“Well, niece, I hear you’ve got yourself in quite the trouble,” my uncle says, emerging from the forest. “Missed me so much you decided to join me in my fugitive lifestyle?”
“Uncle Adrien!” I leap into his arms. He sweeps me off my feet and rocks me in the air until he lays eyes on my sister.
When I’m back on solid ground, I watch her approach him with cautious wonder. “I thought you were dead.”
His mouth quirks to one side. “Now, why in the Blight would you think that?”
Her scowl makes me chuckle. Somewhere inside me, I know I shouldn’t be able to feel such warmth so soon after just having abandoned everything I’ve ever known—again—but being with them, with family, makes it easy to forget for a moment, however fleeting it may be.
“Surprised to see you here, too, Kalli,” Adrien finally admits, his tone turning somber. “And I’m sure it wasn’t your choice.”
Her jaw tightens when she looks away. “No, but I suspected it was bound to end up like this eventually.”
The unanswered questions cling to the air, dangerous and unpredictable, like branches that have already broken from the tree but have yet to plummet to the ground. I can’t turn away. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. With Adrien and Imryll together, Kalli and I can finally have the answers we need.
But Adrien’s expression softens. He tilts his head to something behind me with a gentle suggestion.
Begrudgingly, I turn around. Dimitri stands off away in the distance, his back turned to the rest of us. His arms are rigid at his sides, his hands balled into fists.
Looking back to my uncle, he reassures me without a single word that we will have time to talk later. So, I make my way over to Dimitri.
When I lace my hand into his, his fingers don’t respond. They dangle around my hand like he isn’t even aware I’m beside him.
“I’m worried about them too,” I admit softly, hoping not to disturb him too much, but enough to let him know he’s not alone. As long as I’m alive, he never will be alone. “But the Crusaders are strong. They will survive without us.”
Dimitri yanks his hand from mine. His chin dips as he avoids my piercing gaze.
Unsure of what to do, I finally start to walk away.
“I’m going back.”
His words are quiet, but they carry the resounding force of an earthquake, one that makes me unsteady on my feet.
“You’re…what?”
He pivots to face me. “I saw you to your freedom, but I cannot abandon my vows, Halira.”
Tears sting my eyes and I rush toward him. My hands claw at his chest. “You can’t go back. Dimitri, I need you.”
His calloused hands close over mine. “I can’t be a fugitive. The whole point of this was to defend the land so that we could find peace and live a normal life again. I love my country. I plan to grow old, to have children, and to share with them the love of my land. But if I stay with you, even after Qaeus is defeated, we’d still be running. We’d never be allowed in Arcathain again, not without threat of hanging for the abandonment of our posts and evasion of the law.”
My face twists with the onset of grief. It hasn’t quite dug its claws into my heart yet, but then again, I’m still not convinced he’s leaving. There’s still a chance that I can persuade him to stay, for me, for us.
“But…I love you.” I imagined the words having more power than they do in my throat, but they waver and warble as I drown in sorrow. I bite my lip, and hope that when I hear him utter them back to me it’ll be all the bandaging my aching chest will need.
But he doesn’t say a word.
Dimitri stares into my eyes with so much resolve that I whimper. The battle I was preparing to fight has already been lost, his mind already made up. He’s choosing Arcathain over me.
“What will you tell them?” I ask him, my voice a trembling brook. They’ll arrest you for helping me and my sister escape.”
He nods, as if thinking to himself. “They think you’re a mage. I’ll tell them you used your magic and forced me to release you.”
A sad smile twists my lips, another sob breaking loose. His response comes too swiftly for it to have been thought of in this moment. I wonder how long he’s planned on leaving me. Did he decide as we crossed into the Shadowthorn and the gravity of his decisions began to sink in? Did he begin to wonder while we were fighting through the demons in the courtyard? Or has he known ever since he stepped foot into the dungeons?
“I’m sorry,” he says, as if somehow confirming my suspicions.
I shove him away, hot anger coursing through me. “Is this because of what I am? A druid?”
He angles his head. “No, Halira. I…don’t even know what a druid is.”
“Exactly. And that terrifies you. When you thought I was a mage, you knew you could at least replace the way you felt for me with loathing. You could pretend I was one of the heartless creatures who fled and abandoned us all to our fates. You would’ve gladly blamed me and the part my heritage played in Qaeus’ growing power, in the loss of your sister and mother and father.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it, though? You were so eager to blame me, you were practically relieved to see me in that cell.”
His hand comes to his forehead, and he massages it like I’m irritating him, but all I see is a man hiding his face, his shame.
“And now that I’m not a mage, but a descendent of druids who dwelled in the Forgotten Forest of Eyve, you want nothing to do with me.”
“You’re not just a fucking descendent, Halira! You are one of them!”
The disdain in his voice causes me to shrink back. I press my hands against my throbbing chest. Now, is when grief sinks its claws into me.
Dimitri sighs, rubbing his temples before looking back at me. “You told your sister you can summon animals—your aunt can even turn into one. She caused an earthquake just to free you from your chamber, and I’m not blind. I saw the way you started that storm. And now that I’ve had time to think about it, those things have always happened around you. The few times you came hunting with me, it was like the animals were warned before we even set foot in the forest. You’d part the clouds when you wanted to spend a day at the lake, your garden flourished the year everyone else’s became diseased.
“So don’t fool yourself, and don’t lie to me. It’s not just about you being a descendent. You have powerful magic, power that no one should possess, power that you can’t even control.”
I hang my head low, aware that we’ve drawn the gazes of our travel companions.
“Then you should leave,” I say, my voice quiet and clipped.
Dimitri doesn’t say anything for a long, excruciating moment. It lasts so long that I’m not even sure he’s still there. But when I hear his soft, approaching footsteps, the ache in my chest eases for a moment. Maybe he’s changed his mind. Maybe he’s realized that I’m still the same person that’s been his friend for years, the same girl he’s spent the last few months entangled in.
He presses his soft lips to my forehead. For what I fear might be the last time, I relish the graze of his smooth chin on mine.