Chapter 84 Nox
Nox
Most of us were leaving the dining hall and making our way to the workshop, like we often did in the evenings. I had finally convinced Vera to join us for a nightcap. The doors to the entrance hall burst open as we passed, letting in a blast of icy air and flutters of snowflakes onto the rug.
Everett was back.
Laughter echoed down the hall from some ridiculous joke Tessa had just told. Devora leaned further into my side to escape the chill, and I wrapped my arms around her, waiting. Holding her tight enough to hold myself together for what came next.
“Where you been, Ev?” Arowyn called out when his familiar form came into view, silhouetted against the night sky.
Tessa turned around in surprise. “Oh, would you look at that? I didn’t even know he was gone.”
“Tessa,” Kieran sighed, shaking his head.
But when another woman hesitantly stepped out from behind Everett’s broad form, cloaked and travel-worn, everyone came to a halt.
Her blonde-and-gray hair was flecked with snow, her frame even leaner than the last time I’d seen her. And yet her eyes were as sharp and steady as ever.
Vera gasped at my side, and I looked down at her. The air warmed as her gaze burned gold. For the first time since Scarven’s death, I felt that restless energy in her still.
I took a staggering step forward, my chest squeezing. Our mother didn’t speak. She simply crossed the floor with surprising speed and pulled me into her arms. My body shook against her, my head bowed to her shoulder like I was a boy again, not a man who had carried a rebellion on my back.
She pulled away and patted my cheek, tears glistening in her eyes. “Hello again, my son.”
“Welcome home, Mama,” I choked out.
Her gaze trailed over my shoulder, and I turned to see Vera still standing there, arms crossed tight and flames flickering in her eyes. She looked ready to bolt, to vanish into the shadows the way she did when the world pressed too close.
I shifted to the side to let our mother move past.
Vera’s lip trembled. For a long, painful moment, she was frozen. And then, slowly, haltingly, she stepped forward. Mother held out a hand, and when Vera finally took it, the sound that broke from her chest was raw and keening, like a bird lifting up its song.
Mother pulled her close. Both of their shoulders shook as they held each other.
My throat strained with the effort of holding back my own tears. I didn’t think this day would ever come—the moment I’d dreamed of, had worked toward ever since we were ripped from each other’s lives.
I threw my arms around both of them. Meeting Everett’s eyes over their heads, I gave him a quick nod. “Thank you.”
He bowed his head low, and the first tear leaked free from my eye.
“My beautiful children,” Mother said, her voice cracking. “No more running. No more fighting.”
I kissed the top of each of their heads. “Never again,” I promised.
At last, after all the years and battles, all the suffering and isolation, all the blood spilled and tears shed…we were home.
Our mother’s reappearance evidently wasn’t the only visit that would shift our world over the next few weeks.
We had all finally settled into a rhythm here at the Keep—Devora and Everett with the children, Tessa and Kieran and I handling community outreach, Milo with his new apprentice, and Arowyn doing…whatever Arowyn did in her free time.
Vera, Mother, Devora, and I spent most of the evenings together over the last two weeks, eating dinner around a fire and taking walks along the rocky shoreline when it wasn’t snowing too hard.
I was hanging my cloak in the workshop one night after our walk when a pounding came from the front door. A minute later, one of the servants popped his head into the room.
“There’s a guest at the door, sir. She said she needs to speak with you immediately.”
Devora turned to me with a devilish smirk. “A late-night lady caller? Should I be worried?”
I leaned forward and nipped her earlobe playfully. “As if I could handle another woman.” Looking back up, I asked, “Who is it?”
The servant scratched the back of his neck. “It—it’s Her Majesty. The empress.”