The world had come after Dev for the hundredth time. It still hadn’t broken him completely, but it had come closer than ever before. And he knew he might not survive when it came for him again.

Lose You Forever

Hey, Fife?” said Thisbe as the others dispersed from the meeting. “Can I have a minute?” Rohan hesitated, a question in his eyes, but Thisbe urged him on, so he left.

“Hey, Thiz,” said Fifer. “Uh…” She looked out the doorway like she had to be somewhere. She wasn’t sure she was ready to tackle this problem too.

Thisbe eyed her. “Do you have another meeting?”

“I was just, um…” Fifer tapped the corner of a table. “No. I guess I can let Lani and Samheed set up the panel.”

“Do you want to talk about… everything?” Thisbe seemed as hesitant as Fifer felt, but in a way Fifer was glad Thisbe was pressing to talk.

Fifer nodded. She closed the classroom door so they would have privacy. Then she turned and studied her sister. Thisbe was taller and more muscular than she’d been the last time Fifer had really looked at her. “So…” Fifer swallowed hard and cringed. This was not going to be easy. Where should they begin?

“You’ve changed,” Thisbe said.

“You mean you’ve changed,” said Fifer defensively.

“Fair,” said Thisbe. “That’s true. Being held captive as a slave does that to a person.”

Fifer blinked. Did this argument go that far back? She had to think hard about when they’d begun to grow distant. She pinched the bridge of her nose and remembered when they’d been separated in Dragonsmarche: Thisbe to captivity in the catacombs and Fifer pelted with shards of glass. She’d nearly died, and Simber had taken her home, leaving Thisbe behind. Things hadn’t been the same since way back then. “Oof,” said Fifer, sitting down heavily. “This is going to take more than a few minutes, isn’t it.”

Thisbe offered a crooked smile and sat across from her. “I was just thinking the same thing. But… I’m here for it. If you are.”

Fifer looked up and held Thisbe’s gaze. For the first time in a long time, she got a glimpse inside her sister’s heart. “I want to get you back,” she said. “I miss you so much.”

Thisbe’s bottom lip quivered. She reached out a hand. “I can’t stand the thought of losing you forever. Let’s figure this out.”

They talked through everything. Instead of telling each other all the things they’d done and all the hard times they’d experienced that the other one hadn’t, they told each other how scared they’d been without the other. “I was so lonely and afraid,” Thisbe confessed. “I saw that glass shatter and hit you, and then I was taken down into the catacombs—it was horrible. My biggest fear was that you were dead, and I didn’t know for such a long time if it was true.”