Page 103 of Shadows and Flames
Tana and I were both watching Francie, waiting for her to get her bearings. Or would we need to step in?
Her lips trembled, cerulean blue eyes swimming and searching. “Evan,” she finally said, and the child ran over. My cousin and I released our hold on Francie’s arms so she hadroom for the bony and firm hug from Evan. She did not hesitate to throw her arms around him as he collapsed into her. “You’ve gotten s-sobig. Such a big boy.” Francie barely held back sobs as Evan sniffed into her neck, already taller than all three of us.
Evan pulled away, face blotchy and tear-streaked, but he offered a wide smile, pointing to his mouth. “And look!”
More tension bled away from Francie’s expression, letting her cry and laugh freely. She thumbed Evan’s brown cheek, squeezing his grinning face. “What a handsome set of fangs you have. I missed you.”
My heart clenched, as if someone tightened their fist around it, but I fought back my outward reaction.
“Um—l-let me go get Whitley. They—they’ll be so happy.” Evan started to pull out of their embrace, but they needn’t get their other caregiver because as the front door of the townhome opened, Francie’s mate took a tentative step over the threshold.
Evan, unaware of the turmoil within Francie, ran to Whitley, expressing how wonderful it was to have her back, wasn’t that great?
Whitley shakily nodded, staring and slowly advancing forward. They wore a tunic with the sleeves rolled to elbow and an apron splattered with something brown and orange, the start of supper, most likely. Their white curls were longer than last I’d seen, a few strands dangling in front of their brow, the rest a cloud around their head.
We’d shared scattered letters here and there, and three years, to Lylithans of adult age, were no match for our slow aging. Papa had been nearing five-hundred years when he was killed, and he’d just started sporting handsome lines at the corners of his eyes. From half a millennia of smiling.
Whitley hastily wiped their palms on their apron, now standing right in front of their lost mate. They raised theirhands, trembling violently with thin blue swirls decorating the backs and knuckles. Francie’s mating marks.
“My—D-Darling,” they whispered, barely audible, and the first brush of their skin against Francie’s she… collapsed.
Her knees gave way, and she slumped onto the cobblestone street. Before I could dive in to help, Whitley fell with her, pulling their mate into the safety of their chest. They cradled her as she wept, rocking them both and keeping their own weeping quiet. They pressed kiss after kiss into her hair, ran their hands in circles on her back.
The vise around my heart had loosened by then, and I turned toward my cousin to give them a moment. Tana wiped the back of her sleeve at her eyes, grinning for the first time in a long while.
We didn’t say anything to each other, but when she offered her hand, I gladly took it. Joining as witnesses of this moment between mates. Taking in this quest fully realized. We found her. We brought her back home.
Francie and Whitley remained on the ground for a long time, oblivious to the crowd of children that convened out front of the townhome and Lydia quietly ushering them back inside to wait. She mouthed ‘thank you’ to us multiple times as she pushed the children inside and watched her fellow caregivers with relief and joy.
“I—I don’t even know how to thank you both. I am…so, so grateful.” Francie was still tucked into Whitley’s neck, whimpering softly as they looked up at my cousin and me.
Tana answered for us. “We were happy to help,” she said, and I nodded. Truly. When I’d needed help, for them to take a risk on my behalf, they did so without even a thought.
Among the truths shared on our voyage back to Nethras, I’d admitted to Francie my hand in her predicament. How I’d beenfollowed that night I brought payment to the children’s home after winning a fight on Dyna Island.
While the ship rocked, I’d steeled myself for her rejection. For her anger. But, because she was still a kind soul through it all, she just hugged me. Reassured me that it wasnotmy fault.
Hopefully, once Francie shared this with Whitley, they would come to forgive me as well.
I blinked, looking around and still not seeing the boy I’d become close with during my years volunteering at the home. “Has Marco arrived?”
At the boy’s name, Francie peeked out from Whitley’s neck, gaze sweeping around. We’d been hoping, but… “No, I haven’t heard from him. His last letter was some weeks ago.”
It could be nothing. The Shadows certainly were not known for being easily contacted or found. But I’d watched Elián draft multiple letters to the Well, informing the boy of his caregiver coming home. El and Tomás assured me that acolytes were given limited dispensation to travel for important events such as this. Certainly Marco would want to be here for Francie’s return.
Something cold started up my spine, stirring my power and making my fingertips itch. Tana’s brow furrowed, mind probably taking the same journey as my thoughts had.
I tried my best to keep my face calm, though. “He might already be on his way. Or needing more time before he’s able to get away from his duties.”
Whitley’s gray stare was longer than I’d hoped, showing they hadn’t been completely assured by my words. Eventually, though, they nodded and turned back to their mate. Tentatively, as if knowing how fragile and raw Francie still was, they pressed their lips to hers. We’d not told them about what she endured, respecting Francie’s process in sharinghertale, but I hoped for her sake that she would do so, sooner rather than putting it off.
So the pain would not be only hers to bear.
Over the weeks we sailed, Francie’s body had healed itself. With a steady supply of donor blood, rest, and encouragement from all five of us in our own way, she’d left the vestiges of Frenzy behind.
Her mind, though, I knew would take longer to move on.
That seemed to be put to the side, though, as the reluctant meeting of lips on lips turned languid. Heated. The quiet moans between them weren’t obscene, necessarily, but judging the swell of lust in the air, obscenity wasn’t far.
