Page 58 of Season Warriors & Wolves

White Pawn to D3

Snowlin

Oryn had portalled us to Olympia, on top of the tower where I had stood so many times. My chest clutched with pain and relief at once when I took in the mountains surrounding us, the city bursting with life, the skies drenched in sunlight and the soft wind that was no longer sharp against my skin, but a soft kiss.

Home, I was home. A bright home.

A hand on my shoulder brought me out of my mourning and right into another sort of grief. Cai towered over me for a moment, studying the whole of me. The green of his eyes had been swallowed by the brown specks, almost rendering them lifeless. “You should have never made that promise if you were going to break it this many times.”

“Cai, I–”

“Don’t say you’re sorry,” he snapped. After a few more silent moments, he let out a long, trembling exhale and stepped back. “We will talk later. Come find me when you have something other than an apology to give.”

Eren ran the terrace distance to me, lifting me in his arms and spinning us round while I clung to him hard enough to snap him in half. “I wish we didn’t have so many reunions, Lin.”

The moment he put me down, I hit my fist in his chest. “You never told me. You never told me what he did to you. Why wouldn’t you tell me, Eren? Why?” My fingers went to the scars on his face, faint, so very faint, but how deep within they rooted. “Why did you lie to me?”

He put a hand on my cheek and shook his head. “It all erased when I tucked you and Rora in bed at night. The moment I saw you two nothing mattered anymore. Nothing hurt. I swear it.”

I rested my forehead in his chest, hoping to hide my tears. Last thing I wanted was to cause my people hopelessness. Over his shoulder, my soldiers lined the path down to the castle, a hand over their chest, bowing their heads to me. Alaric stood between them, solemn, not a single wrinkle to betray his stoic expression while he bowed along like the others. “My queen.”

The old man reached me, and I rested my head on his chest, wrapping my arms around his waist. In his embrace I always became that little girl who had never been held by a father. In his embrace I always became a loved daughter, an adored daughter—I always became a child. He was why I’ve never been jealous of other daughters.

“Kid,” he murmured, tightening his hold on me, and I got a taste of safety, of home.

“I am sorry.” For Alastair. For Sebastian. For leaving. For everything.

He sighed, rubbing my back. “So am I, kid. So am I.”

The comfort of it made my eyes draw shut. Comfort—it felt odd. All this time, my comfort had been something else. Something dark. I’d relied on the shadows beyond the mirror for far too long.

A little thing clung to my leg, and I finally let go of Alaric to pick up Leanna’s little monster. She clutched my cheeks with her small fingers and pulled hard. “Lila missed you, aunty. Did you miss Lila?”

“No,” I said, and she giggled, hugging my neck and almost suffocating me with her unnatural small child strength.

Another small thing hugged my side, her red hair tucked to my chest. Penelope cried silently, holding onto me for dear life. “I know you haven't missed me either,” she said, crying louder. “But I have missed you.”

“You’ve grown.”

She wailed. Hard. Loud.

I laughed.

She cried harder.

Nia had managed to pry the both of them off of me at some point to let me greet my soldiers and court. Amongst words of welcome and prayers of safe return I almost missed the swift change of the wind around me and how much warmer it grew.

My words cut off when I noticed the figure ascending the steps to the terrace. Like a dream I’d dream too many tortuous nights, he stood there. His hair was longer, there were dark shadows covering his face, and even his silver eyes had somewhat turned darker. His chest rose rapidly despite the calm on his beautiful face.

Slowly, I made my way to him. Slowly, because my whole world was spinning out of its axis, rotating with such speed that every balance that had ever existed in me was broken off. He didn’t move. I don’t think he was even breathing anymore at all. But his eyes traced me, hopeful—radiance returning to the dull of grey that reminded me of autumn skies.

Once I was close enough to touch him, I said, “Hello, handsome.”

He slowly raised a hand to graze the ends of my hair, twirling the strands around his fingers. “Hello, my gorgeous girl.”

We moved quicker than light itself. I was in his arms, tugged tightly to his chest, my legs rounding to lock around his waist while he enveloped me entirely in his embrace, head burying between my hair.

All the time I’d felt like a part of me had been torn out, pulled from my flesh and left me hollow. It felt like I became whole again. Two parts of me crashing into place. Everything silenced around me, almost like a snap. The voices, the sounds, the cries and laughter. The mocking voice was gone. The emptiness filled with his voice, the sounds of his heart, the pattern of his breaths.