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“Let’s get you settled in,” I said, clearing my throat. “Then we can discuss this.” Part of me felt horrible that my quarters weren’t a suite like at the castle, more of a hovel carved into stone than anything. But the cliffs were the coolest dwellings in the settlement, and Liam was already struggling in the heat.
I stopped the horses in front of the door to my quarters. “This is us. There’s a cot you can share.” I nodded toward the door in the cliff face. “Make yourselves at home—whatever you or Liam need, just let me or Callon know.”
Del seemed reluctant to let the topic drop in the middle of such a big unveiling, but Liam was more important than the looming future right now. “Callon’s bringing water for you both to clean up with,” I told them. We were all sunbaked and dusty.
“Thank you,” Del said, sliding down from her horse. She reached for my arm and gave it a squeeze, then lifted on tiptoes to press a kiss to my lips, letting it linger a brief second. She unfastened the saddlebags, and when I pulled the door open, she guided Liam inside.
Sighing with relief that we were finally here, I peered out at the settlement, the cabins and the tents filled with people who were counting on us, more than they realized yet.
Jake walked alongside Callon, both carrying large waterskins our way, and Jake met my gaze. A mixture of exhaustion, frustration, and resentment bubbled inside me as Jake approached. Callon offered water to the refugees dismounting their horses, and I looked directly at Jake.
“Where have you been?” I asked him.
“Searching,” Jake said cryptically, handing his waterskin to a woman in the group. Then he came to stand with me.
Farris, who I had forgotten about, eyed us closely before he scanned the settlement, taking it all in. It was far too easy to forget Farris was around most of the time. He was so quiet, which was one of many reasons Pyra and Kalliope chose him to accompany us. Farris was here to observe, that much was clear. And there was no doubt in my mind he would have a list of observations to report back to Pyra by the time he returned to Noctem. He met my gaze before he nudged his horse toward the stable.
Once he was gone, I gave Jake a sideways look. “Searching for what? I woke up one day, and you were gone.” I knew that’s how Jake used to be, always wandering around the continent, but most of my life, he’d been present, and I thought his nomadic days were over.
“I was searching for answers.” His reply was short and unapologetic, and while I was used to Jake, both the haunted look in his eyes and the distance in his voice, I’d needed him with me. I’d needed his help and guidance more than ever, and for months, he hadn’t been here. The little boy in me was angry at him for that.
“We could’ve used you here,” I told him. “We have people coming in droves every week. We have a new threat every day to the people that came to us to protect them. And you just...vanished.”
“There will always be trouble, Fin. There will always be someone in need and hard decisions to be made—”
“I know, and I thought we were in this together.”
“This isyourpath, Finlay,” he snapped at me, and I felt myself stiffen. Once the words were out, regret filled his amber gaze. “I’m sorry,” he said, rubbing his hand over his face. “Like you, I’ve just arrived, and I’m exhausted.” He placed his hand on my borrowed horse’s face, his thumb brushing her nose absently. “It wasn’t my intention to abandon you, especially now with so much unrest. But this is what leadership is,” he said. “You will always be up against something—there will always be a fight or a war to be waged. It is the way people are.” He peered out at the horizon like it had a beauty only he could see after so many centuries walking toward it.
I wanted to know where his heart was because it wasn’t here with us. Not like before. “I might not always be here.”
Knowing Jake’s regenerative Ability would not let him die, I wondered what he was implying, exactly. “Are you leaving again?” I asked, my heart inching its way into my throat.
All issues with King Eduart faded away as I watched Jake. He stared at me with those emotion-filled eyes that held lifetimes of unrest.
I was beginning to feel the toll even one lifetime took...I could barely fathom centuries of them.
A little dust tornado whipped by, sending my hair blowing into my face. “Look, Jake. I know you don’t like to talk about what troubles you,” I told him, lowering my voice. “And I didn’t mean to project my shortcomings onto you. It’s just—it’s been a long couple weeks, and every time I wanted to ask for your guidance, you weren’t there.”
Jake turned to me, resting his hand on my shoulder. “And yet here you are,” he said with a proud smile. “You saved the princess and have come home to us. To your people. Whatever your adventures have been this time, Fin, you are a leader now. You lead these people, not because of me, but because it is who you are. It’s you they are drawn to. I’m just...” Jake shrugged with a soft chuckle. “I’m just the crazy uncle everyone knows about, but no one understands.”
I laughed at that. “Youarean uncle, now, you know?”
Tick trotted up, her tongue lulling from her mouth and her tail wagging as if she couldn’t be happier to be home.
Jake looked to the doorway as Callon emerged. Del and Liam stood inside, wiping off the dust from the journey. “Or,” I amended. “Maybe a grandfather?” I shrugged. “I guess you get to pick.” It was a strange reality to consider, given he looked no more than forty years old, at most.
Jake’s eyebrows popped up. “Grandfather?” he mused. “I haven’t been one of those in a very long time.” Another memory from long ago clouded his gaze, painful if the sudden lines around his eyes were any indication, but also pleasant as his mouth quirked slightly. But Liam—I grinned at the thought of him. He would make Jake smile, despite himself.
I scratched Tick’s head a final time before she meandered her way back into the square, soliciting all the attention she could get now that there were so many people to lavish her with it.
“Would you like to formally meet my son?” I asked Jake. He had seen Liam when we arrived, but they hadn’t truly met. I wasn’t sure why, but I held my breath, waiting for disappointment or censure to cross Jake’s face from my reckless boyhood decisions. But none ever came.
Instead, Jake tilted his head ever so slightly, and his eyes began to shimmer. “I would be honored.”
I exhaled, relief creeping between my lips as I smiled and waved Jake to follow me. “Hey, Liam,” I said, leaning outside the doorway.
Liam and Del both stopped scrubbing their arms clean and looked at us.
