Chapter 5
Seph
Walking the compound late that night, I felt the quiet in my bones. Kieran and Elliot wouldn’t speak to me when we landed. Elliot didn’t even look at me.
Kieran looked like he wanted to pull me away. To shake me. Until Sy stepped in front of me and forced him back.
And now Sy was out hunting, and I was alone.
Normally Ash would have been with me, but when I got back to my room, I found him sprawled on the bed, mouth open, covered in dirt. They must have worked him hard today. Everyone here seemed to have a job.
And now I had turned down the only thing they wanted me to do, I wondered what mine would be.
Or whether they wanted me here at all.
I wandered outside and stood on the balcony that overlooked the valley. In the midnight air, it was pitch black.
I thought of Echo.
I felt her absence like she had been my torch in the long black. And now she was gone with Marr, to God knows where.
What was he doing to her?
“I thought that was you.” I heard Dev say quietly beside me. At his voice I jumped.
“What are you doing up so late?” I asked.
He grimaced, and I grinned. “Ahh. You are avoiding Jess.”
“If you let me sleep in with you and Ash, it would be so much easier.”
“I’m fine with it. It’s Ash you need to get past. He can be- “
“Psychotic?”
“Territorial,” I corrected.
Dev laughed out loud. “That’s putting it lightly.”
I looked at him. In the dark he looked mussed for the first time. There were dark shadows under his eyes. “You look like crap Dev.”
His face softened. “Only you could get away with telling me that.”
“Lucky me. I’ve missed you these last few days.” I said quietly.
“I’ve been around.”
“I know, but-” I sighed and breathed in the mountain air. “It’s not the same.”
“I know. I kind of miss you too,” he said softly. “How was the trip?”
I leaned my forearms on the railing, watching the darkness where the valley should have been.
“The trip was… educational.”
“Educational huh. And?”
“And I don’t know if I did the right thing, Dev.”
Dev leaned on the railing beside me. “So they gave you the spiel. Took them longer than I expected. And Kieran?”
“He was there. He’s … angry at me.”
“He’s always angry,” Dev said. “Has been the moment I met him.”
“How did you meet him?”
“Would you believe we got in a bar fight?”
I looked at him. “No. I wouldn’t.”
“It’s true. I was with some people – they were mouthing off about dark magic users. K took it badly.”
“I bet,” I said. “So what, you punched each other and became best friends?”
“I wouldn’t call us best friends,” his nose crinkled with disgust. “What are we, five?”
I laughed. “Of course you wouldn’t. Dev Redgrave doesn’t do friends.”
He shot me a dirty look. “Smartass.”
I grinned and elbowed him. “I’m your friend, even if you won’t admit it.”
He looked at me, and for a moment a flash of heat sparked in his eyes. “My friend, huh. I don’t think friend is the right way to describe what I think about you.”
“Oh no?” I asked. “Then what?”
He exhaled through his nose, slow and controlled, like he was reining something in.
“Complicated,” he said at last.
I tilted my head. “That’s vague.”
“Yeah. That’s on purpose.”
I smiled faintly, then looked back out over the valley. “Story of my life.”
We stayed there for a moment, the night pressing in around us.
“I don’t want to make things harder for you,” he added, quieter now. “You’ve got enough people trying to control you.”
I swallowed, my gaze fixed on the dark stretch of land below.
“Feels like I never get to just… be,” I said. “Everyone always wants something from me.”
Dev nodded slightly. “I get that.” His gaze stayed on me, steady. “But you don’t have to prove anything to me.”
“I just—” He stopped, like he’d said too much already. “I like being around you.”
He exhaled slowly, like he was trying to steady himself.
Heat rose to my face before I could stop it.
Something shifted in the space between us—subtle, but enough that I felt it.
Dev stepped closer.
I nudged him lightly with my hip, like I could play it off.
He didn’t move away.
He stood close enough that I could feel the warmth of him at my side, steady and distracting all at once.
“I don’t think anyone knows what to do with me now,” I said quietly.
Dev followed my gaze. “That usually means you didn’t do what they expected.”
I huffed a soft laugh. “That’s not very comforting.”
“Yeah,” he said, almost under his breath. “I’m not particularly good at that.”
We stood in silence for a moment. It wasn’t awkward. Just… heavy.
“They wanted you to say yes,” he said eventually.
“I know.”
“And you didn’t.”
I shook my head. “I couldn’t.”
Dev nodded slowly, like he’d already known that would be the answer.
“That tracks,” he said. “You’ve never been very good at doing what you’re told. I know Kieran thinks so.”
There was the faintest pull at the corner of his mouth.
I rolled my eyes and glanced at him. “Is that a compliment?”
“On your better days.” The hint of amusement faded, something more serious settling in. “They’ll push. You know that. They know what you can do, Seph. They won’t let that go.”
“I know.” I leaned over the railing. “That’s what worries me.”
He studied me in the dark, his expression unreadable. “If you decide to run,” he said, “tell me first.”
My chest tightened. “Why?”
“So I can pretend I tried to stop you,” he said lightly. Then, quieter, “And so you don’t have to do it alone.”
Warmth spread through me, tingling my skin. The air felt weighted with each breath.
“Dev?” I spoke.
“Yeah.”
“Thank you.”
He didn’t answer right away. When he did, his voice was rougher.
“Any time, Seph.”
Somewhere in the distance, I heard a low call echo across the valley — deep, rolling, unmistakable.
Sy.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realised I’d been holding.
Dev smiled faintly. “Your dragon’s back.”
“Yeah,” I said. “He always comes back.”
I straightened, the cold biting at my skin, and for the first time that night, the quiet didn’t feel quite so empty.