Chapter Twenty-Five
After gently greeting Margo and being met with more and more insistent questions, I instructed Quinn to take the young female into the closest lounge room in the wing. To my surprise, the general did exactly that without saying a word.
Then, I went to get Byn.
As it turned out, he was already slipping on a soft cotton shirt and heading to the door to our chambers when I opened it.
“I felt a shift in you,” he explained before I could even ask what he was doing. “Are you alright?”
“I will be, but…” I hesitated, unsure how to explain how careless Quinn and I had been only moments ago.
Byn closed the space between us, placing a finger under my chin and lifting my face to meet his.
“Tell me.”
And so I did, leaving not a single detail out.
Moments later, I found myself in the lounge with Byn, Teagan, Quinn, and Margo. Quinn, Margo, and I sat on plush chairs and sofas that felt much too comfortable for the amount of discomfort in the room.
Byn and Teagan stood near the bookcase on the other side of the space, whispering furiously to each other.
They obviously disagreed about how to handle the situation, and they weren’t exactly doing a good job of hiding it.
I could feel Byn’s urge to protect his younger sister at all costs rising within him.
“Why is everybody being so weird?” Margo asked me, shifting to sit closer to me on the sofa, then leaning over to rest her head against my arm.
Thankfully, the sofa we sat on was one of the larger ones in all of The Haven, allowing me enough space to stretch my wing out just enough to wrap it around Margo, drawing her closer to me.
“Sometimes we have different ideas of how a certain situation should be handled,” I explained, my voice just above a whisper. “I think, right now, your brother and sister are figuring out how to work past that.”
Margo looked over at my wing around her, then up to meet my gaze. I stared back into her big, caramel-colored eyes, trying to let her know without a word that everything was going to be alright.
“I’m telling her, with or without you, Robyn,” Teagan finally said, her voice rising to a normal level.
“Teagan, wait—” Byn reached out a hand to try to grab his older sister as she walked toward us, but she was out of reach before he could stop her.
“Tell me what?” Margo whispered to me.
“I guess we’re about to find out, aren’t we?” I whispered back, watching as Teagan came and sat on the low table in front of the sofa, directly before Margo.
I felt Byn deflate before I saw it, his resolve crumbling.
I knew he just wanted to protect Margo for as long as he could, but she was a curious one. She would have found out eventually.
I envisioned myself running a soothing hand along the bundle of emotions of his that sat in my chest—the ones that seemed to shine a forest-green color in my subconscious. I just wanted him to know he wasn’t alone.
I felt a hint of his gratitude at my small act as he took a deep breath, then crossed the space and perched himself across from me on the table next to Teagan.
I shifted my leg slightly so our knees touched, trying to help ground him through the anxiety I knew he was feeling. Though I could feel his appreciation, outwardly, his attention was purely on Margo.
“Margo, there’s something we’ve been keeping from you, but I think it’s about time we tell you,” Teagan began, her voice somehow light but firm.
She’d make a great mother of her own, someday—if she so chose.
“Now, recalling some of this might hurt a little, but know that we’re all right here for you, alright?” Byn chimed in, leaning in slightly closer to his sisters.
It was an intimate moment—one I was incredibly honored to be a part of as Margo slid her little gloved hand into mine. Though she didn’t look my way, I knew just holding her hand in mine was a comfort for her in itself. She needed to be grounded, the same way her brother often did.
And I was happy to be that for both of them.
“You… remember the most recent battle, correct?” Teagan began.
Margo shrank back into my wing, which was still loosely curved around her small frame. But despite her obvious discomfort with the topic at hand, she murmured a small, “Yes.”
“I know you remember what happened to Ezra—you’re still having nightmares about it,” Teagan said, her voice the gentlest I’d ever heard it. Her usual firm tone had vanished. There was no room for that side of her right now.
My heart ached as Margo’s bottom lip jutted out into a sad pout, and I could tell she was trying her best not to cry. Even so, she nodded.
“Well…” Teagan glanced at Byn one last time before revealing the news to their little sister. “When the group went back for Ezra’s… body, after the battle had ended, it… wasn’t there.”
At that, Margo’s eyebrows furrowed, her expression shifting from sad to confused in a heartbeat.
“That’s who Quinn and Aviva were talking about, in the corridor,” Byn added, his voice as soft as Teagan’s.
At that, I glanced toward Quinn, who had moved toward the far bookshelf at the front of the room, obviously giving us space. Though talking had been an understatement.
Teagan took a deep breath before finally saying, “Ezra didn’t die that day, Margo. The Stars know he’s been through a lot, but he lived.”
Margo’s eyes widened, and I could see the questions beginning to bubble up like a geyser about to erupt.
Before she could begin asking what I could only imagine would be an overwhelming number of questions, the door to the lounge creaked open. The torchlight from the hallway illuminated the silhouette of a male, though I couldn’t tell who until he began to speak.
“Quinn, are you in here?” Ezra said quietly as he slowly pushed open the door. “Are you coming to bed soon? I—”
Ezra paused after entering the room, the door having swung open at his touch. His gaze found Quinn first, closest to him, then flickered over to where we Thorntiers sat in the main lounge area.
