“Sorry I didn’t tell you,” Florian muttered. “I guess I just didn’t know how to bring it up.”
“No, I mean... That’s heavy,” Kade said. “That’s a lot to be worrying about by yourself. I wish you would have told me sooner, I guess.”
Florian’s eyes burned with tears the moment he processed the words. “Yeah,” he agreed, his voice wavering.
“Come here,” Kade murmured, giving him a hug when he stepped closer. “I just want to help you, Florian. You know that. You don’t have to do any of this alone.”
“I know,” he said, nodding against Kade’s chest. While he did know it, there was a strange sense of relief when he heard Kade say it out loud. Everything had weighed so heavily on him; why hadn’t he let Kade lighten the load even just a little bit?
“What we’re trying to do is important. To everyone,” Kade continued, still pressing Florian to him. “But I care about you. As a person. I want to help you. We’re in this together, you know?”
Silently, Florian nodded again, his vision swimming. He was so sick of crying, yet the relief of Kade holding him so tightly—of telling him again that they were in it together, even though he’d heard it before—was so sweet that his throat burned with the effort of holding back his tears.
“And, I... I get we’re maybe not really at the point I can say not to keep things from me,” Kade said, and Florian could all but hear the wry smile in his voice as he spoke. “But I want you to know I won’t keep secrets from you. And... I would appreciate it if you told me things too. So we can tackle it together.”
“Okay,” he agreed. “I didn’t mean for it to be a secret, really. I just didn’t know when to bring it up. Or how to say it.”
“I know.”
“Are you mad?”
Kade laughed. “I’m not mad. I’ve told you before. I’m just worried about you.”
“I know,” Florian murmured, pulling away just enough to look up at him. Kade didn’tlookmad; his brows were still pressed together in concern, but otherwise he looked just as calm as he sounded. Florian wasn’t sure why he had expected him to be upset. Besides their only real scuffle after their first trip into the Blight, Kade had never so much as raised his voice toward him. Why had he been so worried that he’d be angry?
“I’m okay,” Florian continued, pulling away to sit next to Kade at the edge of the bed. “I know you’re worried about me. But I’m alright.”
Kade only nodded, running his fingernails in a slow, soothing motion up and down the back of Florian’s hand where it was pressed to the bed.
“Okay,” he said, nodding. “I don’t know if I totally understand all this. Will you walk me through exactly what happened?”
So Florian recounted the first time that it had happened: the flash of grief that had filled him when Jerah had explained the existence of Soleil’s secretly human partner and his sudden death. He described seeing her, so quickly he could barely recall exactly how she looked in that moment, when Jerah had purposely tried to trigger any other memory or thought about her.
“That’s basically it,” he said, shrugging. “And that’s the conclusion he came to. I don’t know enough about all of this to be able to say if I think he’s right or wrong, but I think it makes sense.”
“Right,” Kade agreed slowly. He was looking pensively down at the floor now, biting his lower lip between his teeth. “Well, it makes sense to go to the witch and ask. I just wish...” He trailed off, frowning before starting up again. “I would prefer it if we didn’t have to go talk to this woman at all. Old magic is dangerous, and I’d rather not get involved. But I don’t have any better ideas.”
“Me neither,” Florian said, shrugging. “It’s what my dad thought we should do, so...”
“And I trust him. I trust you,” Kade said, patting his shoulder. “We’ll figure it out.”
“You can really just...sayit? And you’ll be there?” Yuka asked suspiciously, as Florian and Kade were saying their goodbyes to the family the next morning.
“Well, yeah,” Florian laughed.
“You can watch if you want,” Kade teased. “If you don’t believe him.”
“I want to watch,” the boy exclaimed.
“Sounds like a neat trick,” Bowen remarked, standing behind Yuka with a faint grin. “Maybe you could learn how to do that, Yuka.”
“No, only fae can do magic like that,” Amka protested, frowning up at her older brother. “Don’t tell him things that aren’t true.” Yuka scowled at her silently.
“Well, maybe we can take you next time,” Florian said quickly, lifting a placating hand. “It’s kind of uncomfortable, though. It sort of feels like someone smacking you in the back of the head and pushing you at the same time. You might not like it.”
“Oh, stop distracting them,” Meriwa said, touching Yuka’s shoulder with half a comforting pat, and half a reprimanding swat. “And stop teasing your brother, Bowen.”
“We’ll see you next time, then,” Kallik said, managing to get to his feet and placing a hand on Kade’s back. “Maybe a longer visit next time?”
