She stops when she sees me awake. Only for a moment.
Then she moves again, composed as ever. We look at each other across the small space, and for a few seconds neither ofus speaks. Everything that happened in the ruin sits between us without needing to be said, the weight of it clear enough without explanation.
The artifact is gone. The mission failed. And we are still here.
“You’re awake,” she says.
“Yes.”
Her gaze shifts briefly to my side, assessing the bandage, then returns to my face. “You shouldn’t be trying to stand.”
“I’m not succeeding,” I reply.
There’s the faintest shift in her expression at that, something that almost resembles relief before it disappears again.
I am watching her, taking in the details I missed at first glance, the way she holds herself as though she hasn’t fully stepped out of the chaos yet, the tension still carried in her shoulders.
“You made a decision,” I say.
Her gaze doesn’t waver. “Yes.”
No explanation. No attempt to soften it.
The fire cracks softly between us, the only sound in the cave for a moment as the light continues to fade outside.
Finally, there is nothing immediate to control, nothing to direct, nothing to correct.
Only the result. I failed, and now I need to fix everything.
29
AERYN
The cave holds heat better now. Not much, but enough that the cold no longer settles into my bones the way it did when we first arrived. Night has fully settled outside by now, the same brutal night we escaped the ruins and lost the artifact. The fire has burned lower, steady and controlled, fed just enough to last without drawing attention, and I sit close enough to it to feel the warmth along my hands while keeping my focus fixed on him.
Vaedros hasn’t moved much since I came back. He didn't talk, nor tried to pick a fight with me.
That, more than anything, tells me how bad the injury is.
He’s too proud to show weakness where it can be avoided, too precise in everything he does to waste energy on anything unnecessary, and yet he remains where I left him, his posture adjusted only enough to manage the pain rather than overcome it.
Good. That means he understands his limits.
I glance toward the cave entrance, letting my vision stretch outward, not fully, not enough to lose myself in it, but just enough to confirm what I already checked twice on the way back.The paths remain clear. No movement close enough. No patrols shifting toward us yet.
Still, I don’t trust it. I never trust it. The future doesn’t stay still long enough for that.
I look back at him and reach for the small bundle I brought in with me, unwrapping it carefully to reveal what little I managed to gather, dried meat, a handful of bitter roots, water that tastes faintly of stone but is clean enough to serve its purpose.
It isn’t much. It will have to be enough.
“You need to eat,” I say, keeping my voice even as I move closer.
His gaze lifts to me, sharp despite everything, measuring as always. “I’ll survive without it.”
“That’s not the goal.”
I kneel beside him, placing the food within reach but not yet letting go of it. “Staying alive is the minimum. I need you functional.”