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She had to believe it for herself, too.

“You really think he’ll be okay?” she asked.

“He’ll never be the same,” Kaiden said, and the way he was looking at her made her realise he wasn’t just speaking about Bear. “But every day, it’ll slowly get easier.” His gaze remained locked on hers as he whispered, “I promise.”

She closed her eyes as his assurance burrowed deep, bringing comfort and hope to the broken pieces within her.

When his fingers brushed tenderly across her cheekbone, Alex leaned into his touch, amazed anew at how relaxed she felt with him, how content she was in his arms. But it wasn’t to last,since he soon bumped his leg under her, quietly communicating that it was time to get up and return to solving the riddle.

“Right,” Alex said with a sigh as she stood with him, calling for the others to form a circle in the centre of the clearing. “Let’s do this line by line.”

“Through death, I am birthed,” D.C. recited from memory. “So, we’re looking for something that is born or created when something else dies or is killed?”

“It could be a person—women sometimes die in childbirth,” Jordan said.

Both of them looked to Bear who, as the resident genius, was the best chance they all had to figure out the correct answer.

“Too vague,” he said. “Not all women die—hardly any do, really. That’s too much of a generalisation. We need something more solid.”

“In Freya, there’s a place called Death Valley,” Alex mused. “It’s a desert, but things still live and grow there. Could we be looking at a play on words like that?”

“Maybe,” Bear said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Or it could be something more metaphorical, like a sacrifice.”

Declan cocked his head. “Sacrifice works—at least in the sense that someone dies for another to live.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t work with the rest of the riddle,” Bear said, already thinking ahead. “And we need to be looking at the whole picture.”

Silence surrounded them as they all considered his words.

“Next line, then,” D.C. said. “When I am hurt, I am most loved.”

“That one doesn’t make any sense,” Jordan grumbled.

“Could be something medical,” Kaiden pointed out. “You give treatment to someone you love in order to keep them alive, and that treatment may be painful for a short time.”

“That’s a good theory,” Bear agreed. “But again, it doesn’t work with the other lines.”

“Let’s stop worrying about it as a whole for now, and keep pulling it apart,” Declan said, his voice pacifying.

“What about love itself?” Alex asked, the thought hitting her. She ticked off a finger as she said, “Through death I am birthed… Perhaps that’s someone who only realised how much they cared for another after they’d already passed away.” She touched another finger. “When I am hurt, I am most loved… Love can be the most powerful emotion of all, can’t it? It can heal and it can break. It can hurt in both good and bad ways.” She avoided looking at Kaiden as she said, “Right?”

Her friends were nodding along, so she continued, “Stained for a purpose, or none at all… Um, I’ll come back to that one. Maybe it’s a metaphor for a broken heart?” She scrunched her face and moved on. “I have neither start nor finish, yet always begin and end.” She trailed off, unable to give a response for the last line, her ideas running out of steam.

“You were doing well up until the end,” Bear encouraged. “But I’m pretty sure love does have a start, but doesn’t always have an end.”

With a loud sigh, Alex picked up the golden riddle pages again, leafing through the bound parchment while hoping some new line or clue might magically appear.

“Back to the drawing board, I guess,” she mumbled.

And on it went for hours more, the three suns travelling alarmingly swiftly across the sky. They only had until sundown to come up with an answer, and the closer that time approached, the more Alex’s concern grew. Her friends were becoming just as desperate, as evidenced by the words they were now throwing out at random.

“A sword? Some other weapon?” Jordan tried.

“Life? A journey?” D.C. offered.

“Feelings? Emotions?” Declan guessed.

And yet, while all their answers covered at least some part of the riddle, none of them fit perfectly.