The King's Remorse

Chapter 12

Make Things Right

TRIGGER WARNINGS: violence consistent with a fantasy battle; this is a continuation of the last chapter and the content will be similar, just what happens next. Self-sacrifice, a big death. An offer of death, a question of if one would like another to take their life. Out of anger and frustration, one character heavily implies that he thinks another should use magic that would cost them their life; not directly telling them to take their life, but he says to ‘make things right’ and they both know what he’s referring to— that magic. Jabez does not react well to Arcane making his appearance, and his headspace reflects that.

Panic blooms in my chest like freezing water expanding upon itself over and over until it’s unrecognizable from what it was before.

“Arcane!” Ky cries, pricking his ears as my heart plummets through my paws and I cannot stop the deluge of images crashing over my eyes and mind from one of the worst days in my life.

Arcane killed my love. He sent her to Lucius before her time. He made a mistake, but it cost her everything. Arcane’s power should have healed that wound on Freedom’s shoulder, and instead he took her life.

She was my everything, and while we’d drifted apart after the King took Astra away and Brook brought her to the Field, each too caught up in our own grief to know how to remain together, I never stopped loving her. The days passed by too fast for me to know how much time had actually gone by until it was too late and I could no longer say goodbye. Freedom was gone, and I couldn’t tell her how much she meant to me and how much I loved spending time with her and how much I adored waking up a little early to watch the sun rise together and how much I cherished getting to have her in my life. I couldn’t tell her how much I loved watching her with our daughter, how the way she had to arrange things just right in our own home before she could sleep amused me, how I’d never forget the way she’d squint her eyes when she focused, how the way her mane and feathers glowed when the sun hit just right stole the breath from my lungs and the way her black eyes turned into starlit skies made time stop in its tracks. I wanted to tell Freedom that she was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen and ever would see. I wanted to tell her how much I loved her and still do love her. I want to tell her that I’d give anything to have our family back together again.

But I cannot.

Because Freedom is dead, and she died at the paws of Arcane.

The same Midnight Wolf making his way into the Sea right now. He’s tall enough that he stands over the tents. People gasp in shock, the same number flocking towards him as those who move away. Stars and galaxies swirl on Arcane’s body, made up of a million different colors, except all I can see is the rainbow of Freedom’s wings, all the colors on her body and in her feathers. Stars shine on Arcane’s pelt, but I can only see the constellations I’d try to trace in Freedom’s eyes as she watched the sun rise and set every day.

Tears burn in my eyes and freeze on my cheeks as I sniffle and choke on a breath.

“He accidentally hurt Freedom,” Astra says, voice level and neutral. I twist my shoulders and arch my neck as much as it will move to look at her. She studies Arcane with a tilted head and a curious expression.

“He did. He killed her, but he did not mean to.”

Astra hums, lips twisting.

Above Arcane, the Dragon tussles with Phoenix, who roars and claws at the Dragon’s scales as its snakehead tail arches and lunges for the black cat.

Ky yowls as Phoenix contorts his body to miss the snake’s fangs. I shudder and shake when I catch a glimpse of the purple venom dripping from the snake’s teeth into its mouth and down its throat.

The Dragon rises up into the air, and Ky paces back and forth. Brook watches everything as she tries to catch her breath. Foam collects on her fur a physical manifestation of just how much the portal she created cost her. I steel myself, staring down the Dragon and shoving down the panic with everything I have.

I have never had enough energy for more decades than I care to count, but I draw upon everything I have and tap into the ice powers I avoid using for that very reason; they cost far too much energy. With Astra behind me, I have everything to lose and have to try.

I want Arcane to help. He’s the Midnight Wolf and he has power that rivals that of the Dragon. But he used his power wrong and it cost Freedom her life.

As the Dragon’s jaws part and a stream of blazing fire pours from its maw, Arcane shifts his weight to his hind legs and rears up, a short bark falling from his mouth as he sprints forward, huge paws slipping on the ruined tents and charred pieces and bodies. People scream as they scatter. Arcane doesn’t step on anyone but destroys more tents in the process. The Dragon’s flames hit Arcane in the shoulder, and the Midnight Wolf stumbles back but doesn’t move, eyes squinted but not closed. The Midnight Tears sway, tantalizing as they seem to be so close to falling yet never do. They sparkle, visible even from so far away; Arcane towers over the remaining tents in the Sea.

Arcane takes the fire, the damage. All he does is squint and scrunch his nose for just a moment, so brief I almost miss it.

