Chapter 382 (2/2)

Her eyes snapped open, blinking away the dust and blood “Arthur?”

My throat constricted I choked on ain “Hold still, Ellie You’re still hurt You’re—”

She tried to push herself up onto her elbows, despite the half-healed wound still piercing ently but firrabbed ainst me, she only squeezed “Mom It was…that was Arthur”

I shookto build up behind my eyes “No, honey, no Your brother is…he’s…” A cold blankness swept over my mind as I trailed off I didn’t knohat I’d seen, what I heard, but I couldn’t dare to hope Not now, not yet I couldn’t think about it “I still have a lot of healing to do, sweetheart Just…just lie back, okay? Just let your irl gave , but she did as I said, and I closedthe entire world fall away, nothing in my mind except for her and the spell

Ti river while si of the sauilt for savingThe healing was slower, harder, without the guiding presence, but that was all right Together, we had already healed the worst of her wound And for what reh on ently pushi+ng it away from her “Mo

I startled, realizing she was right, and that I had been too intensely focused and not even sensing the wound, siic dying out as I stopped channeling

My attention finally turned to the rest of the people in the cavern Many were still struggling with fallen rubble, searching for survivors I could see h ela Rose first, on the benches behind usts of desperate wind to hurl broken stone away from where I’d nearly been crushed, and I remember the hand on ainst the wall not far from the entrance, her eyes closed, her dark hairof her chest, so I knew she was alive

Before I could find Jasht of the nearby portal flickered, revealing a faint aura radiating out fro just before it, un for soain appeared within the portal frame The portal itself wavered and dissolved, ure, then vanishi+ng Theto beco into the man’s back

Golden eyes settled on Ellie andto prove tocolor, not Reynold’s sapphire blue, and they were cold…but curious, too, and looking at us with a certain…familiarity

And this man didn’t share my auburn locks Instead, wheat-blond hair framed a face as hard and sharp as a blade The jawline, the curve of the cheeks, the line of the nose…no, the man was more mature, older…it couldn’t be him I knew it couldn’t, as I knew the hope inside ht and life, only to be proved wrong

Then Ellie spoke “B-brother? Is that really you?”

The low of power that had ringed hi me to see him properly for what I felt like was the first tirasped at Ellie’s ar her arms around him

Help my sister That’s what he’d said when he arrived, before the thing went to Ellie And there was so else Words half-heard, but suppressed until the lad you’re here But it wasn’t possible

This stranger couldn’t be my…

I flinched as Ellie suddenly slaht you were dead!”

Those golden eyes met ht e ran through ain It was Reynolds’ s the truth shi+ne froht and war around myself melted away

“Hi Mom I’m back”

Arthur…it really was him My son

I wanted to rush to him, to wrap him up in my arms like I could when he was just a little boy, hold him and squeeze him and make us both feel safe But , stealing my breath away

There was so much I wanted to tell hiht I would never get the chance to say to him How sorry I was, and how thankful For hiht into our lives For how much he had sacrificed

I wanted to tell hilad I was to have him…as my son

I wanted to And I would, eventually But in that moment, it was all just too ave out, and I began weep