“I understand,” Raine said. He was silent for a moment before he added, “It happens to me too sometimes.”
Ava placed her hand on his.
His eyes were full of sorrow. “Finnick had this adorable obsession with fireflies. Sometimes he’d drag me outside late at night just so we could snuggle against a tree and watch them for hours. It was one of my favorite things about him. How he would find joy in the tiniest of moments. But still…even though it’s been decades since I lost him, sometimes when I see a firefly, my soul aches. And yet at the same time it makes me happy. Like he’s saying hello.”
Ava squeezed his hand. “That’s exactly how it feels.”
They sat in silence for a while longer, listening to the clang of weapons as other soldiers practiced in the nearby dirt rings.
“How did you meet Finnick?” Ava asked. “I mean…if you want to tell me.”
Raine perked up. “Well,thatis a fun story.” Clasping his hands behind his head, he leaned back. “Cas and I had gotten roaringly drunk one afternoon at a tavern in one of the smaller towns, and I had the bright idea to go shopping.”
Ava’s eyebrows rose.
“Oh yes, darling. Believe it or not, Cas used to be a bit of a scoundrel. Back when we were young and stupid. That was before he was the general.”
“I’m sure that was a sight to see.” She couldn’t fathom Casimir getting intoxicated and acting foolish. It was such a far cry from how he was now.
“He excelled at getting into tavern brawls,” Raine said with delight. “Anyway, we ended up spending time in a local clothing shop and Finnick happened to be a tailor who worked there. He was so helpful. So kind. Even though we were both acting like complete imbeciles. He was helping me try on a jacket when I vomited all over his shoes.”
“Oh no…Are you serious?” Ava couldn’t control her laughter.
“Very.” Raine’s eyes twinkled as he recalled the memory. “I felt so terrible about it after I sobered up, that the next day I showed up to apologize, and he asked me out on a date.”
“I’m assuming you said yes.”
“Of course. We had an amazing time. We were so enamored with each other, I came back the day after that and we ended up fucking in his shop.”
“Why am I not surprised?” She bumped his shoulder with her own.
“Actually,hewas the one who shovedmeinto the tiny dressing room. I was that irresistible.”
Ava shook her head.
With a heavy sigh, Raine said, “And that was that. We never looked back.”
She gripped his shoulder. “Thank you for telling me.”
Raine’s lips curved into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes and stood, reaching out his hand to help Ava. “Of course. Now let’s get back to work.”
Later that evening,Ava found herself hunched over the book of portals in a quiet alcove in the library. “Memorizing the symbols would be easy, huh?” she mocked herself under her breath.
It was dark and cozy, sconces on the walls providing warm light and walls of books surrounding her. She sat at a small round table, the book open in front of her and papers strewn about where she’d been drawing each symbol.
She’d spent another couple weeks practicing with Jorrar in the field, repeating the same process they had on day one. According to Jorrar there were three types of portals—and potentially a fourth, but they still couldn’t read the last part of the text. The simplest ones gave her the ability to move quickly between nearby places. The further away the second portal appeared, the more magic it required, and Jorrar was coaching her on how to feed her magic into the portal slowly without wearing herself out.
The second type involved jumping further within the same realm, but she must have been to that location before so she could visualize it. For example, she could open a portal leading to the Whispering Bog, or Saxumdale. It would come in handy should they need to move locations, but she hadn’t traveled extensively so the options were still limited.
The third opened to other realms and required a significant amount of magic. This was what she’d need to create to banish Deidamia. Then she’d use even more magic to seal the portal shut forever and destroy it.
But memorizing the symbols wasn’t as easy as she’d initially expected. And there were dozens of variations regarding how long portals could remain open, how to maintain them and so on. Pinching the bridge of her nose, sheheaved a sigh.
“Hey, love.” Casimir’s voice startled her.
He sat beside her, placing a kiss on her temple as he set a tray of tea on the table.
“The librarians will be upset if you get tea on the books.”