I flick my tail and stamp my paws as desperation and frustration curl in my chest like twin currents swirling together in the depths of an ocean, cold and quiet and so far from anything there’s no escape; unstoppable and unavoidable. I’m forced to feel both so fresh and raw, a scab yanked off to reveal the brand new skin, still so sensitive and the nerves still so raw.

How dare you only squint in the face of death, Arcane. If you were anyone else, you’d be dead. You’d have met Lucius. And yet you only squint in the face of such destruction. You saw death arrive when you meant to heal, and you did nothing when it was Freedom who Lucius took.

xxxx

I thought I’d found some semblance of peace with Freedom’s death, but seeing Arcane shattered any measure of balance I found. I’ve found myself falling, pulled straight to the depths of the churning oceans of grief and despair with dwindling air as the bands around my chest hold me down and squeeze until panic and pain spread through every crumbling piece of me, mixing together until I cannot tell them apart.

I miss Freedom so much. I never got to say goodbye or tell her I love her or say every little meaningless thing I wanted to, share every seemingly so mundane moment that with her felt so bright and novel because we were together. I want Freedom, but I can no longer play a part in her life since she is gone in the only permanent way.

I sink to the ground with a sob, pushing my cheek against Astra’s when she nuzzles into me.

“Freedom’s with Lucius,” she says. “Brook told me they’re very nice and take good care of everyone when they die.”

I bite my tongue until I taste blood. I want to scream. It’s not fair and I know life isn’t fair, but none of this should have happened. It doesn’t matter how nice Lucius may be, because Freedom should be here and she’s not.

What happened to the life I had as Ice? Couldn’t I have just died then and never have been brought back? I didn’t ask to be pulled from Lucius, and I didn’t ask to go through any of this. Freedom didn’t deserve to die. I want my lover and my best friend back. I want Freedom back, and I want Bryant back, not the King.

“I know,” I whisper when I no longer feel like if I open my mouth I will spit and snarl and yowl my anger to the world.

“Brook said that we can see Freedom again.”

Everything within me is so raw, nerves screaming, and it’s all far more than I can take. I want to claw at my skin until I’m free from this cage and can run until I’m somewhere that’s away. Somewhere I'm free from it all. Somewhere I don’t have to face the killer of my lover. Somewhere I don’t have to face my own daughter I do not know. Somewhere I do not have to face the betrayal of the very body I must live in until something finally gives out and I can escape.

“I know,” I croak, unable to tell Astra that I hope that’s true with every fiber of my being but that I do not know if Lucius will take me back.

Erebus did not bring me to life this time; the King did. I don’t know if that means Astra is not Erebus’s creation either.

If you won’t take me, Lucius, at least take Astra. Please. She deserves to meet her biological mother. They deserve to get to know each other and spend their eternity together. If you won’t take me, take Astra when it’s her time.

Phoenix slashes at the snakehead tail of the Dragon and wraps his jaws around its throat as his flames erupt across the Dragon’s scales. Reds and oranges mix with violet as the Dragon twists and flaps its wings to rotate in midair. Its jaws part, and I see each individual fang gleam in the sunlight, so big and long and sharp—

Ky screams, and blood drips down his muzzle and chest as his eyes glaze over and turn a foggy shade of brown. I tense as I watch Ky’s tan fur stain scarlet. My skin prickles with the ghost of the frozen collar of blood around my own throat, tightening until I felt I’d choke.

From atop the Dragon, Phoenix hesitates for just a moment. He watches his brother, and it’s enough for the Dragon to slam its palm into the black cat’s side and tear him from its body. Broken scales shine and glint in the sunlight, ripped from the Dragon’s skin as Phoenix falls through the air, jaws parted in a roar. I don’t see where Phoenix lands.

Ky’s blood drips onto the ground. It begins to coalesce, forming together in a stretching and squishing motion. I see two horns that pull away from a wrinkled face with a flattened nose and twin teeth that curl up, leaving lips curved into a harsh smile.

“The Blood Demon,” Astra whispers, voice hollow and faint. She backs up into me with a whimper. “Ky, you can’t die again. Arcane-. Arcane didn’t want to-. He-.”

“It’s not like last time. Nothing I can create is real, but the Blood Demon is. Gotta keep family safe.”

Ky takes off running into the Sea. Wyatt places a hand on Myles’s arm, gently keeping him in place.

“Arcane can help. We need to stay here,” they say. "See? The Dragon is coming.”

