“Right.” He absentmindedly pressed his fingers against the wound and winced. “Future family reunions are going to be weird.”
I stopped myself from reaching out and cradling his hand. Dax had that tense tilt of his shoulders he got whenever he wanted to seem unbothered. He was strong, stronger than he realized, but I knew that blasted Vegheara ego would rear its ugly head and make him refuse any show of empathy right now.
“I should’ve been disinfecting you rather than the troll,” was all I said.
“Nothing a good glug of alcohol can’t fix. Drunk, not spilled.” He waved me off again. “The wound hasn’t started burning in the past two days, I’m good.”
I stared up at him. “You walked through Solkar’s Reach for two days to get to me?”
“No, I trekked through this frozen wasteland, thawing snow for water and chewing on desiccated pieces of meat for food, ignoring all the weird sounds in that blasted forest to get–whatare you doing?”
My arms circled his waist and I held on tight to him as I rested my cheek against his shoulder. “I believe they call this a hug.”
“I–” He finally relaxed in my embrace and patted my shoulder awkwardly. We weren’t exactly used to displays of affection in the Vegheara family. “Yes, a hug.”
“I’ve really missed you, Dax,” I said with all my soul.
Even through his thick coat, he smelled of sea salt, olive trees, and the coast wind.
Home.
“I’ve missed you, too, Allie,” he said gently and hugged me back. “I can’t wait for things to go back to normal and we can all return home.”
My hands loosened. Slowly, carefully, but enough for the silence to slither between us.
Because I realized Dax and I had very different definitions about what our future would entail.
Maybe I doubted for the same reason I’d hesitated to grab the crown–heartbreak.
Perhaps my father’s death had left a permanent scar on my chest that wouldn’t let true hope bloom.
Or maybe I was more of a realist.
“Things won’t ever be the same again,” I muttered sadly as I stepped back from Dax.
“Why?”
“Because we won’t be.” I met his questioning gaze with my unflinching one. “Family and friends have betrayed us and they can do it again. We have to live in that reality now.”
The Protectorate had been built on the courage and the unity of the First Family.
Our family was no longer the safe haven we’d been brought up to believe it was.
If that foundation we’d trusted had been shattered so quickly, how could we count on everything else we’d been taught?
“Silas is just a bad seed,” Dax argued. “The worst of Grandpa Constantine’s seeds.”
Silas couldn’t have acted alone, I wanted to say.
Scream.
Roar.
But I’d already made peace with the fact that something heinous had been brewing in my own Clan, right underneath our noses.
“We also have a war to live through.” I looked at the flying contraption, now less skeptical. “And I fear it will spill inside the crater.”
“How’d you figure?”
