I look at them again, a strange unease settling deep inside me.
“But I don’t think I need that anymore.”
The realization lands fully as I say it. I don’t want to go back to the life I had. Not the way it was. Not when the insane experience I’ve been having here has somehow become a happier experience than what I have back home.
Sylvian is the first to speak. “You wouldn’t have to go back there,” he says quietly. “Not if you didn’t want to.”
I look at him, uncertain. “How?”
He doesn’t hesitate. “Come with me instead,” he says. “To the earth fae lands. You’d have space. Quiet. Somewhere safe that isn’t… that.” His voice softens just slightly. “You’d be taken care of.”
Oberon lets out a low breath, already shaking his head. “Or you could come with me,” he says, leaning forward, the firelight catching in his eyes. “You’d never be cold again. No one would touch you without permission. Ever.” His jaw tightens. “I’d make sure of it.”
Ashton huffs out a quiet laugh, but it lacks its usual bite. “Both terrible sales pitches,” he mutters, then looks at me. “You’d be bored out of your mind in either place. Come to the wind courts instead. There’s music, chaos, people who actually know how to live a little.” His expression shifts, something more honest breaking through. “You wouldn’t be alone there.”
Cassius is quieter than the others, his voice still rough from everything he’s been through, but he meets my gaze directly. “Or the water courts,” he says. “You’d be protected. Completely.” A pause, deliberate. “No one would reach you without going through me first.”
Silence follows.
Four different offers. Four different places. Four different ways of saying the same thing.Stay.
I stare at them, something tight and fragile twisting deep inside me. I hadn’t expected that. They’ve suggested before that I might stay, but I didn’t really put together that they wanted me to staywiththem. Just here in the fae lands. Or maybe as the little human who went through the labyrinth with them. Not me, as a person, with them.
Their words warm something deep inside me. “I’m not sure. I guess, I don’t know where my place is anymore. Everything feels… uncertain.”
Cassius admits quietly. “The thought of going back to our homes, being without each other… it feels wrong.”
“I feel the same way,” I confess, my heart racing. “But… what does it mean? What kind of future could we possibly have together?” The question hangs in the air, unanswered but undeniable.
How can I be with fire without water, how can I be with air without earth? None feels right alone. It's only together it feels right.
“I’m not sure,” Ashton says, with a shrug, but he won’t look at me. “I just know we have a future together.”
The small chamber falls into a strained quiet, broken only by the sound of breathing and the faint crackle of the flame in Oberon’s hand. He’s been holding it for a while now, the steady glow pushing back the darkness just enough that we can see each other. It paints everything in shifting gold, catching on blood, on torn clothes, on the exhaustion carved into every one of their faces.
They’re all against the walls now, spread around the space wherever they found room. Sylvian sits with his back braced against the stone, one arm draped near Cassius like he’s readyto catch him if he slips. Ashton has his head tipped back, eyes closed, his chest rising and falling a little too carefully. Oberon sits opposite me, coiled tension visible in every line of his body while the flame in his hand burns bright and controlled.
They look worn. Not just hurt. Worn down.
The stone is cold at my back, perfectly calming. My hands rest in my lap, still stained with blood I haven’t had the energy to clean.
“Rest,” Oberon says after a moment, his voice low and firm, leaving no room for argument. His gaze moves between all of us, sharp even through the exhaustion. “We heal what we can now. When we’re sure enough time has passed that it’s dark, we move. We get out of this cave and don’t stop until we’re clear of them.”
No one argues. They don’t have the strength to.
The silence returns after that, heavier this time, filled with everything none of us are saying.
I stare at the opposite wall, but I’m not really seeing it. I’m thinking about what they said. About the offers. About the way none of them hesitated to ask me to be with them, after this is all done.
Something deep inside me recoils at the thought of returning home. I don’t want to go back. Not to the cabin. Not to my grandparents. Not to the man who thinks he can buy me like I’m something to own. Not to a town full of people who watched everything happen and never once stepped in.
That life feels… finished. Like something I’ve already outgrown without meaning to. But this doesn’t make sense either.
My gaze drifts to them again, one by one. Sylvian, calm and grounded even now. Oberon, all restrained fire and control. Ashton, still in a way that feels wrong for him. Cassius… pale, too quiet, but breathing.
They offered me a place with them. Each of them.
The thought digs into me like a blade, impossible to ignore. Because I don’t know how I’m supposed to choose. I don’t know how I could leave any of them after this. And even if I did… what would I be to them?
