Page 154 of Aryn

The tension is thick as she thinks for a few moments longer, but finally, she nods. “We will go to your home, then.”

Relief loosens my shoulders a notch as we split the group between the two vehicles. Ailynor’s guards insist on riding with her, as does her general, Baelith. They load into one van with Ronan and Cameron.

The rest of us climb into the second vehicle. Sovran sighs to himself in a sound more exhausted than I’ve ever heard from him, but he pushes it aside when he catches Rhael’s curious face. He gawks at the dashboard and front seat, watching the dials and peering through the glass.

Sovran offers him a small smile. “Would you like to join me up here where you can see everything?”

“Oh, could I?” he breathes, eyes enormous.

Sovran gestures toward the seat. “Please. I’d be glad to have the company.”

Rhael asks a dozen rapid-fire questions that Sovran is happy to answer, and their voices fade into the background as Cato leans against my shoulder with a heavy sigh.

“We made it,” he murmurs.

I glance down at those gorgeous, exhausted eyes. “We did.”

“What do you think will happen from here?” he asks softly.

“First order of business? A shower.”

“Gods, yes,” he groans. “And an entire day in bed.”

“Now, that’s something I could get behind,” I murmur as I nip his ear.

He gasps and tries to wiggle away. “Troublemaker.”

“Me?” I ask innocently. “You’re the troublemaker. I’m perfectly respectable.”

Cato leans into me, putting his lips against my ear. “Do I need to remind you who dragged who into that alley?”

My smile spreads as I hug him tighter. “I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re implying.”

He snickers again, resting on my shoulder and closing his eyes. “Think we can make Sprocket move in with Sakane and Ego?”

“Why’s that? Are you not sick of me yet?”

“Just a little,” he says through a wide yawn. “I’ll get over it, eventually.”

“Anything I can do to speed that process up?”

Eyes closed, he grins widely. “I can think of a thing or two.”

“Too bad we don’t have privacy to do them in.”

Cato huffs and nuzzles closer. “Which leads us right back to my request. That’s your first task when we get back. Convince the lot of them to be roommates so I can have you all to myself.”

I press another kiss to his forehead. “That’s a plan I can get behind, kitten.”

Cato

The van rumbles through the forest, and the trees close around us like old friends. When we pull into the clearing and the village comes into view, a wave of relief hits me so hard I have to blink back tears.

My heart feels like it’s split in two. Half of it is waiting in the red moonlight of Elyra for me to return. The other half knows we’re home.

The dense canopy filters the evening sun into soft green light that almost burns my eyes after the warmer tones of Elyra’s sky. Plants and flowers grow everywhere, and after so long in the cold, the warmth and life are almost overwhelming.

The village looks exactly as we left it. Laundry hangs between trunks, smoke billows from the cauldron over the fire, and the garden is in full bloom. The only change is the new pen that’s been built beyond the greenhouse. Boomerang serves as a lazy sentry outside the fence, lifting her head to examine us before returning to her nap. Inside the pen, the two goats chew their cud in the shadows, with their weird rectangular eyes tracking our movement.