Page 199 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

Thora frowned at him. “Something happier.”

Alaric ran into the meeting room at that moment, breathless and panting. Tears streaked his red cheeks as he took in Thora and Eren. “Gods, blessed gods.” He opened his arms wide and Thora flew onto his embrace. The same as she’d done when she’d been little.

He pulled back to cup her face, his eyes spilling with tears. “You’re all grown.”

“You look old now.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, nice to see you too, Thora.”

She cocked her head to the side to study him. “It must be that dreaded beard.”

Alaric pinched her nose making her yelp. “You never change, do you? Rottenly sincere.”

My sister shrugged. “You told me to never lie.”

He laughed. “I did, didn’t I?” Alaric’s attention softened and melted again when he looked at my brother. “Son.”

Eren and him shared a long embrace. The two had been the closest to one another. Eren was the son Alaric always wanted and Alaric was the father Eren never had.

“Forgive me,” Alaric said through sobs. “Forgive me for not being there that night. For letting your mother die, for losing you, for making Snow hurt the way no child should ever hurt.”

“Nothing to forgive you for,” my brother said. “I bear the guilt for making all the wrong decisions that night.”

The food I was chewing began turning bitter. “If we are all quite done pointing fingers and bearing guilt, might we please sit down. You’re giving me indigestion.”

Eren cocked a brow at me. “Some things never change.”

Alaric laughed and clasped his shoulder, “Trust me, not for one moment.”

Thora tilted her head to me. “Men in this family are too emotional.”

I smiled at her and she smiled back at me. Had we ever smiled at one another before?

It was her who looked away first, lowering her tear glazed eyes to the table and swallowing hard.

The air was awkward. We’d all gone silent. I never ate in silence. I wanted to know it all. How they had lived and how they had grown. If they had suffered, if they had been in pain. But somehow I couldn't. Somehow, I didn’t know how to form those questions. So I only stared at them, glancing between my brother and sister and holding back tears.

It was real.

If I extended my hand to touch her she would not vanish between my fingers.

The dining room began filling with people arriving for breakfast. The more greetings, tears, hugs and blessings I heard the more the ache in my chest soothed. It was real. They were real.

Sebastian came into the dining room, bowing to all of us. He stood taken aback, staring between my sister and I. “You do look alike.”

“Eren,” Alaric said, “You remember my nephew, Sebastian.”

My brother offered him a polite smile. “Of course.”

My spy bowed again at him before regarding me with a troubled look. “Silas has gone mad over Isjord looking for you.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Thora and Eren tense. “A little bit more madness won’t hurt him, Bash.”

“My queen,” he called, sternly. “He is turning over every rock in Isjord. The Night King was masquerading as the unblessed emissary and now Silas thinks or likes to think the unblessed have something to do with this. He is practically holding them all hostage in Tenebrose. You have just given him a pretext to attack the unblessed and raid their lands for the sceptre and the metal. The unblessed Isles will do nothing to aid the Vrammethen mainland. Not when there is reason. Comnhall will be the next Adriata and he will get his metal with no trade at all.”

“You said the unblessed are still in Isjord?”

He nodded.