Page 61 of The Heart of Nym (The Twisted Roots Duology #1)

They sat there in the still silence, both of them sprawled out on the lawn, with only the sound of wildlife to silence the thoughts that filled both of their minds.

No matter how many times she glanced in Trio’s direction, his expression never changed.

There was a certain melancholy that he carried around with him and now, it was seemingly more evident than ever.

Aziel was not the cause of it, she knew that much.

But there was something there—something deep in his soul that he had a hard time grasping.

“Have you ever been in love, Trio?”

The question rang out into the night. If he’d heard her, he made no move to signify that he did. It was an answer enough. She knew that silence and in turn, she gave him her own.

Nymiria wasn’t quite sure how much time passed when she heard the soft footfall coming from behind them.

She turned her head to look at the figure approaching them, doing her best to ignore the sputtering of her heart and the sudden desire to glamour herself.

She looked a mess, she was sure of it. She'd been laying there drinking with Trio for hours, she surely looked sloppy. But Aziel didn’t seem to notice.

He didn’t even comment on it. All he did was sit beside her, his bright blue eyes never leaving her own.

It continued this way far longer than she would have liked.

Usually, by now, either one of them would’ve said something smart to one another. But something was different.

“Good morning,” Aziel smiled.

And good gods, he was beautiful.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. None of this was supposed to happen—this was not a part of her plan. She didn’t want to feel anything for him at all, but her heart and her soul came alive in his presence all at their own accord.

She smiled back, already knowing that he was aware that something was wrong. Her smile didn’t reach her eyes as much as she would have liked for it to. “Good morning.” She whispered.

“He’s been gossiping again, hasn’t he?” Nymiria shifted her gaze to Trio, who was still laid back and waiting for the sunrise.

She chuckled. “According to him, he was only spreading awareness.”

“I can hear you.” Trio sing-songed.

Both Aziel and Nymiria laughed, gazes turning to the sliver of light that was cresting over the mountain.

“What secrets did he tell you?”

She bit back at her grin, shaking her head.

“Nothing too damning. Perhaps I’ll tell you later.

” Being angry at him now was nearly impossible.

Not when she knew what she knew. The secret that Trio told her weighed heavy on her heart, hundreds of questions plaguing her still, but the one that was the loudest made her forget every ounce of embarrassment she'd felt watching him shimmy down the pillars of his balcony to escape her.

Nymiria wanted to know why he'd never kissed anyone and what it was about her, a woman who surely drove him to the brink of insanity, that made him want to kiss her in the first place.

It was a girlish thought, but a valid one.

You did not meet many men who'd never kissed someone before, especially at this age.

"Nymiria, I have someone who would like to speak with you.

" She turned to face him again, her brow lowering as that familiar fear took root in her stomach.

Upon seeing her unease, Aziel shook his head, that sad smile returning to his face.

"It's not anything like that, love. There is someone who has missed you very much and they've been waiting for you to come home. "

Home.

Home.

Nymiria looked around at the rolling hills, the clouds that were turning glorious shades of pinks and purples as the sun's rays began spreading across the horizon.

With a small nod at the scenery, Nymiria allowed Aziel to take her across the lawn to a large tree that stood proudly in the center of the clearing.

It was an ancient tree that meant much to the fae here, a tree that had withstood every single battle, every single tragedy that'd happened here.

The figure of a man came into view and, at his side, a young boy with black curls and wide eyes that reminded Nymiria so much of her mother's.

The man's arms were folded across his chest at first, but as she drew nearer, they went lax at his side.

He whistled a melodic tune into the air, one that'd only ever been used between her and the guard who followed her around for the first fifteen years of her life.

Nymiria felt her lungs constrict around the sob in her chest, her knees nearly giving out the moment Thorn stepped into the morning sun.

She could not contain the emotions inside of her. All of them spilled over, her sobs growing louder and her breathing becoming more frantic as she approached his looming form.

The moment his arms closed around her frame, Nymiria shattered, letting her tears fall into the rough fabric of his tunic as his hand smoothed over her shoulders. He placed a soft kiss upon her head, blinking away his own share of tears before he gently pushed her back.

