Page 35 of Season Warriors & Wolves

Her eyes shot wide, and she shook her head fast as if I was to push her off the cliff. Except that she would jump herself. No pushing included. Unless she wanted to be pushed.

“I’m not jumping.”

“I can jump with you.”

She thought about it for a moment, pacing back and forth. “You think this will help?”

“Might. Might not. Unless you try, you will never know. Do you even want to try?”

“I do.”

She didn’t. “You don’t have to rush this. Healing is a slow process.”

She raised her eyes to me. “There is nothing ripped, torn or bleeding, no wounds either. I bear no scars like Eren or Snow. What am I healing, Kilian?”

“What hurts you without scars is often worse.” I tapped a finger on her brow. “Snow uses pain to unlock herself out of there and you use it to lock yourself back inside. If you’re relying on it in the least of ways, still reminded of it, those scars are not scars, they are still wounds. Why poke at them, Thora, why do you retreat back in there?”

She gathered her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them. “The reality is easier inside my head. Eren is happy there and Snow is happy there.” She turned to me. “But she was happy here as well. With you. With us. And I don’t want to miss it anymore. I want to see her happy in this reality, too. So I will try and stay in it for as long as I can. Mal was helping me, it was working. Thank you for taking over.”

“I will always be here, Thora, for anything you need.” I extended my hand to her and faded the two of us to Adriata. “You like water,” I said as we made the way to our rooms. “Perhaps you can first try a low height. A pool or a nearby diving cliff children play on.”

She didn’t respond.

“It is alright, Thora, if you do not—” I halted and spun to her, except that she was no longer beside me. She’d stopped in the middle of the stairs, looking over the training court where my brother’s soldiers were being led by their second in command. Her eyes had trained on Neo who leaned back on the fence, looking at the younger bunch trying to wrestle their powers away.

“See anything you like?” I asked.

She nodded and pointed a finger directly at my brother’s second in command. “I want him.”

That made me laugh—hard.

The younger Skygard frowned at me. “What? Can’t I have him?”

“Doesn’t work like that.”

Her brow quirked up and she walked the rest of the stairs to me. “Says who?”

“Mal won't like it. Are you alright with that?”

“Malik is not my brother or my father.”

Same song sung by two sisters. “Neo is his soldier—a brother almost.”

“Unless Malik wants him for himself, he can learn to mind his own business. And yes, I want to try jumping here first. When you’re done longingly staring at a single black hair you find in your room, please take me there. I don’t feel comfortable doing that with anyone else.”

“I do not stare at her hair longingly,” I said.

She waved a hand over her head. “Yes, you do.”

“I miss her.” So much. So much it is ripping me apart.

She cupped both hands over her mouth and shouted back, “I miss her, too.”

A portal opened behind me. Cai was painting. “We’ve spotted Vas again.”

“Perfect.”

Driada sat on the veranda looking over the lavender gardens when I returned to Amaris. Her gaze remained fixed and lost in the distance despite the massive needle she held in a trembling hand.