Her breath catches as she’s forced to look straight into me. To see the raw desperation in my eyes as I say, “Not if you don’t let metry.”
Her lids sweep shut, chin wobbling, and for a moment, I think she’s going to step over the edge.
To jump.
Instead, the talon clatters to the stone, and relief punches me in the gut as she crumples into a pile of sharp limbs and filthy flesh.
I resist the urge to reach for her, knowing the moment is fragile.
“It’s tiring, you know,” she opens her eyes and looks at me with a deflated expression, “having you as a brother.”
I lift a brow.
“I’m kidding.” Her lips slant into a tired smile. “I love you, even though I’m so mad I could shred holes in the world.”
I grunt, letting my shoulders buckle as I rub my eyes.
Maars and his fucking chisel.
“Do you remember that old fort you dug for me in the sprite warren after I begged for a castle of my own?”
I glance up at her.
“It took me three moon cycles,” I mumble, tipping back onto my ass and scrubbing at my scratchy face. “A swarm of sprites would nip me all over every time I brought out a bucket of soil.”
Her smile grows, her features beginning to soften, the darkness sinking from the skin around her eyes, pupils tightening until the gray has returned for the first time in weeks.
Months.
Relief slathers my insides.
“That’s how I learned my first curse word, you know.” I frown as she continues. “I saw you emerge from behind the mail tree swatting at them like bees, and you had this look on your face like you wanted to stomp them but wouldn’t.”
I thought she was oblivious—that her dug-out castle was a complete surprise.
“You … knew I was making it?”
She nods sheepishly, tucking a lock of knotted hair back off her face. “You looked ridiculous dragging that trolley packed full of my dolls and teddy bears and lacy pillows across the grass. I was so excited because I knew that meant it was almost done. That I was about tosee.” She pauses, swallowing, looking down at her hands. “Then you showed me …”
I remember that day clearly. Remember the way her eyes lit up as she dashed from room to room, squealing, almost tripping over her feet with excitement. I remember the silence that swept through the warren when Father crunched himself down and prowled through to her fort every night for a full moon cycle—Rai insisting she had to sleep in there, determined a princess should never leave her castle unattended.
Of course that meant us, too.
Our parents fawned over Rai like she was their entire world, and I never begrudged them for it. Not when they knew her time was limited.
Besides, she’s my favorite person, too.
“It was the happiest day of my life,” she whispers, and this weird feeling claws at the back of my throat, making it feel tight and choked.
Clearing it, I rest my arms on my knees and stare at the stone beneath us, wishing I could speak the words inside my head. Knowing they would come out wrong.
Jumbled and too sharp. Or too blunt.
How do I articulate how much she means to me? Perhaps I should just tell her that I love her, too.
I open my mouth—
The volcano rumbles with a burst of fury that makes the ground jolt in tandem with my heart, and a stridentcracksplits the silence as a fracture weaves through the stone between us.