The Blood Demon stands up. Its red skin is stretched across a muscular frame, and its beady purple eyes lock onto the Dragon as its thin tail whips back and forth. With a bellow, it starts after Ky, hoofed hind legs stomping with every step.

Ky’s an illusionist. What is that? He said it’s real?

“Jabez,” Brook says, bringing me back to reality.

Fuck.

“Stop this,” Arcane murmurs.

He lifts a paw that halts the Dragon in its tracks when it dives again. It recoils, amethyst blood dripping from the wounds on its body as it flaps its wings. Phoenix isn’t on its body any more, and I don’t know where he is.

“We should help Ky,” Astra tells me. She turns around and stares up at me with big blue eyes.

I immediately shake my head. “No.”

“But he needs help! Phoenix does too!”

I shiver as panic seizes my body. “No. They can take care of themselves. Grey and Alex will help them. We need to stay over here. The Dragon is very dangerous.”

“But what if-.”

Brook drops her head and nuzzles into Astra’s back, ruffling her feathers.

“Ky and Phoenix can take care of themselves,” she says. “They are both very capable. It is safest for us over here.”

“The fuck you gonna do, Arcane?”

I perk up at Phoenix’s voice. He clambers up onto a pile of smoldering ruins, tail lashing. His flames blaze on his body. Ky’s with him, and the Blood Demon eyes the Dragon from behind the brothers. I see Grey and Alex too. Grey leans in to Alex’s side, mouth moving but I can’t hear what he says. Alex shakes her head.

“I’m sorry,” Arcane replies.

“I’m not the one you should apologize to.”

“I did the right thing,” he continues, though he doesn’t sound convinced. “I left. I-I didn’t use my powers. I haven’t. I can’t. I broke that with Ky, but…”

“You didn’t mean to kill Freedom,” Ky cries.

“And yet I still took her life.”

“You know you can make this right,” Phoenix drawls, lips twisting into a toothy grin.

Grey’s face falls into a look of horror.

The Dragon soars in the air, and its snakehead tail opens its mouth into an echo of a smile, all teeth and sharp, predatory angles. The Dragon mimics the expression, pricking its ears as it rotates its wings to circle the Sea again.

The Blood Demon watches the Dragon. One of its ears flicks, and its tongue lolls over the side of its jaw, dripping with saliva stained scarlet.

“You know what you did, Arcane,” Phoenix snarls, blood boiling and bubbling on his jaw. “You murdered Freedom. You killed her. You took her life. You sent her straight to Lucius.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Arcane snaps back, but the words have no bite to them.

He just sounds panicked, and I find myself curling my lips. It was an accident, but he didn’t have to do it. The wound would have healed on its own. Freedom may have walked with a limp. Her shoulder might never have healed right, but she’d still be here and we would’ve figured it out. She didn’t have to die.

“You can make this right,” Phoenix continues.

“No!” Ky shouts, catching on quicker than I do. “Stop it, Phoenix.”

“You know what you can do.” Phoenix scowls at his brother's flashed teeth.

“Arcane, don’t,” Grey says. “There’s always another way.”

The Midnight Wolf sits down. Agony flares within his expression.

xxxx

I’m crossing the Sea before I realize what I’m doing. It’s as if my paws have a mind of their own, and I lash my tail. The ocean of anger churns and batters within me, icy currents and crashing waves narrowing down to a pinpoint of fury.

“You don’t get to feel bad. You should have said no,” I spit when I’m close enough. The few remaining in the Sea make way. I hope the rest have found some semblance of safety if it still exists on Ragdon.

Arcane pricks his ears and zeroes in on me in an instant.

“I-I’m sorry,” he chokes out. “I didn’t- I didn’t mean to. I didn’t want to. I t-tried-. I tried to help. A-Aquarius.”

“You told me all of that before. I’ve heard it all. I know you didn’t mean to, but you still killed Freedom.”

“I can make this right,” Arcane says.

“How?” I shake my head, vision blurring with tears that drip down my cheeks in frozen lines of ice. “You killed her. You took everything Freedom was going to be away from her. You took every choice and decision she was going to make away from her. You took everything she was going to enjoy from her.”

Arcane cranes his neck down. He towers over the Sea, several times bigger than the Dragon Phoenix and Alex are trying to kill, but he doesn’t seem that large. He seems so small, and yet looming in his shrinking presence. He has the air of a killer, just not in the same way as the King.

I know he regrets what he did. He should, and I want him to. But regret changes nothing.

Arcane breathes, and Freedom does not. Arcane gets to choose, and Freedom does not.

