Page 184 of Fallen Nocturne

“Then start counting. Because I’m not stopping.”

He laughs, resigned. “Very well. Let’s see how long you last.”

The lightning and the rain stop. Everything stops. There is just sudden, oppressive silence.

The emptiness that follows frightens me more than the storm. There is no wind, no thunder, not even the whisper of sand shifting beneath the feet of the dead. The silence is so complete that I can hear my own ragged breathing.

I curl my trembling fingers into the ash. For the first time since entering this realm, fear presses harder than exhaustion.

What if Death is right?

What if I wander until I forget why I came? What if Svenn passes close enough to touch and I no longer remember his face?

“Get up, Your Highness.”

I freeze.

Darstan stands several paces away, broad and familiar in his battered armor. His old shield rests against one shoulder, and his expression holds the same stern patience it always did when I refused to listen to him.

A smile breaks through my exhaustion. “Darstan.”

“You have not come this far to surrender now,” he says.

Lady Siofra steps out from behind him.

“Do not give up, Rhianelle,” she tells me. Her voice is more beautiful than I ever imagined it would be.

I stare at them through burning eyes. They cannot truly be here. My mind must be conjuring the people who have stood beside me through every impossible battle.

“I’m tired,” I admit.

Darstan moves to my side and raises his heavy shield over us, blocking the worst of the blistering sun. “Then rest. Resting is not surrender.”

Siofra kneels and offers me water cupped between her hands. It is cool and clean, though I do not know where she found it in this endless desert. I drink until the ache in my throat eases.

Together, they help me to my feet and lead me toward a great slab of stone rising from the ash-sand. Its shadow is small, but it is enough. Darstan keeps his shield raised until we reach it, sheltering us from the heat.

Siofra sits beside me and draws me into her arms. I cling to her, and Darstan lowers himself on her other side, his shield angled above us like a roof.

“Love is not proven by how much pain you endure,” Siofra tells me softly. “It is proven by returning to it, even when the path is difficult.”

Darstan nods. “Love like yours doesn’t come twice. Hold on to it.”

“Let it be the thing that moves your feet when your legs have forgotten how,” Siofra says quietly.

My eyes close, and I lean into her shoulder. Siofra pulls me closer and wraps an arm around my shoulders. Sometime later, my head slips into her lap. Her fingers move gently through my hair. Darstan sits beside her, his shield still raised above us.

“Thank you,” I whisper. “I just need to sleep for a little while. Promise you’ll stay with me?”

“Always,” Siofra says, her fingers gentle in my hair.

I close my eyes, meaning only to rest for a moment.

I sleep.

For a little while, I sleep.

When I wake, the stone still shelters me from the sun, but Darstan and Siofra are gone.