“Thank you,” I say. “How have you been?”
“I’ve been better.”
There’s a sadness in his eyes, one that makes my heart ache. I don’t know the extent of his pain, but I feel some of it too.
“She should be here,” I whisper.
He agrees with the dipping of his chin, and that’s all that needs to be said. We sit in silence for a moment, side-by-side on the edge of the bed, both staring off at nothing as I take a few bites of food.
“He wanted to come for you the day he got free, you know…”
“I didn’t deserve it. I couldn’t save him. Everything is my fault.”
“Stop it.”
I look at Raef, whose stern voice startles me.
“No more self-pity, no more blaming yourself for everything awful that’s happened. More bad shit is probably going to happen, and none of it is on you. We’ve all chosen to be on this path. We all know what’s at stake. But the world is slowly dying.”
“Okay,” I say weakly.
He gives me a look.
“Okay,” I say louder and more clearly.
“We all need to catch up. Together.” He gives me a look. “Come to my room with me?
“Okay.”
Raef leads the way to his room, but on the way, he stops and knocks quietly on a door that’s right next door to mine.
Daegan answers, meeting my eyes almost instantly, even though I’m mostly shielded behind Raef’s large frame. He’s in a black linen shirt with his biceps showing, and his shorter hair looks like he’s been running fingers through it. “Come to my room,” he says, then walks off. I take off after him, sensing Daegan closing his room behind me and following.
When Raef opens his door, I see Rhydra inside. We all shuffle in and close the door quickly. I scurry to the far corner, then stand and face the room with my arms crossed.
Rhydra eyes me for an extended time, but I’m not sure why.
“Okay, so the three of us are all caught up on everything since we’ve been traveling together for a couple months,” Raef starts. His words twist a knife in my stomach. It’s so stupid and selfish to be jealous, but I am. “But we all need to share what we know, what we’ve learned,” he finishes with a powerful authority I didn’t fully know he was capable of.
It hurts that they’ve all been together for months, even though I know they went through a lot of shit too. I fold my arms around myself a little more, avoiding all their eyes.
“I, unfortunately, have no new information at all to contribute,” I start, speaking softly. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Rhydra tells me. “We think we have a lead on the diadem, anyway.”
I whip my head up. “That’s right. What do you know?”
“Don’t forget me!” Everyone seems to jump as Kezra glides through the air in the middle of the room.
“Where did you even come from?” Raef asks with pure curiosity and wonder.
“I came in the door with you all, of course.”
“Of course,” Daegan mumbles.
“Anyways,” I say, my gaze lingering on him. “What’s the lead?”
“Well, we went to visit Maethrel again,” Raef starts.
