“Oh,” said Fifer, stiffening in surprise. After a moment she reached around him, too. Then she gently pressed his head against her shoulder, feeling his sobs. His warm tears soaked into her robe. She wasn’t quite sure what was happening to make him react like this. But whatever experiences he’d been through since she’d seen him last had obviously changed him.

She reckoned she’d changed a bit since then too.

Having It Out

Come on,” Fifer said after a minute, and pulled away. “Thisbe is upstairs. She can’t wait to see you.” She took his trembling hand in her uninjured one and started up, pulling him along. “The Revinir told us she’d killed you. So seeing you in the brush was quite a shock. A pleasant surprise, I mean.”

Dev swallowed hard. “Thisbe is here?”

Fifer nodded, then studied his expression, but it was unreadable. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”

“We sure do,” muttered Dev, as hard feelings came out of nowhere. Thisbe was way out here? Had she been looking for him? He had a lot of questions for her. “Anyone else?”

“No, just us two.”

They rounded the curve at the fourth floor, and Dev paused to look at the fresh piles of debris from Thisbe and Fifer’s unfortunate fall and the new gaping holes in the floor. “What happened there?”

“That’s where the Revinir dropped us,” Fifer said. “We went right through the rotted roof and two or three floors before we stopped.”

Dev muttered something unsavory before turning to Fifer with new respect. “How are you alive after a fall like that?”

“Luck. And soft rotten wood.”

They neared the top. Dev pushed ahead, climbing swiftly to his home. To see Thisbe. He came up through the floor and spied her on his sleeping sofa. Their eyes connected, and Dev stopped abruptly, feeling a million emotions at once and not sure how to express them. Anger bubbled up first. He started toward her, balling up his fists. “Why—how?” he said, his voice cracking so much that he could hardly finish the question. “How could you!”

“Dev.” Thisbe got up and hobbled over to him. She gripped the railing for support, and tears streamed down her face. “I’m so sorry. And I’m so happy to see you alive! Please forgive me. I can explain everything.”

Dev stared with doubt in his eyes for a long moment, then dropped them and noticed her limp. “Your ankle…”

“It’s fine. But, Dev—you’ve been on my mind every day. I’m so sorry we had to leave you.”

“I saw you go,” Dev choked out. He turned away and put his hand over his face as Fifer reached the top and hung back. Then he looked at Thisbe again. “I saw all of you on the ghost dragons. I called out to you. I screamed your name. And you didn’t turn around.”