Page 23 of The Last Remaining Light

Caelyn retrieved the bundle of firewood he'd left beside the path. “We should go back before the next storm reaches the abbey.”

Elowynn sighed. “You are forever ruining what little bit of happiness I am able to find.” He didn't. In fact, his friendship and company became part of her joy every sun.

Caelyn thinned his lips and stared at her with a dull expression. “You say that concerningly often, El. I am beginning to question where I stand with you.”

Elowynn scoffed and waved him off as she turned to head back through the tunnels toward the upper abbey. “That is wildly dramatic, Caelyn.”

He just lifted a brow. “Oh? Is it? A half span ago, you drank unidentified resonance tonic because you said it smelled ‘academically promising.’ That is dramatic.”

“It was in a scholar’s bottle,” she quipped.

“You hallucinated constellations for six bells!” he exclaimed, climbing the cavern path after her.

Peering at him over her shoulder, Elowynn lifted a single finger. “In fairness, they were very beautiful constellations.”

Caelyn sighed before he let out a laugh, the sound echoing around the cavern. “You’re impossible!”

Elowynn smiled to herself as she turned her head back around and continued up the path. “And yet you continue following me everywhere.”

It was true. He really did.

Together they climbed back toward Lumenshire along the narrow cliffside path while sea spray misted the rocks below, leaving them cold and slick.

A loose stone shifted beneath her boot, and suddenly the narrow cliff path seemed to tilt beneath her feet. Her arms flew out in a frantic attempt to catch her balance, but before she could fall—before fear could fully register—Caelyn caught her.

The bundle of firewood hit the stone with a harsh clatter, several logs bouncing and rolling toward the edge of the path. One of Caelyn's arms locked firmly around her waist while the other slammed against the cliff wall behind them, bracing both of their weight.

Everything stopped.

The wind.

The sea.

The bells high above the cliffs.

Elowynn looked up at him, half-collapsed against his chest, drawing uneven breaths.

Caelyn's hand stayed firm against her waist while his own breathing struggled to settle.

Neither of them seemed capable of moving.

For one impossible moment, Elowynn became acutely aware of everything at once.

The scent of cedarwood and sea salt clinging to his clothes and the strength of his hand against her side. Even that uneven rise and fall of his breathing. How close he suddenly was. Her pulse stumbled oddly inside her chest.

“You nearly fell,” he said at last, his voice lower than usual.

Elowynn swallowed but lifted her chin. “I noticed.” She had noticed other things too. His attentive looks and his smaller, more reserved smiles he saved for her. And the way he always seemed to care about her well-being, even if he mentioned it in some off-handed way. She told herself it was simply the sort of foolishness that came with growing older. Her mother had warned her this age would bring such things.

But this was Caelyn! The abbey girls and even some of the boys, human and Astrari alike, flirted with him constantly, and he would always give them his heart-stopping smile. Elowynn refused to let anything come between their friendship, so she adjusted her stance, trying to remove his hold.

Caelyn still didn't let go.

“El?” The nickname sounded different. It was softer than usual, a question that she didn't recognize in his tone.

Sucking in a sharp breath, she blinked hard before she stepped carefully backward and out of his grasp.

The cold rushed between them, extinguishing all the warmth that had been created from their closeness.