Page 36 of A Sunwoven Ascent

Magic. Not dark magic. Not the wrongness that stalked them. But his mother’s.

Stirred awake by light.

***

Dawn was still hours away, yet Wrenford already felt like a place they were meant to leave behind. The village had gone quiet once more, lanterns burning low, and across the open stretch where the packs had made their temporary camp, everyone moved with the brisk purpose of those preparing to disappear.

Evelyne worked beside Heidara, fingers stiff with cold as she tightened straps and folded cloth. She wasn’t graceful, not the way the wolves were, but she was stubborn and made herself useful anyway. She rolled blankets, stacked supplies, tied knots until they held. Anything to keep her hands busy. Because if she stopped moving, her mind would return to the tent. To Kaldrek’s blood. To Cillian. To the way relief had hit her so hard it had left her trembling.

They were leaving at first light. That was the agreement. Kaldrek needed sleep to recover from what had been done to his throat again. The healer had warned them he would be weak for a time even with Cillian’s help, but he would live. And that was enough for now.

Heidara kept pace with Evelyne, but she moved like someone wearing too much weight.

Evelyne handed her a bundle of stakes. “If you stab anyone with those, aim for the ones who deserve it,” she said lightly.

It earned the smallest sound from Heidara that might have been a laugh if she’d remembered how. They worked in silence for a few minutes, then Heidara spoke without looking up.

“I didn’t see it,” she said, her voice raw. “I didn’t see what was happening to him.” Heidara’s hands went still on the rope. “He was right beside me. And I just… kept telling myself he was in a foul temper.” Her lips pressed into a thin line. “As if he weren’t drowning right in front of me.”

Evelyne swallowed and forced her hands to keep working. “If guilt could mend anything,” she said quietly, “the world would be spotless.”

Heidara’s eyes cut to hers, bright with grief. “I should have known.”

“So should I,” Evelyne admitted. The words turned to ash in her mouth. “He was my best friend before he was anything else, and I still failed to see it.”

Heidara let out a bitter laugh. “You missed it because you were trying to save your brother and learn an entirely new life. Learning to be a wolf. Learning to stand beside an alpha. You were surviving. But I…”

“You missed it because you were busy holding everyone else together,” Evelyne said. “What the pack experienced was traumatic. Not just for me.”

Heidara’s mouth trembled. She looked away quickly, as if emotion were something she could outrun.

“I was just starting to…” Heidara’s voice broke, then steadied again. “I was just starting to let go. I told myself he didn’t feel the same and I convinced myself it was safer to stop wanting him.”

“Heidara—”

“And then,” she went on, the words coming faster now, as though once they began there was no stopping them, “Beau appears. With his pack. As if the world enjoys cruel timing.”

Evelyne’s hands stilled for the briefest moment. She had seen the way Heidara had gone rigid the first time Moonshade entered camp, the way her shoulders had drawn up as though bracing for a blow.

“He has no right,” Heidara muttered. “No right to walk back into my life and behave as though what he did was not… was not devastating.” Her jaw tightened. “I hate his beautiful face. I hate that deep voice. I hate that I ever let myself care, and I hate even more that all those feelings came rushing back the moment I saw him.”

“And yet here he is,” Evelyne said, dry as dust as she tightened a strap until it squealed. “A man with impeccable timing and not a shred of shame. But you need not feel guilty for what stirred back to life.”

That drew a shaky breath from Heidara at last. They moved to the next pile of supplies, and Evelyne bent to gather a stack of folded canvas.

When Heidara spoke again, her voice was quieter. “I do not know how to carry all of it at once.”

“One piece at a time,” Evelyne said.

A shadow fell across the lantern light and her friend went rigid.

“Heidara,” Beau said.

Evelyne straightened slowly and turned. Beau stood a few paces away, hands open at his sides, posture careful. He looked like he’d rehearsed this approach in his mind a hundred times and still hadn’t found a way to make it painless.

“Don’t,” Heidara said immediately. “Don’t start.”

Beau flinched. “I just want to talk.”