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Taly. Always there when he needed her.

A gentle tug in the darkness that would lead him home.

Ivain stalked across the room, cutting him off before he could reach for the door. “I will not allow you to throw your life away over dreams and hallucinations. I have already had to say goodbye to one child. I refuse to make it two.”

I’m not yours. Skye almost said it, but stopped himself. Ivain had been more of a father to him than his own sire, and he wasn’t that far gone. Not yet.

“I won’t leave her,” he said, reaching for that thread. “I don’t know how she’s doing it, but the dreams are real.She’sreal.”

Something warm and fuzzy brushed against his mind.

And he let it in.

That thread pulled taut, wrapping around him, twisting and tightening its grip. “If you don’t believe me, just ask Aiden! He knows why she left last year. All this time, heknew—”

“Skye, please,” Sarina cut in. “Listen to yourself.”

“You’re not in your right mind,” Ivain added.

“I don’t care.” That thread tugged so hard it nearly jerked him forward. “I don’t care if it is madness, you can’t—”

“Skylen.”

The raw command in the old man’s voice brought Skye up short.

“Enough of this!” Ivain continued. “We all want her back, but you have to accept the truth. She’s gone.”

“She’s not!” Skye nearly shouted. Because she couldn’t be. He wouldn’t allow it. “I’veseenher. I see her every night. She’s not gone!”

“Skye.” Sarina’s voice was full of pity. “I know how hard it is to accept the loss of a—”

“She’s not gone!” Skye bit out. He frantically searched the room, but his brother was the only one that would look him in the eye.

A moment later, he hung his head.

“She’s not gone,” Skye repeated, hating the way his voice began to crack. He grasped at the thread, but…

No.

No no no

It was fraying. Fluttering out of reach.

What had happened? While they had been standing here arguing, had she… Was it possible?

“Surely, you know what this looks like,” Ivain said, his tone a little gentler. “We’re worried about you.”

“What’s wrong?”

The voice was soft but unmistakable, and Skye’s head turned.

His body moved without thought.

The sound of footsteps followed him, along with a clatter of movement, a din of voices. But he had stopped hearing. Stopped caring. The world around him had faded, and all he could see washer. Covered in blood. Slumped on the floor. Panting and holding her sides, obviously in pain but still completely and utterlyalive.

Taly was alive.

A small, broken sound cracked out of him as he fell to his knees in front of her, reaching for her.