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A pale hand curled around Kit’s upper arm, turning her away from the balcony railing. Nox rode a shadowy current to get a better vantage point as Tenny drew Kit into a hug.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Tenny asked as they parted.
“I’ll give you one guess,” Kit said, taking one of Tenny’s long, strawberry-blond curls between her fingers.
“It’ll be all right,” Tenny said soothingly. “They’ll be back.”
“Will they? You were there when they left. It was a goodbye.”
“I know what they said, but . . . There’s still so much we don’t know. If I’ve learned anything from the various adventures you and Elle and Ric have gone through, it’s that the celestials are fickle beings. And Nox is . . . Well, I hardly believe they’ll be content to follow Noctis’s instructions for the next thousand years with no protestation.”
Kit released a low laugh. “Maybe you’re right,” she said, though she didn’t sound sure.
“And if nothing else,” Tenny offered, sweeping her thumb across Kit’s cheek, “we don’t know how much of their contract they’ve already served. They could have anywhere from nine to nine hundred years left. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“I do not necessarily find that comforting, love.”
“Well, knowing you, I find it unlikely to think you’ll be able to wait around for too long either way.”
“Hey now, I’m an exceedingly patient person, you know.” Kit tugged lightly on Tenny’s hair, eliciting a soft giggle. “And anyway . . . who says I’m waiting around?”
Nox desperately wished they could step out of the shadows. Not only to see them, to remember what it felt like to touch them—to touch anything—but to shake some sense into them both.
Do not look for me, they wanted to say. And by the Five, do not wait for me.
But there was nothing they could do, banished as they were to this special hell, this slice of the in-between reserved for Nox and Nox alone. Here, where they were forced to watch the world go on from behind a veil of shadow—like looking through a window, without even being able to do so much as tap on the glass.
If this was the punishment Lord Noctis had deemed fitting for defying him, though, Tenebris Nox would gladly take it. They’d been granted far worse for far longer, after all. And at least this way, for now, until they were summoned again, until they were required again, they could watch. They could make sure she was . . . happy.
Could make sure they both were.
And if Nox themself could not be the one to provide her comfort, they were glad Tenny could.
Something stirred behind their ribs as they watched Kit lean back from Tenny, one hand still toying with the curls at her shoulder, the other moving to wrap around the back of her neck. Two pairs of fascinating eyes met, and two simultaneous inhales passed through parted lips.
Then Nox watched those lips meet.
Tenny melted into Kit, her hands moving to cup the fae’s face. Kit’s fingers tangled in the curls at the base of Tenny’s neck.
The kiss was tender and pure, full of unspoken promises, and Tenebris Nox wondered if any of the things the two of them were feeling matched the odd sensation currently curling around their own ribs. It wove tightly in the space where, perhaps, their heart used to be.
Where maybe it still lived, deep and dark and swathed in shadow as it was.
Where maybe the smallest fragments of ice had begun to pierce through.
Nox filled the space with the way Kit’s lips had felt pressing against their own, imagining they were doing so once more. That it was them standing on that balcony, arms wrapped around their little fae.
It would have to be enough.
For now.
EPILOGUE II: AFTER
CEDRIC & ELYRIA
One year after the Battle of Kinsgaith
Cedric
