“No,” he breathed.
“Until we meet?—”
The words dissolved before he finished. Then he was gone.
When the last shimmer vanished, the ripple sealed, leaving the stone untouched and only the memory of where reality had split open.
Finley sagged against me, letting me take most of her weight. Teddy wiped her face, then crossed the short distance between them before Alastor could retreat into himself. She wrapped her arms around him and, without a word, pressed her forehead to his chest.
At first, he didn’t move. Then the orb, dark and hollow, slipped from his grasp and hit the floor with a dull thud. He folded his arms around her, his fingers digging in the back of her shirt as a sob tore through him, raw and unguarded.
I stepped toward them, but when I hesitated, Finley’s fingers squeezed mine. Her eyes pinned me, and she mouthed,Go.I wavered, worried about the exhaustion that pinned her shoulders down.Go,she mouthed again, her lips thinning. So I crossed to them and rested a hand on Alastor’s shoulder. He didn’t look up, but his fingers circled my wrist, and his body trembled beneath my touch. It was the kind of tremor that came when someone finally stopped holding everything in.
“He’s free,” Teddy whispered.
Alastor exhaled, his breath breaking halfway through. “He’s at peace,” he managed to say. His voice was wrecked, bleeding with pain too old and too deep for words.
Finley joined us, her quiet and steady presence settling beside mine. Her magic brushed through our bond and toward Alastor, soothing and calm, and I could feel the tension in him slightly ease. Tears streamed down his face, silent and relentless, with years of loss finding their way out. Of a brother who’d waited too long to grieve.
Watching him break, I understood. Peace didn’t come in the absence of pain. It was the moment you were finally allowed to feel it, surrounded by those who’d help you through it.
Chapter
Forty-Six
FINLEY
The air outsidetasted different as our summer months drew to an end too quickly. While we still had a few weeks left to enjoy the warmer temperatures, the approaching frost made everything outside smell sharper.
Ashara stretched beside me, her scales glistening against the sun as she lowered her head to nuzzle my stomach.
Across the field, Brenton argued with Hoshiko, though from the grin on his face, I doubted either of them meant a word of it.
“I’m no mount for a youngling’s delight,”Hoshiko grumbled.
“Not a mount,”Brenton agreed too easily.“But you could be Niev’s very own summer spectacle.”
“Think of the children,”I added, wondering how long Hoshiko would keep the banter going.
Although he hadn’t said it aloud, I felt it when he had agreed. He would serve as a mount or spectacle as much for Brenton as for the younglings at the orphanage. Through him, we’d learned the dragons and hatchlings back in Vistos were fully healed. Not even one of them remained ill.
“I think I’ll find a cave here in Respandora,”Hoshiko said, huffing a plume of smoke that curled in the air.“Alastor would never ask this of me.”
A couple of days had passed since we’d freed Blaise, and we remained in Respandora. Teddy and Elias had gone back to Niev to speak to their people about the restored magic. From Brenton’s home, I felt the fae’s joy. Bright, uncontained, a celebration that rippled across the cities.
Yet I hadn’t wanted to join in Niev’s festivities. Instead, Etienne, Brenton, and I had stayed with Alastor, sharing a quiet meal a neighbor had brought us.
With the freedom Alastor’s offer had given me, to use my magic as I wanted, without anyone dictating it, I wasn’t certain I wanted to return to Niev. Especially when Respandora felt like more than just a respite, but home.
I wasn’t certain if Elias and Teddy’s quick return was for that same reason or to be near Alastor.
Luana darted between Ashara’s legs, tail wagging as she tried to convince my dragon to chase her. Ashara dropped her head to the ground, and the puff of breath she let out sent Luana stumbling backward.
I laughed, rubbing my palm against Ashara’s smooth scales.
The yard brimmed with life. Teddy and Elias sat cross-legged, one twin on each of their laps, while the eldest children climbed over Alastor like he was their climbing post. And Etienne was content on the patio step with Frisky swiping at his pants.
When he laughed, my heart pinched.