Remorse will not bring back Freedom.

“How?” I repeat. “What can you possibly do that will make things right.”

Something flickers across Arcane’s face. He looks over our surroundings, the burning tents, the bodies, the splatters of blood, the Dragon that soars overhead, the smoldering ashes that I know will take so long to clean up, so far beyond repair that it will be starting anew.

“The world will be ablaze,” Arcane murmurs, tilting his head as he scans the Sea. “You were right.”

Who was right?

“Don’t do it,” Ky pleads.

“Why shouldn’t he?”

Horrified, Ky slaps Phoenix across the face with his paw, claws sheathed. “I’m not answering that. We both know why. I shouldn’t have to tell you. Shut your fucking mouth.”

Phoenix flashes a paw, claws grazing Ky’s cheek. “Don’t fucking touch me,” he spits, baring his teeth as he lunges toward his brother.

Ky doesn’t flinch. He frowns, eyebrows furrowing as he bares his teeth. “Stop being a fucking idiot. Shut your mouth before I make you.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Do I look like I’m joking?” Ky glares at Phoenix’s sneer, and he doesn’t back down until Phoenix rolls his eyes. “Realize what you’re telling Arcane to do and then think for one fucking second. Would you ask me to do the same?”

Phoenix scoffs.

“I thought so. Now don’t speak until you’ve got something nice to say.”

Arcane stands up, stretching out a hind leg as he arches his tail. He shakes out his pelt, and stars and galaxies twist and rotate with the movement. The swan on his foreleg flutters its wings and the rabbit on his muzzle flicks its ears.

“I appreciate your efforts, Ky,” Arcane says, “but Phoenix is right. This is the only way I can make things right.”

“How can you make things right?” I echo, repeating myself yet again. “You cannot.”

The Dragon dives and unleashes a spray of fire. Phoenix grits his teeth in a closed-mouth snarl as he leaps up vertically, forepaws stretched out as he reaches out with his magic and seizes control of the flames. The Blood Demon swipes a forearm at the Dragon’s wing, just as it passes over head. Together, the black cat and the Blood Demon shred the membrane of the Dragon’s wing and send it tumbling.

Grey hesitates, but Alex shifts into her wolf form and darts after the Dragon. Phoenix lands hard on his shoulder, ripping open the skin with a wound that looks far too similar to the one that Freedom sought out Arcane’s help for. I swallow down the nausea and look away, taking deep breaths. Phoenix doesn’t seem fazed and races after Alex. The Blood Demon slams a hoof onto the Dragon’s other wing, breaking bone. Ky takes out the Dragon’s snakehead tail, while Alex pins down its head, wrestling with it while trying to avoid its legs and teeth. Phoenix barrels into one of its forelegs, pushing it far enough that the joint begins to stretch past its range of motion.

“Make me,” he taunts. “I fucking dare you.”

“Hold the Dragon there, and it will be gone soon enough,” Arcane murmurs.

“Please,” Grey begs. “Don’t. Let’s talk about this. I’m listening, I assure you. We can take as long as we need. Just talk to me; I’ll listen.”

“I have to at least try. No more talking. I’m sorry, Jabez,” Arcane says, holding my gaze. I don’t look away, despite how much seeing Arcane’s red and green eyes makes my skin crawl. “I’m truly sorry. My apology changes nothing, but for what it’s worth, I really am sorry. I only meant to help.”

I can’t reply. I can only stare back. My voice is lost somewhere among the churning waves within, the endless, depthless ocean I simultaneously fight against but want to sink into.

xxxx

Arcane closes his eyes.

It takes me a few moments to realize just what he has done.

Arcane’s eyes are closed, and he never blinks. The Midnight Tears shimmer with a million stars and galaxies as they fall from his eyelids and begin to roll down his cheeks. Every second that ticks by lengthens evermore. The troubled expression on Arcane’s face relaxes into something peaceful, and anger sparks in my gut. The rage is a violent rip current curling and twisting and pulling everything until I feel ice prickling at my paws and the yawning void of Freedom’s loss that I thought had begun to scab over breaks apart anew, and every bit of pain I had once felt returns yet again, just as raw and agonizing as the first time I felt it.

How dare Arcane look peaceful.

How dare Arcane get peace.

How can he after he murdered my lover, my everything? How can Arcane get peace but I cannot? If Arcane does, does Freedom have peace? Is she at rest within Lucius’s claim, their domain, wherever they take those who have passed from Erebus’s creation into Lucius’s touch with their vulture in Ananta to guide the way? Is Freedom happy? Is she ok, in whatever definition of ok might still exist?

