Page 54 of Henrikk’s Secret

Was the Other Henrikk free of the dragon’s magic and trying to reconcile his past and make amends, just like he was? Or was he continuing down the dark path he’d forged?

“It’s out of your control now, so there’s no point worrying about it,” Asher had said.

Henrikk wished it was that easy. He’d never been one to worry. Never had the time or inclination to second-guess himself. But the island had a way of peeling away the layers of a person, magnifying their qualities in painstaking detail.

Asher, in his opinion, was flawless. And no one else’s opinion really mattered on the subject—because there wasn’t anyone else.

So there.

The quietness of the island could be suffocating at times. Too much time to think was not necessarily a good thing, he concluded, after wondering whether he deserved to continue living after the suffering he’d caused.

“You will need to forgive yourself eventually,” Asher had said last week.

Impossible. Unfathomable. Absurd.

But the suggestion that self-forgiveness might be possible was uplifting. Moreover, the knowledge that Asher, whose decency Henrikk admired more than ever, believed that it was possible for him to turn over a new leaf…

Well, that made an impossible thing slightly less so.

It was a small seed of hope that had sprouted something that was both delicate and tenacious. It was the hope of a new life, one where Henrikk could make peace with himself and the ghosts that haunted him.

Right now, he would have struggled to face his own reflection.

Thank holy fuck that there were no mirrors on the island. Asher had joked, ‘How will you and your vanity survive without them?’, but truthfully, Henrikk was glad. The dragon had been intrigued by mirrors, and it had lived vicariously through Henrikk, filling Wintermaw Keep. The hall of mirrors, in particular, was an abomination that Henrikk wished he could demolish.

A pleasant breeze brought him back to the present. Asher shifted slightly beside him. “Shall we go up and take a better look?”

It was too dark to see anything from the viewing platform, and they both knew it, but he wasn’t about to deny Asher anything.

“Let’s.”

They climbed the new ladder to the landing. The view was little more than indigo waves amidst endless pitch black, but it had been worth the climb. There was more room on the platform, but they’d somehow ended up sitting closer together. Up here, things felt more intimate.

Henrikk stretched a long leg, the other bent at the knee as he traced the grains of timber, wondering why Asher had brought him up here. His heart beat a little faster.

“How have you been?” Asher asked, which was a question he asked him every day at breakfast, sometimes at lunch, and always at dinner.

Worried that I’m having suicidal thoughts.

But that danger had passed. There was still time to live a life that was meaningful. Maybe even a life full of love.

“I’m fine,” Henrikk responded as he always did.

“I need you, you know,” Asher said seriously.

“If you say so.”

“You’re the only other person on this damn island. So don’t go disappearing on me.”

“I won’t.”

“I mean it.”

Henrikk smirked. “I promise I won’t go sailing any dodgy rafts out into certain doom.”

“Point taken,” Asher said gruffly.

“I’ve been good, actually.”