Page 7 of Reign of Light
“Shit,” Jorn hisses, and throws his hands up, scrubbing them through his hair.
A pained cry erupts from her throat, and she slams her palm over her mouth trying to stifle it. My chest aches as I watch her crumble, just as I had, beneath the weight of Weston’s declaration.
“So that’s it then? This is forever?” she whispers.
Weston’s jaw ticks, and he only nods.
Silence falls over us as her eyes dart away from Weston’s face, settling somewhere on his vest. Her chest shakes with shuddering breaths as she tries to collect herself, to process how her greatest fear has now come true.
“Well,” she says after a few moments. Her chin wavers, and her eyes fill with tears as her head turns and her eyes fall on me. “We tried.”
A laugh mixed with a sob erupts from my chest as I nod at her. “We tried, Sig.”
Her chin sinks into her chest as she begins to cry, and I can’t stop myself, the pull of my hurting friend too much to overcome. I close the space between us and throw my arms around her and squeeze. She does the same, clutching me tightly, and we both let go, crying in each other’s arms.
Sig helped me see the importance of getting back home. She made me realize how many life experiences I would miss if I didn’t, and opened my eyes to the understanding that I wasn’t ready to give those up. She helped me remember that living with a purpose and having experiences that only time can give you are more valuable than monotonously living forever.
After the island deemed me unworthy and denied me the healing waters, I decided in that moment to stay on Dawnlin forever. With my knowledge of their location, I thought I would help anyone who cameto the island looking for the cure. It was a fate that felt like it gave me more than returning home would.
I had a purpose and a reason to be here. Day in and out, I would help the Guardian guide others to the waters, then send them back home.
But now, with this fate, I have no purpose.
None of us will ever return home, and no one seeking the waters will ever step foot on this island.
Our cries slow, my tears drying from the amount I’ve already cried tonight, and Sig lifts her head off my shoulder from where it had fallen in the throes of sadness. I release her, taking a step back as both of us swipe at our eyes and faces, hiccuping and sniveling.
“It’ll be alright,” she says. “We’ll figure it out. Right, Cap?”
“We will,” Weston says from beside me. He opens his arms for her, just as he had to me in the tunnel, and she steps forward, pulling him into a hug. She squeezes him once, fiercely, before backing away and curling into Jorn’s chest.
Jorn reaches out and claps his hand on Weston’s shoulder.
“Love you, brother,” he says, and Weston mimics the gesture, squeezing Jorn’s shoulder once silently, before both their arms fall away. Jorn looks at me and reaches out, mussing my hair quickly with a faint whisper of a smile on his lips. “At least you’re here too, Little Lennox. We’ll make it all count.”
I shoot him a tearful smile as he wraps his arm around Sig and pulls her body into his, leading her across the deck and down the steps.
As I watch them walk away, I can’t believe I ever questioned how they felt about me, how I ever wondered if our friendship was real, or if it was yet another one borne of my status. But now as I look at their backs retreating across the deck, after I’ve watched them cry tonight, knowing we will be each other’s companions for eternity, any doubt I had disappears. They all care for me, just as much as I do for them, and we’re in this together. Forever.
Once they disappear into the belly of the ship, I feel Weston movebehind me, his hands weaving through my arms and settling across my hips. He rests his head on mine, and I can feel the prickle of his cheek pressed into my hair.
“That went better than I expected,” he grumbles, but he can’t hide the sadness in his voice.
I rest my hands on his forearms and feel his muscles ripple beneath my palms as he holds me tighter. “She knew it could happen. The dust running out, I mean. We thought we had more time. I don’t think any of us were expecting it this soon after I left.”
He lets out a deep sigh, and his fingers flex on my hips.
“Now to see what shit Mara tries to pull tomorrow.” The sadness is gone, replaced by his firm tone, the captain already slipping back into assessing every threat.
“Do you think she’ll try something?”
“Maybe. I’ve spent twenty years protecting the waters from anyone who hasn’t found them, and I will not give up anything to her or anyone else just because we’re stranded. If the island trusts them, that’s a different story.”
The waves crash around us, and a cool breeze picks up, causing the skin on my arms to prickle, but it isn’t just the cold. It’s also the nerves for tomorrow, the worry about everything going wrong once again, the fear that someone will get hurt.
“How will we know if it does?”
“We’ll know. The island will make sure of it.”
