Sage glanced around the yurt to take in the tree for the first time, and then my breath caught when he looked at me knowingly. I’d almost forgotten the sheer impact of how he could simplylookat me with such utter adoration and reverence in those stunning eyes.
You are breathtaking,he whispered into my mind with a fervour that brought tears to my eyes.
Rian had given orders to keep everyone else out of the mess hall to give us a little privacy when we returned with Sage. I was thankful for that now when no one aside from the riders and Sage’s family was there to see him struggling so hard just to walk. We would have preferred to bring him straight back to the privacy of his own tent, but the portal tree was the only way for me to breach the realm of the Sylvan. No one aside from the present people even knew that we had gone to get him. Most of the army still believed he was on a special and secret assignment. And the rest of the aes sídhe would only be notified of his return once he was healed enough to see them.
“Gods,” Shay breathed, shaking her head at Sage and his obvious discomfort as we helped him sink down to sit. “What did they do to you? Why haven’t you healed him?” she added with an accusatory glance at me.
“She has!” Sage spoke up more sharply than intended, defensiveof me as usual, before his face and tone quickly softened again. “I am alright now.”
“You are not alright!” she insisted as she shot another glare toward where Amira was probably sitting.
“I am just… tired,” he admitted, and I could hear the truth of his words in the tone of his voice.
“He needs to rest,” Carrick inferred easily. He gripped the back of Asha’s neck to gently pull her away from us. “Sage is safe. Now let us give him some time and space to rest and heal with hisanam. I will just bring him a tea infused with Ichor of Airmid to help with the pain and then leave you be,” he added to me.
Thank the gods for Carrick.
Asha and Shay were both reluctant, blowing out long breaths before they agreed. Asha knelt down to kiss her son’s cheek once more, then squeezed my hand before she let Carrick lead her to the entrance. Shay could barely tear her damp eyes away from her brother, but she managed to spare me a nod of appreciation. Then they were all gone, and it was just the Wild Hunt, Nuala, and Amira left.
Sage seemed to shrink as every pretense of resilience he had adapted for his family was abandoned.
“Summer,” he rasped.
He reached for me in spite of his pain, and I could tell that the comfort he needed from me was more important than physical discomfort. But I was still careful to support all my weight as I knelt over his legs so he could wrap his arms around me. His armour disappeared from my body to finally return to its resting place now that he was back to send it. My cotton and linen clothing underneath was softer and allowed Sage to feel more of me in his arms as he laid his head down on my chest. I decided to leave my armour on him, even though I was desperate to feel more of him too, because I knew it was helping to support his aching body. I also tried to refrain from touching him too much in case it caused him more pain. But my fingers seemed to combthrough his dark hair on impulse, and my lips dropped to the top of his head.
It seemed strange that the shattering would come after he was back in my arms, but perhaps it made sense. I had fought the urge to break down completely by focusing on compartmentalizing my emotions. It had been necessary so I could keep functioning enough to bring him home. But now it was done, and there was nothing holding back the tidal wave of anguish for what I had almost lost.
And for once, I didn’t care if anyone was close enough to hear me fail to smother my sobs in his neck.
“I love you,” I whispered, clenching my arms around him just a bit tighter. “I am so sorry I took so long!”
Sage shook his head, his hands grasping fistfuls of my shirt against my back.
“I knew you would come for me. I did not doubt it for a moment, Summer,” he insisted before lifting his head to look up at me with damp eyes. “And it wasnotlong.”
“It wasweeks!” I sobbed in disgust at myself.
I hesitated when Sage betrayed a moment of surprise and confusion at my insistence.
“It… did not feel nearly so long to me,” he admitted.
“Perhaps time moved differently?” suggested Ciaran, sounding as hopeful as I suddenly felt at this possibility.
“How long did you think it had been?” Rian asked, and I realized that the other riders had moved closer and were now standing or kneeling all around us.
“A day perhaps,” Sage answered Rian, and a breath of the purest relief escaped all of us at the revelation that his torment had not lasted as long as we had feared.
There was a commotion outside. We could hear shouts ringing out clearly since this yurt and the war tent did not have silencing wards around them.
“Just get out of their way!” someone yelled before the tent flap burst open, and Serafin galloped in with Pyrope on hisheels. The winged creature yipped excitedly with his wings flared in elation as he bounded at Sage.
“Whoa! Be gentle, Serafin!” I tried to warn the vargr, but it was no use trying to calm him down.
The beast leapt onto us, ploughing over the other men to begin rubbing his neck and chest all over my back while I tried to brace protectively over Sage. His immense wings jostled flowers loose from the branches above so they showered us. And then he flopped over suddenly, both wings blasting out behind him and taking the wind out of Ciaran when one hit him in the gut.
It was not until Sage grabbed his giant head to hold it tightly that the beast quieted a little. Although his tail still thumped so hard against the earth that it sounded painful. And he was obviously still trying to nose his way between me and Sage. The vargr was strong enough to flick me off my mate with his muzzle, but he was trying to be discreet, inching forward on his belly. Sage had to pull his head back down to his chest, and he held on tightly until the vargr was content with having just his nose between us. My mate was crying again, his tears soaking into the dark fur of Serafin’s neck while he hugged his beloved beast.
And all the while, Pyrope whined as she paced and leapt over us as if she were frantically searching for a way to insert herself into Sage’s arms as well.
