Drom follows my gaze, and her eyes go round.

“Don’t break him!” I yell when she takes off in his direction. I make my way through the crowd as it splits in her wake. Halfway through, I become aware of Lyre at my elbow. Corvus is already at Pol’s side, and they embrace and exchange a few words before Drom arrives and sweeps her twin up in a tight bear hug. For a moment I think I see something dark cross Corvus’s face, but by the time I arrive he’s smiling again and Pol is erupting in riotous laughter familiar enough to make my heart ache.

“Okay, okay, my turn!” I say, attempting to pull Drom away from her twin for a few seconds, but she’s not so eager to give him up now that she has him back. It takes a few minutes of arguing for her to let go, releasing a breathless and stumbling Pol. I put an arm around him to steady him, and press my forehead to his. “Missed you, little brother.”

He grins his broad grin at me. “Missed you, too.”

“How was your vacation on Gaia?” I ask, a weak attempt at a joke, and his smile immediately fades and leaves something unreadable in its wake.

“It was loud,” he says. “So many voices.”

“What?”

“Here is quieter.” He looks out over the waves beside us, and his brow furrows. The next words come out a mumble. “But… not silent.”

Unsure what to make of that, I glance around to see if the others heard the odd words. But Corvus seems lost in thought, and Drom is saying something about pastries, and Lyre is still hanging back. When I look at her, she steps up to Pol with a hesitant smile. The darkness on Pol’s face breaks as he reaches over to ruffle her curls.

“Hi, sis.”

“Hi, Apollo.” She takes his hand and presses it to her cheek. “Welcome back.”

“Thanks.” He looks around. “Can we, uh, get something to eat? Gaian food is—” He cuts off and grins as Drom produces no less than three slightly squished fish pastries from her pockets and shoves them at him.

I shake off the strangeness from earlier. We were prepared for Pol to be suffering from some aftereffects, and I’m sure it’s nothing to be concerned about. No matter what comes next, we’ll be strong enough to face it. We’re together now.

I’m so caught up in the reunion with Pol that it takes me a while to remember Shey wanted to see me. A thrill of excitement goes through me at the thought of being alone with her again, after so much time.

“I’m gonna go find a bottle of something to celebrate with,” I tell the others.

“Scorpia,” Corvus says in a warning tone, and I hold up my hands in surrender.