Page 149 of Fallacies

He looks like you.

It’s been a while since I’ve cried. I don’t remember when the last time was, actually. Anger often trumps sadness when it comes to the heaviest of my emotions, but this isn’t sadness. It’s…triumph. Validation. Hope.

I’ve never felt so much of it before.

The tear rolling down my cheek feels foreign on my face.

“Callan?” Pax is beside me now. “What is it? What did she say?”

I can’t take my eyes off the sky.

“Boss,” Devon starts in.

Hunter’s next. “What the hell is going on?”

“He’s alive.” The words spill out before I’ve even had time to process them.

I’ve said them out loud before—when I was trying to prove it to Delia and all of Pirn that they were true—but this is different. This is…real. There’s nothing left to prove. It’s a fact. Truth. Reality. Lucina’s seen him.

Shock has made its way into Pax’s voice. “Grey?” he asks, taking me by the shoulders when I don’t answer. “Callan, is it Grey?”

All I’m able to manage is a nod, and at my slow-spreading smile, Pax curses under his breath. I hear more swearing around the fire, some laughter too, but I’m too focused on the stars.

Saw him? I signal back to Cin. Alive?

The star flashes once. My heart nearly explodes. Yes.

Head falling to my chest, it hangs slack between my shoulders. I wipe my eyes with my sleeve, my heavy inhales morphing into a broken, disbelieving laugh.

All these years... Of refusing to give up and ignoring everyone who said I should. Of mission after mission after mission of nothing. We came home empty-handed every single time, and now…

I laugh again.

My hands are so full I’m not even sure I can carry it all.

“Hey.” Hunter taps my shoulder, and he’s smiling when I look up at him, pointing to the sky. “She’s saying something else.”

Snapping my head up, I catch the end of what she’d said: Down.

“Dammit,” I curse. Repeat, I signal back.

It takes her a second, and I hate that she has to exert the extra energy because of me. Because I hadn’t been paying attention. But when she starts again, her flashes come out just as strong.

The ward comes down, she says.

I’m stunned into silence. Long enough that my coven begins pestering me for answers, frantically glancing between me and the sky.

“Callan, what the hell is it?” Pax asks.

“She said the ward comes down,” I translate, slowly getting to my feet.

“Holy shit,” Easton curses.

Across the fire, Hunter laughs, high-fiving Pax, who’s grinning so wide his cheeks probably hurt. Even Devon looks tempted to crack a smile, and Phoenix…he’s got that look in his eye. The one he gets before torture or Rogue hunting. Before a mission that no one else wants to go on, but he’s crazy enough to be excited for. An animal, ready to pounce.

The second that ward comes down, Nix is going in.

I glance at Kimber, almost forgetting she was here. No one looks happier than her. Head tilted to the sky, her green eyes are glossy as she stares up at the stars.