Page 231 of Fallen Nocturne

Rhianelle’s face falls. “Another nightmare?”

“Every night since Lenna died,” the healer confirms. “She wakes screaming. We’ve tried everything, but she needs you.”

Rhianelle looks torn as she glances back at Rainer.

“Go,” Rainer says before she can speak. “Tend to your friend. She needs you more than I do right now.”

“But—”

“I’ll be here when you get back,” Rainer says. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Rhianelle hesitates, then leans down and kisses his forehead. “I’ll return soon.”

“Take your time,” Rainer says.

“I won’t take long.” She brushes a strand of silver hair away from his forehead, reluctant to release him.

Rhianelle stands and squeezes my hand once before following the healer out of the room. She leaves me alone with Rainer.

I’ve never spent time alone with Rhianelle’s uncle. He was always just there in the background, important to her but distant from me. Now we’re sitting in silence.

I stare at the wall, then at the window. Rainer watches me from the bed while the silence stretches between us, heavy with everything neither of us has said.

I say what I’ve been thinking for a long time.

“I know you were one of the seven,” I say quietly. “Back at Tavan. When Rhianelle crawled to me with broken ribs.”

Rainer goes completely still. The faint warmth in his expression disappears, but he does not look away.

“Yes,” Rainer admits freely.

“I know you weren’t yourself,” I say, and my voice is harder now. Much colder. “I know the Asterdust controlled you and made you do things you’d never normally do. But I’ll never forgive you for it.”

Silence settles between us. The only sound is Rainer’s strained breathing and the distant hammering from the city below.

Rainer looks at me with those dying eyes and smiles faintly.

“No,” he says. “I don’t expect you to.”

His gaze drifts toward the door Rhianelle left through.

“But I’m glad you hate me for it,” he says softly.

His eyes close for a moment. “I can leave this world knowing she has you. I know you will never stop protecting her, whatever comes.”

A cough tears through him before I can answer. He bends forward as another follows, harder and deeper than the first. His whole body shakes with the force of it, and for several terrible seconds, he cannot draw breath.

I move to the bedside and slide an arm behind his shoulders, helping him sit upright. The cup of water rests on the table beside him. I reach for it and hold it carefully to his lips.

“Thank you,” he whispers.

He drinks slowly, taking only a few small swallows before turning his face away. I lower him against the pillows once more. The effort has exhausted him, leaving his eyes half-closed and his breath uneven.

“Good. Hold onto that anger. That protective fury,” Rainer says. “It’ll serve her well.”

His gaze shifts toward the window. Beyond the glass, the sea glitters beneath the afternoon sun. Two seadragons twist through the water near the harbor, diving beneath the surface before rising again in sprays of silver foam.

Workers crowd the damaged water gates, replacing shattered stone and reinforcing the mechanisms that once protected Völundr. Near them, scaffolding surrounds an enormous monument still taking shape. Ksatka rises from its center, carved from pale stone with her head lifted proudly toward the sea. Six other seadragons rise along the shoreline, their colossal stone forms standing watch over Völundr like ancient guardians.