At hearing his voice, Margo stood up swiftly, rounding the table her siblings sat on and standing at the edge of the sofa. If I could barely make out his frame in the doorway, I imagined her view was even worse.
But there was no mistaking that voice.
“Ezra, what are you—” Teagan began asking at the same moment Byn said, “We were just—”
The two looked at each other, their uncertainty about the situation written all over their faces. I could feel Byn’s panic rising slightly as the scene before him unfolded faster than he could control.
Seeing Teagan and Byn’s hesitation, Ezra’s gaze met mine.
Despite the spike of emotions coming from my husband, I still felt calm. I knew Margo needed this just as much as Ezra did.
I let Ezra see the certainty in my eyes as I slowly nodded to him. A small signal, telling him to go ahead.
This was between Ezra and Margo now.
He may not have been blood to her, but I’d learned the past few months that not all family had to be. Blood wasn’t what made another family to you.
Love was.
“Margo, I can explain, if you’ll let me,” Ezra said, taking a step farther into the room slowly, as if approaching a wild beast.
I watched as my own little sister began to shake.
I bit my lip to keep it from wobbling as her knees buckled and she made her descent, sliding to the floor.
My eyes began to water as Ezra, who must have known what was coming, was there in a second, catching her before she could bruise a knee.
And in the next heartbeat, I listened as Margo’s sobs errupted.
“It’s alright, I’m here,” Ezra said over and over as she clutched at him—her brother, her mentor, her friend. Tears streamed down her face endlessly, and her breathing had become ragged as she gulped down air in between her cries.
“I thought—I thought—” Margo stuttered between sobs, unable to complete her sentence.
“I know, little wolf, I know. I’m so sorry,” Ezra murmured, resting his chin on top of her head and rocking the two of them back and forth gently.
I couldn’t tell the difference anymore between my pain and Byn’s inside of me. I reached out and took his hand in mine anyway, giving a light squeeze to let him know I was there, though my eyes remained on the duo on the floor.
I’d always be there. However I could be.
As the moment stretched on, it seemed to become apparent that Margo was having trouble calming down.
Ezra seemed to pick up on that fact first and acted on it without a word to anybody else.
Right then, it was just him and his little sister in his eyes.
Ezra sunk all the way to the floor as he pulled back slightly, Margo resting in his lap. Her breathing hadn’t slowed—if anything, it had quickened.
It dawned on me then that I’d run into that before.
With Byn, just before battle.
She wasn’t just crying anymore. She was panicking.
Coming to that realization in the same moment, Byn took a step in their direction. But the look in Ezra’s eyes… I knew he could handle it.
I tugged on Byn’s hand so he wouldn’t take another step forward.
This wasn’t about him—despite how much I knew he wanted to help his sister.
Right now, she needed her other brother.
“Margo, you’re alright,” Ezra said as he took her hands in his. Ever so gently, giving her all the time in the world to pull away, he unclasped one of her gloves at the wrist and slid it off.
Underneath, the skin of her hands was slightly lighter than the rest of her, signifying just how much she wore her gloves. Why, I still wasn’t sure—though right then wasn’t the time to ask.
“I’m alright,” Ezra reassured her softly as he clasped her hand in both of his.
Unprompted and still having trouble breathing, Margo shook off his grasp and lifted her hand until it rested on Ezra’s bare cheek.
Her gaze bore into his, but Ezra didn’t balk. He rested his hand atop hers against his face and stared back, his expression as open and clear as I’d seen it since his return.
“We are alright,” he said finally.
With that, Margo’s breathing eventually began to slow. Her gaze shifted from Ezra’s face to focus on the air around him, almost as though she could see something the rest of us couldn’t.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Byn and Teagan share a look, though I was still so focused on the scene before me that I didn’t stop to read into it much.
“I’m sorry,” Margo said once she caught her breath. “I didn’t mean to get you hurt. I didn’t—”
“I know, Margo. But you have to know that I don’t regret a thing, alright?” Ezra replied.
“You look…” Margo hesitated as she dropped her hand from his face, finally taking him in fully for the first time.
She didn’t have to finish her sentence for us all to know what she meant.
He was much better than how he’d arrived, but he was still far too thin. He looked frail, and his skin appeared sunken in after losing all its color.
He looked sick—and in a way, I supposed he was.
Though, not physically.
“I’ll get better,” Ezra reassured her. “But you know, all that matters is that in here? I’m still me.” I watched as he pointed to his chest, right over his heart, as he spoke.
“You’re still you,” Margo sighed, her relief palpable.
“That’s right. You can’t get rid of me that easily,” he joked, gently nudging her.
At that, Margo smiled slightly, then jumped into Ezra’s arms again in a tight hug.
Finally, I tore my eyes from the duo and looked towards Byn.
He quickly used the back of his free hand to wipe a stray tear before looking my way.
His gaze met mine, and he looked as though he wanted to explain, yet no words passed his lips.
Fortunately for him, he didn’t need to.
I felt it all.