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They were family. He wore a tether of bones at his side now, just like they did. Meunter ijotande. Never forgotten. This settlement was in his blood now, and he had a passion to see it thrive.
“They have it covered, brother, thank you.”
I made sure dinner was beef stew—not venison and leek—and that there were plenty of potatoes for Priya.
Vairlyn always looked forward, and I tried to learn from her. Trees were planted in the new open space, and a lower garden was created that included a greenhouse, because Jalaine had loved to garden.
I destroyed Phineas’s papers that had been in Zane’s saddlebag, burning them before I ever went in search of my mother. It will never be over. Not now. A door has been unlocked. Beaufort had been executed, but his words still haunted me.
Someone like Phineas only comes along once every few generations. And someone like Montegue. I prayed it would be even longer than that. I prayed that hungry dragon would stay in his dark den forever.
She began laying her spoons out in plain sight to make it easy for me, which of course took away all the fun. And then on nights when I refused to come to dinner she left a small meal out for me on the tiny table in the kitchen. She understood my head when I didn’t even understand it myself.
all. Ever. Not even with Wren and Synové. Affection, like love, was best tucked away so you didn’t become accustomed to it. At least that was what I used to think.
When I reached the gathering beneath the oak trees, there was no longer the Ballenger-Vendan divide. Everyone was spread out, finishing their dinners, perched on whatever seat they could find, stacks of lumber, sides of wagons, overturned buckets, and the few benches we had brought along.
Lydia and Nash had already gobbled up their dinners and huddled near the center oak with Kerry, their flutes in hand as he tried to teach them the tune of “Wolf Moon.” Gunner sat off from the crowd—with Jurga—slowly eating his stew, his eyes mostly on her. I searched for Jase and spotted him sitting on a crate in deep conversation with King Jaxon, both of them with sleeves rolled up, their boots thick with dust. Kerry said they had all been digging post holes together.
Eridine and Hélder circled their arms through Vairlyn’s, and Aram and Samuel grabbed Wren’s hands, pulling her over to join them.
“You just want to make wrong guesses so you can kiss me.” I clucked my tongue. “You’re onto me, Patrei.”
I was lost in its magic. Lost in wonder. Lost in gratitude. Utterly lost, but completely found, Captured, taken … a prisoner bound.
A wilderness sprang up around us, wish stalks filled our pockets, and a chain jingled between our ankles. The twists and turns I never could have foreseen, the steps that brought us from there to here, they tumbled through my head in an astonishing blur.
The queen once told me there were a hundred ways to fall in love. Maybe there were a hundred ways to find and give forgiveness too. I think I had already found a few of them.
A bit of the past, a bit of the future. The first new city of Tor’s Watch.
He peeked over my shoulder. “Getting it all down?” “Every word.” “Good,” he whispered. “We have a lot of shelves to fill.” I closed the book, stuffed it in my saddlebag, and we left to go home. Who will write our story, Jase? We will, Kazi. You and I will write our own story. And side by side, every day, that is what we do.
Lowly thieves, the crow thought, that’s all jays are. But a glint caught the crow’s attention. He circled, eyeing the prize. What had the jay stolen now? Something colorful and shiny.
Dust slipped from the tiny vial, leaving a nice glittering trail behind him. Some of it floated to the ground; some caught on the wind, swirling upward into the clouds; and some whooshed away on currents traveling to places far beyond Tor’s Watch.
