He looks at it. Then at me. The debt mark is still bright on his wrist and I watch him make the decision not to say anything about it. To take the arm instead.
He leans.
His hand grips my arm for one second before it settles into something more functional. One second. Then gone. Neither of us names it.
We move.
The forest shifts around us. Branches lean away. Roots flatten. The Dark Forest doing what it does when Wild Court blood moves through it, not welcoming, but acknowledging. Making room.
Orion is heavier than he looks. Or I’m more tired than I’ve admitted. Probably both.
“Kieran.”
“Walk.”
“I am walking.”
“Then keep walking.”
A pause. The forest fills it with wrong-birdsong and the sound of water getting louder. The bond pulls harder.
“I appreciate what you did,” Orion says. Quietly. Not the reflexive kind. The kind that costs something and he paid it anyway.
I don’t answer.
Some things don’t need to be said to be true.
The sound of water reaches us before the light does, the white-noise rush of a fall, clean and constant, cutting through everything else. The bond flares. Bright.There.
I push through the moss curtain first, Orion’s weight against my shoulder, and?—
Stop.
Bioluminescent light. The waterfall. The pool glowing blue-green and impossible, Wild Court magic breathing through every surface like something that has been waiting for exactly this.
Ash in the water.
Finnian’s arms around her. His mouth at her temple, her jaw, the corner of her lips. The gold bond at her wrist blazing so bright it lights the water around them like something holy.
One second to construct the image.
One second is all it takes.
Ash turns.
She sees me. Sees Orion. I watch the full sequence move through her face, relief that we’re alive, the immediate assessment of Orion’s condition, then the thing underneath both of those that she can’t get her face to hide before I’ve already seen it.
The waterfall is very loud.
Finnian doesn’t let go of her. His arms stay exactly where they are. His face does something complicated, guilt and defiance and the specific honesty of a man who has decided he’s done with strategic retreats. I don’t look at it long.
“Kieran—” Ash starts.
I cross to the rocks at the grotto’s edge.
I set Orion down carefully. The way you set something down when you’re being very deliberate about the care you’re taking. When being careful is the only thing you have left to be.
I don’t look at the water.
