Fury surged. I raised my hand to strike.
He caught me easily, trapping my wrist, the motion pulling me against him. His arm circled my waist, a mockery of an embrace.
His smile thinned, his voice brushing my skin. “You’d best hurry back before someone else decides to use him.”
His eyes gleamed, catching what little light there was. Then the dark broke, and he fell away.
And I was falling up.
57
Aurelia
I woketo Malachi and Colette standing over me. Concern shadowed both their faces. I pushed to sit, bracing myself with one arm, the other at my temple.
“We need to get to Aeryn,” I said, the words scraping out before anything else. “Have you seen him?”
Colette’s mouth tightened. “You just missed him. He picked up tea and was headed home.” She hesitated, guilt threading her tone. “I’m sorry, Aurelia—for all of it.”
We all cling to the things we think will save the people we love. Sometimes those things do more harm than good. Sometimes they only delay the breaking. But love makes us hold them tighter anyway.
“It’s okay,” I murmured.
Her eyes softened, but she shook her head. “No. It is not okay. But I’ll accept forgiveness, if you’re offering.”
“I forgive you,” I whispered, leaning forward to embrace her. Her arms were solid, steady, smelling faintly of sage and smoke. “I’ll come back before Ileave.”
The raven, perched on a high beam, croaked as if in judgment.“Chains break, thorns bleed.”
“Oh hush, you,” Colette fussed, flapping her hand toward him. “Spewing nonsense these days.”
We left together, slipping out of town by back lanes, avoiding the busy square.
“What happened back there?” Malachi asked at last, his voice careful. “Did you dream?”
“Yes. Kaelith was there. He spoke to me like he’d been waiting. He told me every time I close my eyes, I call to him.”
Malachi’s jaw worked, a muscle ticking at his temple. “Dream-walking,” he muttered. “I wondered if the bond would give him that reach.” His gaze cut toward me, gold eyes catching what light was left. “The question is whether it gives you the same reach, whether you can walk back. Powers like yours don’t come without reflection. If Kaelith can touch you in dreams, it means you might be able to touch him, to harness some of his power, too.”
The thought hollowed me out. My hand crept to the back of my neck, rubbing the skin where the mark lay as if I could quiet it by touch. We didn’t know what I was becoming, or how much of Kaelith I carried with me now.
By the time we reached the horses, my chest was tight with urgency. We mounted, the path carrying us through the woods, hooves knocking ground, branches scraping leather, until the cliffs opened wide to sea and sky.
And there he was. Aeryn.
A bundle of tools slung across his back, shoulders browned by sun.Good—he’d been outside.Taller now, a young man in every line of him, but still my little brother. I knew he’d have the same eyes. The same freckles scattered across his cheeks.
He looked up. Stopped.
I swung down from the saddle, boots striking stone. The reins slipped from my hands as I thrust them back toward Malachi without looking.
And for a heartbeat, neither of us moved.
Aeryn dropped the tools. Ran.
I met him halfway. He fell to his knees in front of me, arms wrapping tight around my waist, face pressed into my ribs. And he cried. Not the quiet kind, not the kind that could be mistaken for something else. No, this was the sound of something breaking open—something that had been held too long, too tightly.
“I thought—” his voice cracked, trembling, “I thought you weren’t coming back.”