Page 119 of Down Comes the Night

This,she told herself.This is what I’m doing it for.

The door creaked open, drawing her out of her reverie. Silent and steady as the night, Hal entered the room and slid into bed beside her, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Wren leaned back into him, breathing in the clean smell of soap: honey and herbs.

“Have you ever been to Knockaine before?” she asked.

“I haven’t.”

With a wry smile, she tipped her chin up toward him. “And how do you like it?”

She swore she could hear his brain churning as he grasped for something polite to say. “It’s lively.”

“You can say it. It smells here. We all know it.” From here, she could see a storm rolling in off the sea, black as fog. It reminded her of the Vesrian raids she’d seen as a girl. Another one could come at any moment. Desperate to shove that thought aside, she said, “What’s it like in Greine?”

Hal hummed pensively. “It is still rebuilding, but there’s less ironwork, less poverty. If Knockaine is gray, Greine is white. There are arcades filled with stores and cafes and universities. In the afternoons, people walk in the parks.”

Wren closed her eyes, imagining a city washed in golden sunlight. “A paradise, then.”

“Hardly. Your government is far more liberal in affording rights and positions of power to those without magic.” He paused. “There’s corruption in the government. War hawks and religious fundamentalists keep the populace in fear. For any hope of change, I’ll have to burn it down.”

“You’re going to make a lot of enemies.” Wren threaded her fingers into his again and squeezed.

“I already have a lot of enemies,” he said wearily. “It will be a long and gradual process. Someday, I hope you can see it.”

She did, too. A small, new part of her longed to help him make it better. But all she said was, “I know I will someday.”

As the silence settled, Wren turned toward him and placed her hand on his chest. Silver light veiled her palm as she swept his system for any lingering damage. Anything that remained, however, was beyond her power. The last of his sickness had cleared, and his injuries were the kind she could not see and could not reach, the ones he kept locked away. If only the Healing Touch could go deeper than bone.

The magic faded from her hand, and the bond between them sizzled. It grew fainter each day now that his body had healed itself enough to push her energy out.

In the stillness, Wren thought of tomorrow. If she could not fix what her people had done to him and she could not fight alongside him, then maybe she could do something else.

“Hal?” When he looked up, she wrung her hands together. “Will you let me finish healing your eyes? In case something happens tomorrow, I want to make sure you can protect yourself.”

He hesitated. “Don’t exhaust yourself for my sake.”

Wren knew this would be close to the end of what her ravagedfolacould endure. Although she’d used her magic sparingly since she’d returned to Danu, three days was hardly enough time to recover completely from the strain she’d put on her system in Colwick Hall. But right now, she couldn’t bring herself to worry. “I’ll be fine.”

“It seems we both have a talent for minimizing things.”

Wren laughed, startling herself. “I suppose we do. Make yourself comfortable.”

As she leaned against the headboard, Hal laid his head in her lap. It would never fail to astound her how he’d transformed healing from something so clinical, so practiced, to something so intimate. It hurt less to use her magic now. It was all numb, all sputtering and soft like a low-burning candle. As she bent over him, nearly touching her forehead to his, her hair came loose from its messy chignon. Behind this makeshift curtain, there was nothing and no one but Hal. Nothing but the sensation of her magic binding them up, tighter and tighter, like a row of sutures. To lose him now would rend her open.

I love you,she thought.Let nothing tear us apart again.But she couldn’t say it. Already, she wasn’t sure if she could let him go when they made it to Vesria.

When her hair fell onto his face, he tucked it behind her ear. It broke the spell, just a little, and let the world back in. By the time she finished, his face had relaxed. The pain, harbored secretly for years, finally receded. He opened his eyes, and in them was the same emotion as the first time she had dared to gaze into them. Awe.

Goddess above, would she ever get used to the way he looked at her?

“Thank you,” he said.

Her throat went dry. “It’s the very least I can do.”

The magic flickered from her hands, and when she tried to call on it again, the air was breathless and still, the dark unbroken. It did not answer her. So this was it. Her magic for his.

Wren had always known this was a possibility, but it still felt like something had been stolen. There was a void in her heart where her magic once slept. Rationally, she knew another healer could restore it. It might even come back with rest alone. But it didn’t stave off the raw panic. If it never came back, she would never plumb the depths of that emptiness. She would never be whole again.

She would be just Wren.Nothing.