Page 89 of The Amber Sunburst

“You’re the worst, you know that?”

Bios smiles wide. “Of course I do,” he agrees. “Now go get her, tiger.”

“I’ll try,” he says on his way out. Then, at the door, “I love you, Dad.”

“Forever and always?” he asks with a knowing smile.

It started as a joke. Forever and always. Something people say in stories and never in real life. But now it’s more than that. It’s a promise.

“Forever and always.”

Zeno psychs himself up all the way out of the Main Building and to the stairs.

This is it, Zeno. She’s either going to slap you or kiss you and you are going to enjoy it either way.

He’s going to knock right on her door and just… tell her.

Or maybe he shouldn’t.

Nope. No. You’re gonna tell her. And you’re going to do it tonight before you lose your nerve.

“Okay, okay,” he groans.

I’m the voice in your head, Zeno. You don’t have to respond to me out loud.

Oh, Forms, he’s going crazy.

When he gets to their floor, he’s tempted to throw his body the rest of the way down the stairs rather than talk to Eudoxia.

But he doesn’t do that. He walks into their hallway and turns towards her door and⁠—

Oh, Forms.

All thoughts of confessing his love are thrown to the wind.

Because Eudoxia is crying—sobbing, really—in Ophelia’s arms. A breakdown the likes of which he’s never seen from her.

He’s never heard a sound as terrible as her hiccupy breathing. Suddenly the only thing he wants is for her sadness to stop. For her to smile.

He doesn’t say anything as he approaches them. Ophelia meets his eye and gives him a sad smile. Zeno tilts his head in a question.

When Ophelia nods, he wraps his arms around them both, Eudoxia now sandwiched between them. She looks up at him, tears coming in a steady stream and eyes glossy. He almost breaks down with her.

He just wants to beg her, don’t cry, please don’t cry.

Instead he holds her tighter.

Once he starts stroking her hair, her sobs die down.

“What happened?” he prompts gently.

Eudoxia takes a gasping breath through her tears and says, “Something horrible.”

22

EUDOXIA

“I’m here,” Eudoxia says with no inflection.