I knelt beside the crow, listening as he chirped gently. With every sound, the feeling in the pit of my stomach gave a little tug, as if someone were pulling from the other end of a long cord. I imagined myself tugging back, and he chirped again.

An indescribable happiness welled in my chest. This was what I’d waited for my entire life. This connection, this bond.

“What are you going to name it?” Caylus asked from beside me.

I smiled. “Resyries. It means stormbringer.”

* * *

Leaving the egg at Caylus’s had been difficult. Leaving a newborn crow had been practically impossible. I’d left him detailed written instructions on how to take care of it, including clearing a very wide space for it on the floor far away from any of the many things in his workshop that could hurt it.

With each second of growing space between Resyries and me, the cord strung between us grew thinner and weaker, until I could barely sense him as we pulled into the castle courtyard. The link was nothing more than a gentle pulling feeling now, but it would get stronger and more nuanced the more we trained together. Yet it still felt like I’d left a piece of myself behind that kept tugging me back.

Kiva was sitting at the breakfast table when I burst in wearing my dirt-stained gown from the previous night. Slamming the door behind me, I whirled to face her.

“We figured it out,” I said in a barely controlled whisper. “Caylus and I! We figured it out!”

Understanding dawned on her face. Her eyes flared wide, her hands flying back to brace herself. “Did it—?”

“Yes!”

Kiva shot to her feet, enveloping me in a hug as I flew to her. She let out a yell, and I laughed wildly. She laughed with me, her entire body shaking.

We pulled apart, Kiva’s face flushed with excitement and her eyes brighter than I’d seen them in months. I explained everything that had happened after I left the ball, leaving out only the things about Caylus’s past.

“You kissed him!” she half shouted.

“Did you miss the part where I told you my blood is the long-lost secret of crow hatching?”

She rolled her eyes. “How was it?”

I laughed, tried and failed to explain how right it’d been, how happy I was, even now, when I hadn’t slept all night.

“I need to write Caliza,” I said, bolting to my room.

“And take a bath!” Kiva shouted. “You smell horrible.”

* * *

With the letter sent, I took a bath before climbing into bed. Despite the giddy energy sparking through me, my eyelids felt heavy, my body slow. When at last I fell asleep, I slept dreamlessly.

When I woke, the first thing I thought of was Res, and I scrambled to locate the connection between us. It hummed quietly, tugging gently in my chest. I let out an uneasy breath.