26. Rain

Chapter 26

Rain

Ivy was unconscious for half an hour, and I could feel Sim watching her like a hawk. Something about the process of breaking her bond to Oberon had captured their attention entirely, like a train wreck happening right in front of them.

It was an elegant solution, and if I'd considered it more before, I would have realized the only true way to cut Oberon out of her life would be to forget all he'd tainted, and...well, how much of her life was that?

When her eyes drifted open, it was jarring.

Everything about her was different. She looked younger, the bags under her eyes reduced almost entirely. Her movements were quick, unpracticed, and maybe a little clumsy, not slow and deliberate or jerky with emotions she was struggling to force down.

She pushed up in the chair and looked around, confused. "Where am I?"

Okay, that was unexpected.

And yet, was it? She had only been at Gloombringer Castle because Huxley thought to use her against Oberon. Every single thing about her presence was tainted with Oberon, and thus, gone.

She seemed confused for a moment, then reached up to her throat, fingering a small emerald pendant there. Then she looked at Adair and me, still sitting on Adair's bed.

"I don't...Lili says you helped me. That you...gave me something I needed. But I don't remember. And she says she doesn't remember what it was either. What happened?"

I sighed, reluctantly pulling myself from behind Adair. "It's complicated. You were hurt and needed our help."

She nodded, pushing out of the chair, but wobbling and falling back into it. She leaned forward, looking at herself. She stuck a leg out, staring. "I'm...I'm old."

"I'd say maybe fifty," I answered, trying not to implicitly agree, even though fifty did feel rather old to me. I hadn't lived half that long. But the last thing she needed was to obsess over time lost.

She paused and considered, looking at me, then Adair, who was still pale and drawn from his headache, though he wasn't cringing in pain any longer. Maybe I'd helped. More likely the painkillers had.

She wouldn't know about being allowed to take extra anymore like she'd told Adair, I realized. I wondered...just what would she know? Did she remember anything at all after the moment she'd met Oberon Gloombringer?

Sim sent me the image of a teenage girl, smiling and carefree, sitting on a dock with her feet dangling in a river.

I took a deep breath and let it out. "How old do you remember being?"

"Sixteen," was the immediate answer. "Am I really fifty? It must have been very bad."

"It was," Adair agreed. "You're better now, but there are things you need to know. Huxley is older too. He's not the boy you knew. He's...Titania said he's just like his father now."

She pulled her head back, horrified, shivering. "That's awful. Hux, though? Are you sure? He was so..."

An image of a young Huxley Dawnchaser flitted into Sim's vision, a preteen at the time, sneaking up behind her and trying to shove her into the river, leading to a wrestling match that left them both panting and giggling.

Adair wasn't going to let there be any doubts. "I am sure. I'm sorry. But his son is still young. I think he's only twenty-two. Maybe there's still hope there. His name is Florian."

"Florian," she said, with a tiny smile. "I am sorry about Hux, though."

"We all are," I agreed. "I wish there were something we could do, but I don't think there is."

"If I'm fifty, he's gotta be, like, forty-five, at least. Maybe forty-six. As old as his dad was, last time I remember." She wrapped her arms around herself and shook her head. "I wouldn't have tried to change Uncle Cavan. I wouldn't go near him if I didn't have to. Is he dead, then?"

I nodded. "He is. I understand there was an accident about...fifteen years ago? He fell down the stairs, I think. It was in the news, but the families haven't spoken that much since you were young, and hardly at all since I was a child, so I don't have firsthand information."

She blinked a moment, then glanced down at me, eyes going round. "You're a Moonstriker. You...you helped me? But Delta hates me so much."

I could hardly imagine my mother hating anyone, but it fit with what Ivy had already said. Odd. "Mother is a little unemotional sometimes," I offered. "It can come off poorly. But she didn't tell me anything about you before I came here. She certainly didn't tell me she disliked you."

Her eyes narrowed in confusion, but she didn't cling to it, just giving a shrug. "Maybe things have changed since then. Where's here? This isn't the Dawnchaser Estate."

And here was the test. "No, it's Gloombringer Castle."

For a moment, she just sat there, staring at us. "Gloombringer Castle. I'm at Gloombringer Castle? That's...why? Uncle Cavan hates the Gloombringer. Does Hux like him better?"

Adair snorted. "Doubtful. No one likes Oberon. He'd have been the Gloombringer's son when you were young, but he's a selfish ass who isn't capable of having a human relationship."

Well done, I thought to myself. If Ivy was thinking like a teenage girl, that wasn't going to pique her interest in the so-ancient unpleasant Gloombringer. Best that she forever thought of him as an elder family head. Like her uncle or some other member of the previous generation.

"We're here for a peace summit," I offered. "The threat of Mount Slate needs the family heads to work together, so we're trying to make that happen."

"Oh." She acted like that seemed obvious, nodding and satisfied. "I guess if I'm fifty, maybe I'd be more useful at a peace summit than...well, me. Hux is probably gonna be mad I can't help him anymore, but I can't. I don't know anything about diplomacy."