The Midnight Tears wriggle along Arcane’s chin until gravity’s pull becomes too much and they free fall. I watch, jaw slack. The Tears mingle and mix into one and every second stretches ever longer.

When the Midnight Tears hit the ground, the soil ripples like a water droplet in a lake. Arcane remains perfectly still, face lax, but his paws curve and arch, a reflection interrupted by splashing water. The undulating soil spreads further, growing rapidly in size and speed as Arcane freezes in space, as if time holds its breath for him. Jaws parted and eyes closed, Arcane doesn’t breathe, move, react. He just remains.

No one says a word, and it’s as if time really has stopped. The ripple continues until it’s out of my sight. I cannot look away from Arcane. Stars continue to twinkle across his colorful pelt. Galaxies twist around each other, but they soon begin to stretch, elongating in an extreme sort of way, bit by bit until they’re moving all at once toward some unclear center in a circular motion. The colorful swaths of stardust and constellations rotate around and around, and soon embers in the Sea stir into the air.

Phoenix snarls and digs his claws in deeper into the Dragon as bigger bits of the Sea stretch and break off. Alex breaks away from the Dragon and runs toward Grey, but she darts out of the way when one of the tents still standing gives out, burlap flapping into the air in stiff movements as the wooden trunks supporting each wall fall. One flips and contorts, stretched into a wispy remnant of what it once was.

A kaleidoscope of color surrounds Arcane in a churning whirlpool that rotates and collapses upon itself, drawing into somewhere within Arcane’s body.

Astra, I think as I watch the bits of things spiral around Arcane in an imitation of a twisting galaxy.

Brook had stayed back with Astra. I had left my daughter behind. It’s not just Arcane who’s getting pulled into the magic of the Midnight Tear; others in the Sea are too. I scramble back a few steps, then turn around, gritting my teeth against a spasm of pain in my neck. A ways away, I see someone get lifted into the air like they were floating away. One of their arms looks too long, and they bump into a chunk of wood. On the other side of me, a horse tumbles through the air, head over hooves with a sharp squeal of fear.

Except that I only make it a pace or two before I’m dragged back. Sinking my claws into the soil, I strain to make it any further, any closer to my daughter. Ice spurts into existence, freezing in sharp icicles that snap and hiss. The impulsive use of my magic drains energy tangibly.

I feel the magic of the Midnight Tear begin to work on me. Deep within my neck, the still-healing scarring wounds from the snake tug, and I feel pulling on my joints and old injuries in a way I never have before. The shards of ice on my tail stretch, and I feel myself being lifted. Before I can fully comprehend what’s happening, I’m ripped from reality and shoved deep into the waters within my mind. Bubbles hurtle all around me as I crash beneath the surface of the waves. I open my jaws to scream, but no sound comes out. The water is so cold I turn to ice as everything seizes up.

Do you want to go? a voice in my head asks.

I know without thinking what the voice is asking me; do I want to go, to I want to leave forever, do I want to escape, do I want to see if I’ll meet Lucius after I was taken from them once, do I want to meet my end the way I should have when I died as Ice?

I could get my own chance at peace. I could leave behind the King, I could leave behind the agony of losing everything, I could leave behind the betrayal of my body, I could leave behind losing Astra only to get her back as someone I do not know.

I could say goodbye to it all, and the thought feels so tantalizing. I want it so bad. I want to escape so badly.

I’ve opened my jaws to say yes, to agree, to consent when Astra’s memory comes bouncing into my mind, just how I remember her as an infant. All big, toothy smiles, the brightest blue eyes I’d ever seen, a bundle of fur who could never stay in one place for long, always too caught up exploring the next thing that managed to capture her fickle interest in that moment.

I want to go. I want to leave this all behind. I could say goodbye to the world that has hurt so much… and yet I cannot.

I’ve clung to the thought, the ever-fraying thread of hope that I had never fully managed to snuff out, that maybe things would get better for decades.

Do you? the voice repeats. Do you want to go? It won’t hurt. You’ll feel no pain. You’ll float away and drift into forever.

I could see Freedom again. I could be reunited with my lover, if Lucius would take me back. I could explain to them what happened, that it wasn’t my fault, that I didn’t want to be forced back into the world of the living.

But… I would be leaving Astra behind, and I’ve only just gotten to see her again. I cannot leave her again, not when I have a choice, a say in the matter. Brook is a capable stepparent, but I can’t leave my daughter.

