If she reached deep inside herself, she felt her magic sleeping like it was imprisoned beneath a thick layer of ice. It was distant, but thank the Goddess, it was there. Maybe someday it would forgive her for all the abuse she’d put it through. Wren blinked back a teary wave of relief and instead drank in her surroundings.

Compared to the rest of the Tower, this room was homey. It glowed with warmth from the fire, which washed the room in the soft orange of a sunset. She buried her nose in the wool trim of the blanket and inhaled its comforting scent.

When the door opened, Wren turned to see Hal in the threshold. He froze when he noticed her awake, as if she were some precariously perched ceramic that would fall and shatter if he moved too quickly. Steam lazily curled from the two mugs in his hands. “Wren.”

“Hi,” she said hoarsely. Hal placed both mugs on the bedside table and sat beside her. She twined her fingers in his. Her hands were still bone-white and stiff with cold, but his were so warm. Wren squeezed him tight. “You saved me.”

“The other way around, I believe.”

She decided not to argue with him. Not when he was being so affectionate.

He bent over and placed a kiss on her forehead, and from this angle, it was too easy to slip her hands beneath the hem of his untucked shirt. She laid her palms flat against his stomach, relishing the solid warmth of his body.

He winced. “You’re freezing.”

“I did almost die.” Wren grinned wickedly. “And you’re hot. So share.”

Hal shook his head fondly and climbed into bed beside her, letting her nuzzle close. She tucked her head against his chest, just above his beating heart. It was something true and grounding, now that the whole world lurched around her.

Lowry was dead, but like the scar Isabel left behind, he would always be with her, no matter how desperately she yearned to forget.

“I almost killed him, but I was too much of a coward to go through with it,” she murmured. “You shouldn’t have had to intervene that way.”

“No. You were brave.” Hal brushed the hair out of her face. “We all were raised to be cruel. It takes incredible strength to be kind in this world. To endure suffering instead of further it.”

Wren was too stricken to say anything.

“Without you, I would be a different man,” he continued. “Without you, the sun may have risen on a very different world.”

Wren had to laugh, if only to keep herself from crying. “You can’t mean that.”

“I do.”