Page 12 of A Sunwoven Ascent

Why did they not fight? Why appear now, when the worst is already over?

Kaldrek’s reply eased the sharp edge of her anger. Moonshade had always intended to seek out the remaining packs and join the hunt against the Noskari. Ravena was not shirking responsibility. She was… lost. Broken enough to need time to recover, to gather her strength and shape some kind of plan before returning. He hesitated, then added, And she will not lose another child to the darkness.

Evelyne froze. “Another child?” she whispered, mostly to herself.

“They have three,” Heidara said softly. “Or… they had three. Drae is the youngest, barely fifteen. Beau is the eldest.” She hesitated, as though memory weighed heavily on her tongue. “A fierce fighter, that one. Both he and Drae favor their sister, Kira, all bronze skin and midnight hair, with faces one does not easily forget.” Her voice dimmed. “All of them… beautiful.”

“You know them well?” Evelyne asked.

“I knew one very well,” Heidara said, her eyes shifting aside. “At least, I was under the impression I did.” A slight frown curved her mouth.

Evelyne recognized that look. The shadow of a long-lost love, perhaps even a first love, the kind that ended in tragedy. She had never pressed Heidara before, though part of her wanted to now.

Movement across the clearing caught Evelyne’s eye. Alaric lowered himself into the grass near Kaldrek, his face set in blank, unreadable stillness. He looked as though he sat there only because courtesy required it. The warmth and easy charm that once clung to him were nowhere to be found.

Kaldrek gave him only a passing glance before returning his attention to Holden and Coren, seemingly untroubled by the silence at his back. Evelyne, however, could not look away, especially not from the emptiness in Alaric’s eyes.

“Shit,” Heidara muttered beside her, pulling Evelyne from her thoughts.

She followed Heidara’s gaze to the tall, bare-chested male crossing the clearing toward Coren, black hair falling loose and a dangerously disarming smile on his lips.

Heidara’s hand closed tightly around hers. When Evelyne glanced at her, she caught the nervous press of teeth to lip before Heidara looked back at him. Bronze-skinned, broad-shouldered, and strikingly handsome, he carried a presence that seemed to claim the space around him. Coren rose to meet him and drew him into an embrace. His eldest son.

“Beau.” Heidara breathed the name as if she scarcely trusted it to belong to the man before her.

Evelyne felt the tension coiling off her friend and slid a steadying hand over hers. “Walk with me?” she murmured.

Heidara gave a small nod, but before they could step away, Beau’s voice cut across the space.

“Heidara!”

He broke away from his father and came straight toward her, nearly running. Heidara went still, and Evelyne tightened her hold on her arm to keep her steady.

“Yes, Beau?” Heidara said at last, her voice sharp.

He blinked. “Really? Just ‘Yes, Beau’? Not even a ‘Hello, Beau,’ or an ‘It’s nice to see you, Beau’?” His smile slipped as he reached for some warmth in her.

Her jaw set. “You knew I’d be here. Why pretend to be surprised?”

Beau stopped only a breath away, his voice softening. “Of course I knew. I was looking for you. I just didn’t realize you were standing here beside my father. So yes, Heid, I was surprised.”

He started to pull her into a hug, but Heidara recoiled at once, wrenching her arm free of Evelyne’s grasp and folding both arms across her chest like a shield. Evelyne let go immediately. One look at Heidara was enough to know her temper was hanging by a thread.

“Why, exactly, would you be looking for me, Beau?” she hissed.

His answer came too smoothly. “Because I would never pass up the chance to see your beautiful face.”

Heidara released a sharp, humorless laugh. “Where’s your mate?”

The question wiped the smile clean off Beau’s face. His lips pressed together, his gaze dropping to the ground. “Heidara…” He scratched the back of his head, visibly unsettled. “Could we speak somewhere private?”

“I doubt your mate would appreciate you sneaking off with a former lover,” she said coolly. “So where is she?”

Beau cleared his throat. “She wasn’t my mate,” he murmured.

“What!” The word tore from Heidara like a battle cry.

Evelyne flinched, feeling like an intruder in a storm she couldn’t calm.