Wyn joined me quietly. She moved like the night—soft-footed, calm on the surface, but swirling beneath. Her cloak brushedmine as she came to stand beside me, close enough that I caught the faint scent of herbs and wood smoke.
“You should sleep,” I murmured.
Her mouth curved faintly. “You’d just keep glancing back to check if I was breathing. Might as well save you the trouble.”
I huffed through my nose, almost laughing. She was right.
We stood together while mist curled low in the valleys, silvered by the moon. Far somewhere off, a wolf called, the sound thin and lonely. The sky stretched wide above us, stars sharp against the black, scattered like frost on glass. They were too beautiful for this place.
“I always thought winter skies out here would feel gentler,” she said after a while.
“They’re honest, at least,” I said. “Cold. Clear. Distant.”
She smiled faintly. “Do you always describe the stars like old soldiers?”
“I describe everything like an old soldier.”
She chuckled. It surprised me. I didn’t realize how much I wanted to hear it again.
After a moment, she added, “Do you think the gods see us out here?”
I paused briefly.
“If they are, they’re terrible at intervening.”
She gave a quiet snort of laughter.
The silence lingered, growing taut between us.
After a moment, I added, “Or maybe they have terrible aim.”
Wyn blinked. “Was that a joke?”
I didn’t answer.
She turned toward me fully in mock seriousness. “Erindor. Was that an actual joke? Have you been hiding a sense of humor this whole time?”
“I haven’t, Princess.”
“You have!”
“I’m being serious.”
“You’re not.”
“I—” I stopped, shook my head, and looked back at the sky.
She grinned beside me, eyes crinkling slightly at the corners. “I knew it.” She added smugly.
“I keep it small. Malnourished. Better kept in the dark.”
She gently nudged my elbow with hers. The contact was brief, feather-soft, yet it lingered like warmth from a fire. My chest ached for reasons I didn’t want to name.
She was too tired to notice what she did to me. Or I was too stubborn to let it show.
We stood together in silence.
Bran growled once in his sleep across the yard. Somewhere behind us, Gideon muttered in a dream. Alaric had settled near the rubble with his arms crossed.
