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That’s all it takes.

I crash into him and throw my arms around his shoulders. He staggers back a step and then hugs me tightly with his one arm.

“You’re alive,” I whisper, voice breaking.

Row steps forward and wraps both of us in a crushing embrace. “You got taller,” he grumbles.

“I did not.”

Rosie turns. The moment she sees me, her hands fly to her mouth. “Oh, sweetheart…” She pulls me into another hug, and suddenly, we’re all crying and laughing at the same time. “I thought you were gone.”

“I thought you were dead.”

Row squeezes my shoulder.

“Look at you,” Bane says softly. “All grown up.”

“I’m training at the Watch,” I tell them. “Learning magic.”

Rosie beams through tears. “Oh, Marrow would be so proud of you.”

My chest tightens at his name. I wipe my eyes, trying to breathe. “I missed you.”

“We missed you too, kid,” Row says gruffly.

Then Rosie looks past me. Her expression shifts. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

I turn to see Esther standing a few steps behind me, still wearing that enormous fur hat.

Rosie’s eyes light up. “Esther?”

Esther blinks. “Hello, Rosie.”

I stare between them. “You… know each other?”

Rosie laughs in disbelief. “It’s been years! Look at you!”

My stomach drops.

I turn slowly to Esther. “You know them?”

Esther adjusts her giant hat. “Yes.”

“How?”

She looks at me calmly, matter-of-fact. “Marrow was my father.”

23

Never Alone

Rosie made me promise to come back so she could fill me in on how they came to be in Olwythion after all this time. Almost immediately following that night, I was able to sit down with Esther to talk about what she revealed.

That Marrow is her father.

I sigh from my seat in the back of the Elementation classroom, looking out over the afternoon sun as it reflects the light layer of snow dusting the Watch grounds. A round dome enchantment twinkles in the daylight over the Solarball stadium, protecting the field from the flurries that float down from thick clouds above.

It’s been months since that night, and I still pinch myself, reminding myself that this is real. Rosie, Bane, and Row are safe. My Goldenpine family reunited, now connected with another missing piece—Marrow’s daughter. Esther. Whom I’ve taken to hanging out with much more frequently since the Solarball match. She’s still horrifically awkward at times, but at least she’s stopped bowing and calling me “ma’am.”