Changing the subject, I asked, “Whatdoyou want for the future then? Where do you see yourself in ten years?”
Without hesitation, he answered, “Dead.”
My eyebrows cocked upright. “Seriously? Come on. Give me a real answer.”
He shuffled where he sat on the floor. “Statistically speaking, there’s a good chance I’ll be dead. I know Caelestis is in ruins, buttechnically speakingI still have plenty of years of duty to fulfill. So do you,” he added the reminder that I, too, could be dead in ten years, if not sooner. “But where would Iliketo be in ten years? I’m not sure. I try not to think about it too much.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ll probably be dead,” he said matter of factly.
My eyes rolled into my skull. “Someone’s in a mood.”
He shrugged, hiding his eyes from me. “How about you?”
I pondered for a moment, truly considering my response. What I had always thought I wanted seemed so far away now, though that didn’t mean I craved it any less.
“I like to think that I’d be married and have created a family of my own. I hope to live by the beach and work as a bookkeeper in the archives like my mother did. Or teach writing to the younger classes in a primary school. I would have a small farm, just a few animals, and my home would be a cottage, not too big but not too small.”
“Hm,” Sawyer mumbled, the back of his head still directed at me.
I opened my mouth, only to be interrupted by a loud fist on the door.
“Finally,” Sawyer mumbled, striding to answer the knock, clearly thankful for the interruption. He swung it towards him, revealing a cross-armed Samara. “Ugh,” he groaned, spinning away from her with a shaking head.
“You’re both wanted at dinner,” Samara said flatly before making a prompt exit.
We didn’t bother changing intoappropriateattire. We wore the same outfits we had on this morning, although when I saw what awaited us in the dining room, I wished I had changed.
“Sebastian?” My eyes bulged at the sight of him, his forehead split above his eyebrow and caked with dried blood.
I raced for him, cupping his face in my hands. “What happened?” I demanded an answer. He’d only left a few days ago. For him to return so soon and without?—
“Where are the others?” Sawyer spoke for me.
I glanced around the table. Azain sat next to his sister, Kade on her other side. But Pia and Kohen were nowhere to be seen.
I loosened my grip on his cheeks as Sebastian’s hand circled my wrists, guiding my arms to my sides. “They’re fine. They should be back to Lumosia by now.”
With my free hand, I ran a finger underneath the wound on his perfect face. He winced, but didn’t pull back. “Then why are you back? And hurt?” I whispered as I scanned his body for any more notable injuries.
Air blew slowly through his nostrils. “Sit.” He nodded once at me before gesturing at Sawyer to do the same. I was surprised he was even addressing him after everything, so whatever happened must have been serious.
I took the seat next to him, not drifting my attention anywhere else in the room. My eyes stayed glued to his, dark and swollen with…fear?
Clearing his throat, Sebastian glanced over my head and at Azain. “Go ahead.”
“They are everywhere,” Azain stated from behind me.
I spun in my chair, sticking my gaze on him. “The Hykahs?”
He nodded through his gulp. “I saw them with my own eyes, exactly as they described them.” He directed his words toFranlow, whose skin had paled to the color of a winter's frost. “Their twisted bodies wandered the forest just miles from here, dangerously close to our borders. We managed to steer clear of most of them.” His eyes dropped to the tabletop. “We injured one, but not enough to kill it.”
“I think there are more than we even realized,” Sebastian calmly added. If he was truly scared, his voice did an excellent job at hiding it.
My body tensed. If this didn’t convince Franlow to help us, then I didn’t know what would.
Against my will, my eyes raked over Samara's stiff-figured body. To my pleasure, her beauty did not do a good job at masking her fear. I could read every emotion plain as day on her face. Her lower lip was just barely sucked in, her teeth chattering ever so slightly, sinking into the skin.