Freedom would surely understand that it will have to be a little longer. We can see each other again, but she will have to wait. Our daughter needs me. I need to be with our daughter. I need to do everything I’ve never gotten to yet for her.

No, I reply. I do not want to go. It’s not my time yet.

There’s a pause.

Very well, comes the reply. Ok.

xxxx

I’m shoved back into reality, and it’s chaos.

There’s a flash of white and a boom that rolls across the terrain. Everything falls to the ground in heaps. Nothing is where it was before in the Sea, although landmarks remain in their original locations; the Erebus Tree, the King’s castle off in the distance.

Arcane is gone. All that’s left of him are a few colorful wisps of stardust and the twinkling remains of the Lepus constellation, though those soon dissipate into nothing.

Shaky, I get to my paws and blink repeatedly with a sigh, flicking an ear. Around me, others look similarly disoriented. Some scratch their heads and others talk amongst themselves. I see a few horses from the King’s army trotting loose, though I don’t see any Generals or Guard and Soldiers.

Good.

Before I can begin seeking her out, Astra comes barreling toward me. She crashes into me faster than I can react, and I let myself fall to the ground, ignoring the protest of my joints and the snake fangs lodged up against my spine. Despite the ache, I smile and relief soaks through me, a balm to the hurt.

She's alive, she's here, she's with us.

“Hey,” I say. “Are you alright?”

“You’re ok!” Astra presses into my side, nuzzling into my neck. Her wings ruffle as her feathers fluff up and her tail shivers with excitement.

I rub my cheek against hers as I roll to my stomach, uncomfortable with the feeling of laying belly up for too long. Gritting my teeth so as not to make a pained sound, I get to my paws, remaining still until I’m certain I won’t stumble.

“I’m here,” I reply. I’m not ok and won’t lie, but I also don’t want to worry my daughter.

“What happened?”

“Arcane used the power of the Midnight Tear,” I say. “I don’t know exactly what it means, but we can find out together. Do you know where Brook is?”

Astra shakes her head, bottom lip quivering. “I couldn’t find her. I-I couldn’t find anyone. You’re the first one I found. I… I ran all over and didn’t see—.”

“Hey, we can look together. I’m glad you found me, and we can go try to figure out where Brook and the others are.”

Astra nods, but she doesn’t seem convinced.

xxxx

Brook finds us before we find her.

She comes charging up to us, scaring off a small group wandering through the Sea. Her tail sails behind her, and the ribbons in her hair flow and flap as her hooves thunder across the ground in heavy beats.

When Astra spots Brook, she bounces on her paws. She’d been pacing around me, too antsy to walk at the stiff amble I could manage with how tired I am and how much energy I’ve spent. My muscles ache and I can feel my body locking up. The low throb of the snake’s fangs in my spine has been increasing, and now my neck spasms with every movement.

“Oh, you are both ok.” Brook presses her muzzle into the top of Astra’s head, inhaling deeply, and Astra circles her forelegs, rubbing her cheek and tail against Brook’s fur.

I manage a nod.

“D-do… do you know where everyone e-e-else is? I couldn’t-. I couldn’t find them.”

Brook smooths out the hair on Astra’s neck before replying.

“I do not.”

“Ky’s with me, but I don’t know where Grey or Alex are.”

I step back and to the side and see Phoenix. The wound on his shoulder has burned over and he has a few scrapes I think will scar, but he’s in one piece. Ky seems unharmed but worked up. His tail flicks back and forth and he shakes out his fur. Phoenix keeps running his jaw over his brother’s back, brushing up against him as his flames spark and flicker in bursts of uneven light.

“Where is Alex?” Grey shouts, voice pitching up a few octaves in panic.

“What?” Ky asks, whirling around as Grey sprints toward us, frazzled.

“Alex!” Grey replies. “Alex, where is she?”

“She was just here. She helped kill the Dragon,” Brook says.

“I know that. But she’s not here. Where is she?” Grey shakes his hands, then runs his fingers through his hair, silver eyes wide. He sinks to his knees. Astra bunts her head into his shoulder but steps away when Grey shrugs away from her touch.

“We’ll find her. Ragdon is an island so she can’t have gone too far.”

“I know, Astra, but please, this isn’t the time.”

Grey takes in a heaving breath, scratching his nails against his arms in a movement I recognize immediately. I’ve done it myself and still have the scars. Worry swirls in my gut.

“Where are you, Alex? Where the fuck are you?”