I watch them until they turn back around and go on their way.
She doesn’t speak again, but I notice that she’s looking around Halsford with much more interest as we make our way to the home I share with the others. Hopefully, they’ve made it at least somewhat livable again over the past couple of weeks after the months of no one being here.
‘Jak and Morgan live here too,’ I tell her.
I climb the pair of stone steps to the stoop and push open the door. I’m hit by a wall of warm air that smells of roast chicken.
Stepping inside, I find Jak and Morgan sitting at the table.
‘Enough food for us?’ I ask, gesturing at the pot in the hearth.
Morgan lets out a sound of derision. ‘For her, not for you.’
Right. Should have expected that.
Morgan stands and plods forward slowly, ushering a wary-looking Bryn inside and closing the door securely.
‘Has she been given leave to stay by Dane?’
‘Not exactly,’ I mutter.
He looks past me to Bryn who’s now standing in the middle of the room, looking a bit lost.
Her eyes find mine and then Morgan’s and Jak’s.
‘This really is the Light Realm?’ she asks faintly.
We nod.
‘It’s not a trick? The humans here are actually free? Those men we saw?’
‘Yes, Bryn,’ I say. ‘Freefolk.’
She falters, stepping back and hitting the wall by the door with a dull thud.
‘After everything…I thought…I thought you’d never really bring me here,’ she whispers, not looking at me.
She closes her eyes as they become glassy.
‘I know,’ I say quietly, my chest aching.
She slides to the floor and covers her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking.
‘Bryn,’ Jak says, stepping closer. ‘Please don’t cry. You’re safe here.’
But when she takes her hands away to look up at him, I see a smile on her face. She’s laughing so hard she begins to hiccup. Tears leak from her eyes and roll down her cheeks.
‘I’m here,’ she manages to choke out. ‘I’m actually here.’
I allow myself a smile, but it’s short lived because she now does cover her face with her hands and begins to sob. But shepushes Jak away when he touches her shoulder, so we leave her alone.
We sit at the table, and I regard my friends with unease. We’ve already spoken since they found us in Merediea. Gods, was that only yesterday? But I know, after what I did, this is far from over.
I start first. ‘I’m sorry?—’
But Morgan lets out a low snarl that has me shutting my mouth, sitting back in my chair, and tensing in case he launches himself across the table and goes right for my throat.
I knew they’d be angry, but I’ve never seen either of them like this. I’d assumed that they would forgive me given time, but looking at them now, I’m not so sure.