"I don't doubt it." I went over and offered her my arm. "But frankly, while he might be the head of your family, he doesn't get to insist that you do something you're not capable of doing. That's silly."

She blushed and ducked her head, but stood and took my proffered arm, a little wobbly on the rather high heels she was wearing with her suit. She bit her lip a moment, then shook her head and reached down to take them off, one by one, and carried them in her free hand. "I still don't understand what you helped me with, but I feel like...like it was really important. Lili thinks so too. She says things hurt before, that the pressure was a lot, and she was worried we'd both crack. So thank you."

"Happy to have been of service," Adair said, smiling wanly at her and starting to move to the edge of the bed.

I held up a hand to stop him. "I'm going to take her back to the Dawnchaser rooms. Probably for the best it just be me. Don't want Huxley realizing what's happened and blaming you for helping her."

She scrunched up her nose, frowning between us. "Mad at you for helping? He really has become just like his dad. Well I won't say anything."

I wasn't sure she'd be able to keep herself from talking to him, but I trusted that she didn't want to hurt us or turn Huxley's wrath to Adair, and that was enough. If it all came out, we'd deal with that then.

Adair nodded, leaning back on his bed and smiling at me, and then her. "I'm glad I could help."

Part of me wanted to rush Ivy back to her room and return to him. To hold him. To—but he'd just had a monstrous headache, and I very much doubted he was in a mood to further alienate Lord Gloombringer by taking me to his bed.

Pity.

Don't be impatient , Iri rebuked me. You'll get what you want soon enough. It's clear you've both made up your minds. Just be careful and don't rush things .

And of course, she was right.

So I gave Adair a little smile just for him and led Ivy out toward the rooms where I'd seen the Dawnchasers moving around that morning.

I'd barely set foot into the hallway before a door flung open and Huxley Dawnchaser stomped out, glaring at me and then at Ivy. "What the hells are you doing with my cousin, Moonstriker?"

Again, I wondered if Oberon had been warned off Ivy, and if that had been the catalyst that had ruined so many lives.

Still, I couldn't possibly tell him the truth, or anything like it. And I was possibly the world's worst liar, so when confronted, my mind went blank.

"I fell down the stairs, Hux," Ivy said, thinking quicker than me. Then she squinted in confusion. "At least, I think that's what happened. I woke up at the bottom of the staircase, and this nice man found me when I was getting up and offered to help me back to my room." She glanced up at me, blushing again and ducking her head.

Huxley stared at her as though she'd started speaking in tongues. "What the hells is wrong with you?"

She looked back up at him, fully serious and eyes wide. "I'm not sure, but I think...I think I've forgotten some things. You, um...you're kinda old."

Behind Huxley, Florian had come out of the room and had to slap his hand over his own mouth, his eyes dancing with amusement and shoulders trembling. Me, I was in front of Huxley, so I had to stand there with a straight face, which was almost impossible.

Huxley's eyes narrowed, and he grabbed her arm, tugging her forward .

Instantly, she jerked it out of his grip. "Ow, Hux, what the hell? That hurt. What's the matter with you?"

His teeth bared in a snarl, and she swallowed hard, but he turned his irritation on me instead. "Leave, Moonstriker. I think you've done enough damage."

"He hasn't done a single thing but help me," she said, strength in her voice that had been entirely absent before. "And you may be the head of my family now, but you're not my father, Huxley Dawnchaser. Or yours. Now show me where my room is. My head hurts. I think I hit it and I need a nap."

As much as he clearly didn't want to, he turned and led her toward another door, opening it and going inside with Ivy following, leaving me and Florian alone in the hallway.

"He's wrong, you know," I told Florian.

He raised a brow at me. "About something in particular?"

I tried to keep my voice light, even as I shook my head and met his eye, unflinching. "No. About everything. About the right way to treat people. About me. About Ivy. About you." I leaned in a little, as though to impart a secret. "About Fawn."

I wasn't sure what the hells I was talking about, but I could see when the words hit their target. He glanced back at the door his father had gone into, then at me. "But what am I supposed to do about it?"

"Remember it. He knew it once, but he forgot. By the time he had the power to do something about it, he didn't care anymore. You've got to keep caring."

The breath fled Florian, leaving him gasping, and his eyes were glassy, so I'd been right. I'd said it right. Now I just had to take my leave, escape before he could press me and realize I had no idea what the hells I was talking about.

"I hope we'll meet again," I told him. "I...I think I'd like to meet Fawn one day."

"She'd like that too," he whispered. Then he turned and rushed back into the room he'd come from.

In the morning, when I took a walk on the battlements of the castle, I watched the Dawnchaser car arrive, the driver packing up a handful of bags. Florian and Ivy came out the front of the castle, and he helped her into the car, kissing her on the cheek and telling her to, "take care, Aunt Ivy," before the car took her away.

I hoped she was headed to the new start she wanted, far away from Oberon Gloombringer and all the misery he'd represented in her life for so long.

When Florian turned to go back in, he caught sight of me above him, paused, and inclined his head.

I hoped very much that someday, Florian Dawnchaser and I could be friends.