Samheed had stayed behind, waiting with Simber and Kitten on shore. They’d opted to watch the dearest loved ones reconnect first before joining in. Samheed wore a bittersweet expression as he took in the scene: Aaron was wearing the robe of the head mage, and he looked so strikingly like Alex in it. Samheed glanced at Simber, then tipped his head toward Aaron. “So it was Aaron who brought things back,” he said. “Not Claire.”

Simber nodded. “It appearrrs to be.”

Samheed no longer held a grudge against Aaron—those feelings had subsided years ago. But the two had never been close. Samheed had always been much warmer and friendlier toward Alex—once they’d become friends, that is. And while Samheed could say with a fair amount of confidence that he trusted Aaron, he felt a slight prickling at the back of his neck seeing the man in Alex’s robe. “I’m not quite sure how I feel about it, Sim.”

Personally, Simber was glad to see Aaron in control as head mage. But he heard the hitch in Samheed’s voice and eyed the man carefully. He knew the history between the two as teenagers. Simber had felt similarly about Aaron in the past as well—they all had.

But the cheetah possessed information about Aaron that Samheed didn’t: Aaron was potentially immortal because of the magic seaweed that the scientists had used to save his life many years ago. And for Simber, the thought of never having to lose another head mage again was a great relief. Beneath Simber’s stony, gruff exterior was a soft heart. He wasn’t sure he could go through it again. And he’d grown fond of Aaron over the years. “He’ll make a good mage,” Simber said carefully.

“I know. It just seems . . .” Samheed didn’t finish. Although he was thrilled to see everyone, he was feeling sort of down about it. Now that they were all reunited, he had an even greater urge to get home and have things return to normal. Back to the theater. Back to teaching students. And maybe pretending like everything was okay, even though he knew it would be a long time before he could say that. He missed Alex deeply.

He wasn’t sure what was prompting his negative feelings about Aaron—perhaps it was just the surprise of discovering he’d become the new mage instead of Claire. As Aaron broke away from his family members and came onshore to greet the rest of them, Samheed tried hard to shake off his uneasiness.