Page 92 of When Ashes Fall

It was a very real possibility, but I chose to believe this was a step in the right direction. It wouldn’t be easy, but we could do this. If we’d survived my mother, then we could fix what she’d broken.

“Want me to come with you?” Gizzi asked. “In case he turns into a dick again.”

“No, I can handle him. You stay here and play in the trees.”

“Yay!”

Gizzi’s excited jittering filled the air. Dromon remained standing by the doorway as the sprites watched us with slack jaws. They scattered when Knox’s attention shifted from me to the room.

They flew into the rafters, where they’d set more boots on the wooden beams, probably to hit Lyra and Pierce with them. They tried to pretend they were focused on their prank, but they couldn’t hide their whispers or stares as we walked across the entry to Dromon.

I expected Knox to tell them to put everything away and to clean up, but he didn’t. Maybe he really was changing.

I tried to stifle the bubble of hope in my chest. I couldn’t get too ahead of myself with this, but it was almost impossible not to get overexcited. I was tempted to throw my arms around his neck and squeal with happiness.

Don’t do that, I told myself.

It would look absolutely pathetic if I did, and I would take this slow. If he expected sex today, then he was going to be sorely disappointed.

“Keep an eye on things while we’re gone,” Knox said to Dromon. “I’m going to take her to the waterfall.”

Dromon bowed his head. “I’ll be here.”

We were almost through the door when a sprite with flaming orange hair and matching butterfly wings threw open the front door. He’d flung it so hard it crashed against the wall; the loud bang reverberated through the room.

The sprite’s clear green eyes were wild, and strangled cries erupted from his throat as he fluttered wildly with his hands.

“Oh, Atlas, calm down!” one of the sprites called from the rafters.

“He loves the drama,” Zephyr said with a roll of his eyes.

I refrained from telling him that was the pot calling the kettle black.

“The roses!” Atlas blurted. “The roses are dying!”

My hope burst as an invisible punch launched into my gut. For a long moment, nobody moved, and then I felt Knox’s eyes boring into me.

I didn’t have to look to know he wasn’t smiling anymore.

We weren’t going for that walk.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

Knox

“I don’t understand what happened. This can’t be possible. It just can’t be,” Briar muttered.

She knelt before a drooping rose that was almost entirely black. Yesterday, it was a much healthier shade of red. When she touched it, a single petal fell off, and she recoiled as if it burned her.

“Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no,” she whispered.

A tear streaked her face as she moved the petal back toward the rose like she could somehow reattach it. She hesitated only centimeters away from the flower. She couldn’t stick the petal on again, and if she touched it, more would probably fall off.

“What happened?” I growled.

Lyra, Pierce, Dromon, and the sprites had all joined us in the courtyard. This rose was near the blacksmith’s shop, but others were wilting and blackening as well.

“What the fuck happened?” I barked when Briar didn’t answer me.