"My sweet girl." Thorn whispered, shaking his head. "I'm sorry it took me so long to come to you."

Nymiria let out a tear-soaked laugh, moving her hands to clasp Thorn's. "Don't apologize. Please."

"Papa—" Her eyes flickered to the boy that was still waiting by the base of the tree, his eyes observing her as if she were some forest monster. A spectacular one. "Is this her?"

Thorn nodded at the boy, smiling at him. Nymiria could not shake the young boy's gaze, how his face could resemble her mother's so much.. "Yes, Raven," Thorn began. "This is your sister."

Seeing Thorn become so misty-eyed should have made Aziel laugh.

Over the years, they'd developed a sort of relationship where they were comfortable with that sort of thing.

Aziel had just become Dorid's assassin and while he'd already had twenty bodies under his belt, he found it extremely hard to kill Thorn Cleirigh.

Not because he didn't have the skill, but because he did not have the heart.

When he'd first approached the broad man outside of a brothel in Newhaim, all he saw was his back.

The moment Thorn turned to him and Aziel saw the raven-haired babe swaddled in Thorn's large arms, his hardened heart had melted entirely.

Thorn wasn't even angry about it. He merely clasped Aziel on the shoulder and guided him up the stairs to the brothel where he worked, put the young man in a room, and questioned him into the early morning hours of the next day.

He worked as a guard at that brothel for years before he and Aziel derived the plans and the means to safely transport the Mystics.

Raven became an important person in Aziel's life, as did the other children that Thorn had taken under his wing over the years.

In total, Thorn had raised fifteen children.

One of them being Aziel and two of them being his own blood.

He was more of a father than Dorid had been and if anyone had ever taught Aziel what it meant to be a man, it was the very man who was huddled under a tree with his daughter and son, speaking to both of them in the most tender way that a man of his large stature could manage.

Aziel hoped she didn't hate him after all of this, but he would rather have her hate than to be deemed a liar.

He would rather her gnash her teeth at him and hurl insults than for him to hide her truth from her for one more day.

Revealing to her that she was the Anam would come soon.

Stringing her along and waiting for her to connect the dots was useless torture. She'd been through too much.

The dark cloud that formed behind him made Aziel loosen a sigh of frustration. He loved Trio like a brother, but he always seemed to pop up at the most inopportune moments when Aziel wished for nothing, but gloomy silence. “So, you changed your mind about telling her the truth?”

Aziel rolled his eyes. “Here I was thinking you’d give me some privacy. What a foolish thing for me to assume.”

Trio nodded, beaming at his friend, his dark eyes thick with mischief. “Very foolish. You said, yourself, that I am to be the eyes and ears of the kingdom. Don’t go back on your word now.”

“When I said kingdom, I did not mean me.”

“Well," the shadow wielder folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the base of the tree. "In my defense, when you are here, you are in the kingdom. By default, you are someone I am to be watching and listening to. I don’t watch you when you are in Yaar.”

“Good to know.” Squinting in the bright rays of the early morning sun, Aziel fished into the pocket of his tunic and pulled out his rolled tobacco.

Silence fell between the two of them, both watching as the small family laughed and talked to one another.

"Also, yes. I do plan on telling her the truth. All of it. Eventually."

"Eventually?" Trio snorted. "Why not now?"

He thought of how she looked on the stairs leading into his palace the night before, the fear in her eyes as she peered out at all of the people her mother used to rule.

She may be receptive to Thorn being her real father, but being a goddess was something entirely different.

Nymiria had deep regrets from when she'd been in a position of power and learning that she was the Anam could create a crisis within her that could make all of this go very wrong. "She's not ready." He stated simply.

It gave him hope, though, as he watched her with her father.

All of that fear from the night before was replaced with this sparkling sort of joy that made her look absolutely radiant in the morning sun.

Aziel hadn't ever seen her this happy before.

He believed that the happiest he'd ever seen her was when they were walking through the choking vines, but that was not it at all.

She was home here. And while Aziel didn't know much about having a place to call home or even families, he remembered being that happy once.

Looking upon her now, he felt it—that peacefulness that he'd been missing since he was a boy.

Home was rarely a place—it was a presence. It was a feeling. And almost always, it came in the form of someone else.