Page 51 of Forged in Fading

Pyry took a step closer. “I’ve been coming by every day to see if you came back. And I would’ve noticed your hair anywhere.”

Boden coughed in the other room, and Alvara rubbed a finger over each brow, tugging the corners of her eyes down. Would he ever learn when to keep quiet?

“Is someone here?” Pyry barged his way in as if he had any right to do so.

“What do you need.” She needed him to leave for his own safety.

He whirled on her. “What do I need? I needed to know you were alive.”

Alvara hadn’t exactly considered how her absence would affect anyone else, let alone Pyry, who had seemed all too happy to be rid of her. “I’m sorry, but I’m fine. Really. I’m just here to pick up some things before we head out.”

“We?” Pyry’s posture had gone rigid. Oh gods. She was never his to possess and definitely wasn’t anymore.

“Would you prefer to keep pretending I’m not here, or may I please come out now?”

She dropped her face into her hand. These two would be her fading. “You can come out.” There was no easy way to explain any of this to Pyry without putting him or the people of Ilmanir in danger.

Boden’s steps thudded on the floorboards, and his warm arm slid around her shoulder. Alvara stiffened. “Alva,” he said, stretching out her nickname, “won’t you introduce me?”

That’s it, his funeral would be tomorrow. Boden knew godsdamned well who Pyry was and was only goading him. But he had to know that Pyry’s hand in his father’s passing was wholly unintentional.

Pyry’s gaze snapped to Alvara’s shoulder, where Boden’s irritating fingers were drumming a pattern. “Who is this?”

He hadn’t seen Boden at the palace. A small stroke of luck…maybe. Alvara untangled herself and elbowed Boden in the side. “We’re…” There was no single word to describe their relationship or lack thereof.

“Friends,” Boden said with too much delight, and she glared at him.

Pyry’s eyes traveled back and forth between them, his jaw locked so tightly she swore she heard a tooth crack. She glanced at Boden. His tunic still clung to his muscled chest, wet with sweat from sparring, and his hair lay about in a sopping mess. She didn’t need to peer down to know she looked just as disheveled.

“Boden, can you go make yourself useful somewhere else?” Alvara jerked her head toward the kitchen.

A sly grin drew up the sides of his mouth. “I can make myself useful however and whenever you’d like.”

Oh, for Vitharen’s sake. He withdrew from the room, leaving Alvara to deal with the consequences of his little show.

Pyry spoke through tight lips. “What in Dalviri’s name is going on, Alva?”

“I’m safe. That’s all that matters. I⁠—”

“That’s all that matters? Who is that bastard?”

Alvara laid a hand on his arm, but Pyry shook it off. “He’s no one. Please just leave. The more you ask, the more danger you might put yourself in.”

“I thought. You. Had faded,” he said, his voice dropping lower with each word he forced out.

“Boden said he would have a message delivered⁠—”

“A message written in someone else’s hand. It didn’t even say where you were. What was I supposed to think?” A vein throbbed on his pale forehead. “You’re not leaving again. Not with him.” The tone he had taken on made her itch for her dagger. But no, this was Pyry. He was just upset.

“You don’t get to decide what I do, Pyry. When I was drowning after Eloisa’s fading and my mother’s—” Her voice faltered. “You left me.” It came out softer than she had expected. “You lost any right to be concerned for me or have a say in my life.”

His arms hung loosely at his sides, and his head drooped. Maybe he would finally listen for once. “It wasn’t…No. I couldn’t help my father. I won’t let it happen again.”

Pyry pounced, and his icy grip yanked her toward the door. Alvara’s nails dug into her leg to keep from leaving him in a whimpering heap on the floor. He was acting ridiculous, but she didn’t want to hurt him if she could help it.

“Pyry,” she said slowly, “let go of me. Right now.”

“I would listen if I were you,” Boden said, and Pyry paused, though frozen crystals radiated from his fingers across her skin. “I have no doubt she could knock you unconscious without wasting a breath.”