Page 62 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

Ashtine pushed herself up to a sitting position, taking the tonic and tipping it into her mouth.

Then Talwyn was scrambling up when the princess moved from the bed faster than expected.

Nasima swooped to Ashtine’s shoulder a moment later.

She reached up, dragging her fingers along her feathers, and the bird nuzzled into her hand.

“I have missed you, my friend,” Ashtine whispered.

“Do you want to eat something while we walk?” Talwyn asked, pulling open the door and grabbing a cloak for Ashtine from a hook nearby.

“No.”

“All right.”

Later. She would work on that later. Ashtine was up and speaking. This was progress.

Hazel was rounding a corner when they came to the end of a corridor, approval flashing in her eyes when she spotted them.

“It is good you are up, your Highness,” she said, looking the princess over keenly.

“Thank you for the tonic,” Ashtine replied.

“Are you going to the pens? If so, I will accompany you.”

The High Witch did not wait for an answer. She just turned and led the way. Talwyn stuck close to Ashtine’s side as they made their way across the castle grounds. She seemed steady on her feet, but Talwyn wasn’t taking any chances.

Nearing one of the pens, there were several surrounding enclosures. Aeries was more like it. Nearly all the enclosures were covered, providing shelter from the elements, but they rose into towers where the griffins could come and go from the air, apparently trusted to return on their own.

“I will get Thorne,” Hazel said over her shoulder before striding away and into an aery.

“We should probably stay back,” Talwyn said when Ashtine began moving towards one of the tethered griffins.

The princess continued as though she hadn’t heard her, Nasima clicking her beak at her shoulder.

The dark grey griffin she was approaching cocked its head, eyeing the hawk.

Talwyn tensed when Ashtine reached up and rested her hand on the creature’s beak.

Its wings rustled, but other than that, it stood perfectly still.

Talwyn stood back, giving the princess room. She didn’t need to be hovered over. Not with Nasima back at her side and winds whispering in her ear.

“You did well.”

Talwyn turned at the sound of Hazel’s voice to find her leading Thorne over. The griffin clicked his beak in agitation, raking his talons along the ground.

“I did nothing,” Talwyn said curtly.

“You have not left her side, and you convinced her to get up. That is something.”

They stood silently for a moment, watching the princess and the griffin. “The babes are truly doing well?” Talwyn asked.

“They are, but she needs to eat more.”

“So I hear,” Talwyn muttered.

“You should take Thorne for a flight,” Hazel said. “Get to know him better.”

“Tomorrow perhaps.”

“Still stubborn, I see,” Hazel said. Talwyn turned her head to look at the Witch. “I detested working with you when you were queen.”

Talwyn took a moment, leashing the irritation that climbed up her spine. Hazel had refused to work with her when she had been queen. The few times they had spoken, the meetings had never ended well. “I am well aware of what you thought of me, my Lady.”

“No, you are not. You would have made an excellent Witch. I often found it ironic that you were given Shifter gifts rather than Witch gifts when you are so much like us,” the High Witch said.

Talwyn studied her. The straight back and lifted chin. The perfectly intact braid and the witchsuit. “If those were your thoughts of me, why did you insist on working with Sorin?”

Hazel was quiet for a long moment before she said, “Mostly because he had worked closely with Eliné, but also because you reminded me too much of myself. I would not have stayed with my friend, though. I would have found other things more important. I could not stay with my own child let alone a friend and her young. For that, Talwyn Semiria, you are better than I could ever wish to be.”

With that, Hazel handed off Thorne’s lead and strode away. Talwyn stared after her until Ashtine’s approach drew her attention.

“This one is yours?” the princess asked, running a palm along his neck. Thorne let out a low huff of sorts, lowering his head to peck at something on the ground.

“He is. If we can bond enough,” Talwyn answered.

“Did you choose him?”

“No. I was told to walk through the aeries until one came to me. It took nearly two days. I think he only approached because I carried an apple, and he wanted it.”

Ashtine huffed a small laugh. She brought her hands together, cradling her belly. “I know that I have appeared weak these last few days.”

“You are the farthest thing from weak, Ashtine,” Talwyn said as they moved along a path, Thorne trailing behind them.

“I simply wish for you to know that I do care. For the babes.”

“I never once doubted such a thing. Everything you have done is for them. To give them a world different from what we know. That is not weakness. And even if it were, I am the last person you need to explain yourself to.”

They continued on in silence, Ashtine pulling her cloak tighter around herself. After a while, she said, “I should have let Eliza take Sawyer’s ashes to the sea.”

Talwyn stopped short. “Why? Briar will be grateful that you waited for him.”

“And if I find myself with two sets of Water Prince ashes? What am I to do then, Talwyn?” Ashtine turned to face her, unshed tears glimmering in her eyes.

Talwyn swallowed. She couldn’t promise everything would be all right. She couldn’t lie and say she knew they would see Briar well and whole again before this was over. So instead, she dropped Thorne’s lead and stepped closer to Ashtine, drawing her into an embrace.

“In my time spent behind bars these last weeks, I have come to realize that sometimes all we can do is breathe,” Talwyn said softly. “Sometimes that has to be enough for the moment.”

“I thought I could do this, but I cannot,” she whispered. “I cannot do this without him by my side.”

“You can, and you will not do it alone. If the Fates take Briar from you, I will still be here, Ashtine. You will not be alone.”

Ashtine nodded into her shoulder, reaching up to brush away her tears. “I fear for them.”

Her voice was so quiet, Talwyn hardly heard her with her now mortal hearing.

“Briar is strong. Scarlett will not fail at this, Ashtine.”

“Not him. I fear for him, yes, but …” She trailed off, her hands rubbing along her belly. “They will be hunted, and I fear I do them a disservice to even bring them into this world.”

Talwyn placed her hands over Ashtine’s, feeling the babes move beneath their fingers. “They will be protected more than any others.”

“If Briar and I are not …”

And Talwyn knew. She knew what the princess was asking her.

Because they had both grown up without mothers and fathers.

But they had grown up with each other. The gods knew she’d likely make a shit mother, but if Briar and Ashtine could not be there, those babes would never feel abandoned. Not for a single moment of their lives.

“They will know love, Ashtine,” Talwyn said. “The unconditional kind. The kind you showed me. They will be loved fiercely.”

Ashtine nodded, a small, sad smile coming through her tears before the princess turned and continued walking along the path.

And as Talwyn followed, she had a feeling the winds had spoken to her friend again.