Yes.” She blows out a long breath. “I tried to convince him to talk to you. But he said some things are better left unsaid. He thought he was protecting you.”
I scoff. “Protecting me? By letting me believe all those lies?”
“By trying to spare you more pain. By giving you someone to hate,” Ravelle says quietly. “I know it doesn’t make much sense right now. There is more to it that isn’t my place to say. Maybe, someday, he will.” There is a note in her voice I haven’t heard before. Something like sadness or fear. Maybe both. But why? “Dima…he’s stubborn. Just like you.” She gives me a small, knowing smile. “That’s probably why you two were always so close. You’re alike in ways no one else could ever understand.”
We watch the reflection of the moon ripple across the water in silence for a few heartbeats. Then, hesitantly, I ask, “Do you think he even knew how much I needed him?”
Ravelle keeps her eyes on the water, tracing patterns with her fingertip. “Yes. He wanted to fix it, but I don’t think he knew how. He carries a lot of weight, Serenya. He always has. Kallan…he was also part of it…” Her gaze meets mine. “We lost him, too. He was our friend, and we loved him like family. After that day, we lost all of you. Kallan, Torin, Alira, you.”
I swallow. “I didn’t think about it like that. I was sofocused on my own grief.”
“So was he,” she says gently. “You two are mirrors of each other in many ways. And so you know, he still worries about you. That hasn’t changed.”
We lean back in the grass, watching the stars stretch across the sky. For a moment, everything feels still, the weight of the past softening just enough to breathe.
“Do you think we’ll ever…” I hesitate. “...have a life where all this isn’t pressing on us?”
“I don’t know if we will ever be completely free of it. But we make do. We survive. And sometimes, in quiet moments like this, we get to just exist without it.”
I nod, letting her words sink in. “I’m glad to have you back, Ravelle. I mean it. You and Dimitri…it’s like I’ve found pieces of my family again.”
“Careful, Ren. If Dimitri hears you say that, he’ll strut around like a rooster for a week.”
I chuckle.
In the quiet of the gardens, under the stars, it feels safe. It feels like healing.
When I leave the gardens, the conversation with Ravelle is still settling in my chest, and I find myself heading toward Dimitri’s study. The door is ajar, and without a second thought, I push it open.
“I’m going to say something,” I announce, stepping inside. “And for once, Dimitri Zalyth, you are just going to sit there and listen.”
He looks up from the papers scattered across his desk, surprise flickering in his eyes. He doesn’t move. He doesn’tspeak, just waits with a raised brow.
