Or at least that’s what I told myself.
I reached for my sword at the sound of the door creaking open. Who in the Goddess's name would be coming in here this hour?
I relaxed my grip on my weapon as Nol ducked into the room, his dark hair flopping forward and covering part of his face as he kept his gaze on the ground. He hadn’t been back in here since the first night we arrived. I didn’t even get the chance to talk to him. I stayed with Kara at Lennox’s side until sunrise, long after everyone else left, not saying a word.
I could see the guilt lining Kara’s features, the same guilt I saw in my own reflection as she sat by her side. If Lennox didn’t wake up fully herself, it would eat at us both.
Nol froze in the doorway when he saw me. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep, I figured I would come sit with her.” He backed up through the door. “I didn’t realize you’d be here. I’ll leave you.”
Luce told me he was struggling, as I’m sure anyone would have been after being held captive for so long.
On the outside, he looked better than he did when Luce carried him out of that building. It was a wonder what a bath and clean clothes could do. His hair had been cut too, it no longer fell to his shoulders but was shorter, cut similarly to mine.
“No, please come in.” I let go of Lennox’s hand, letting it rest back at her side. “I haven’t had a chance to properly introduce myself.” I gestured to the chair next to mine.
Nol closed the door behind him.
“Luka Rossi.” I held out a hand.
He let out a puff of air. “Nol Adair.”
“Nice to finally meet you.”
“You too.” Lennox’s brother sat beside me, his back stiff in the chair.
“You want a drink?”
Nol shrugged. “I haven’t had one in three years so sure, why not.” I winced but refilled my own glass and one for him. He was an Adair alright.
“To new beginnings.” I held my glass up to his.
“To new beginnings.” He clinked his glass with mine before bringing it to his lips. He took a sip and sputtered, coughing as he set the glass back down.
“Maybe I’m not ready after all.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
I managed a gruff laugh. “You better get used to it again before Lennox wakes up, she’ll make fun of you mercilessly if she sees you can’t handle your liquor anymore.”
“She would, wouldn’t she, although I don’t think I ever learned to tolerate my liquor. I never cared much for it.”
“More for the rest of us.” I swallowed the remains of my drink and reached for the decanter again. Nol might not need liquor to dull his pain, but I sure did.
“She told me about you,” Nol said quietly, his gaze fixed on his sister’s unconscious form.
The pressure in my chest intensified, the thread around my heart squeezing to the point of pain. “I bet it was all bad.”
Nol shook his head as he wrung his hands in his lap. “Quite the opposite. She did say she hated you at first, butshe also told me how much you helped her. Told me you brought her back to life, out of the darkness.”
I looked over at Lennox’s motionless form.
She would wake up.
She would wake up.
“She helped me too.” She had. Before I met her—I had never imagined the life I could have with a partner. I never envisioned the joy I could experience again. Getting out of the Blood Court was something I didn’t know I needed until it happened. The memories of my parents lingered in the hallways there. The good memories with my father and the not-so-good ones with my mother. Every time I walked through the main doors, I remembered the mornings I stumbled home drunk, too incapacitated to walk straight after my mother chose to abandon me. The life I wanted with Lennox, the one we had just started—it was the new beginning I didn’t know I needed.
We had needed each other more than either of us had realized at the start.
“She wanted to get back to you,” Nol continued.
