Celeste

  Even after he spoke, no one moved. The clearing stayed taut, as if waiting to be certain the fight was truly over.

  My hands remained raised, fingers numb, the Light still held steady.

  Lioren hesitated, then lowered his hands first. Ice cracked and peeled away, shattering softly against the dirt. He sagged a step, breath hitching as the tension finally bled out of him.

  I released the Light from my palms at last, my core aching in quiet relief.

  Around us, the Brotherhood stirred back to life. The ring loosened, breaking apart in careful, measured steps.

  Elena reached us first. Her eyes went straight to me, searching, before she offered a small smile and turned to Lioren, already assessing his wounds.

  The others split off between the three of us, checking in turn, weighing injuries and damage with practiced hands.

  Harl and Iven paused near me, eyes scanning my hands, my face, checking for injuries too deep to ignore. I didn’t have the energy to argue.

  After a brief exchange, and my insistence that I was fine, I waved them off.

  Fira fussed over Darius, batting his hand away as she leaned in, eyes tracing the side of his head near his temple. He was still blinking heavily, fighting to keep his focus, and her expression tightened with something more than concern as she held his gaze.

  He relented, letting Fira finish.

  I met Darius’s eyes. The moment stretched, carrying everything we weren’t saying.

  Then I turned and crossed to Lioren.

  I crouched beside him as Elena finished her quick assessment.

  “How are you holding up?” I asked.

  He huffed a breath. “I’ve had worse days. Fewer explosions though, usually.”

  Elena’s hand snapped out, knuckles rapping sharply against his ribs. Lioren flinched, sucking in a breath.

  “I can see that,” she said dryly.

  He grimaced, one hand lifting in surrender. “I’m alive. Bruised, but still here. Don’t look so disappointed.”

  “Careful,” Elena said, a hint of a smile breaking through. “I can fix that.”

  I stepped in before he could wave Elena off, my gaze already tracing the damage.

  Blood streaked across him in dark, uneven blotches. His shirt hung in torn strips, one shoulder soaked through, ribs bleeding beneath the fabric. Both thighs were smeared red, trousers split where the blows had landed.

  “I’m fine,” Lioren said quickly, shifting as if to stand. “Honestly.”

  I caught his wrist and pushed him back down. “Hold still.”

  He tried to shoo me away with his free hand. “You don’t need to waste it on—”

  “Don’t,” I snapped. “Just hold still.”

  The largest wound gaped across his shoulder, the flesh torn raw where Ice had failed him. I braced my hand there, the Light answering immediately, warm and focused as it poured into the damage. My core tightened in protest, a dull resistance pushing back as I fed it more than it wanted to give, but this much, I could manage.

  Lioren hissed, then went still.

  The flesh beneath my palm knit slowly, torn edges drawing together as the Light sank in. Heat bled away, leaving clean skin where the wound had been moments before.

  My breath wavered. The Light thinned, slipping from my grasp as my core pushed back hard this time – no room left to argue.

  I pulled my hand away and swayed.

  Elena was there instantly, a steady arm coming around my shoulders before my knees could give. She kept me upright with practiced ease.

  “That’s all,” I said, breath shallow. “That’s all I can do for now.”

  Lioren exhaled, his hand lifting to his shoulder as if he didn’t quite trust what he felt. Then he looked at me, something settling in his expression.

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  “Thank you,” he said. “Truly.”

  Behind us, Darius rose.

  The Brotherhood stilled as he pushed himself upright with a strained breath and made his way through the company. His movements were slower now, but his presence hadn’t dimmed. When he stopped, his gaze passed over me and locked on Lioren.

  “Lioren,” Darius called.

  Lioren eased beneath Elena’s grip, tension draining from his shoulders. His jaw set as his fingers curled on the grass.

  “You fought well,” Darius said. His voice was even.

  A murmur rippled through the Brotherhood. Approval, low and restrained.

  Lioren let out a short breath. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Comin’ from you, I assume that wasn’t easy.”

  A flicker crossed Darius’s eyes, something like the barest hint of amusement.

  “You are no longer a Brother,” he said.

  The words felt heavy, yet the tension among the others eased when he spoke them.

  Lioren nodded. A crooked smile tugged at his mouth, breath coming out of him in something that might’ve been relief.

  “Well,” he said hoarsely, “that’s one way to skip the departure rites.”

  Darius regarded him for a moment – then his gaze shifted to me.

  “And you,” he said. “You handle Light like it’s been answering you for years.”

  I stared at him, heat flaring in my chest. “Do I?”

  Attention sharpened around us.

  Darius didn’t look away. “You do.”

  “Celeste—” Fira started, stepping forward, concern tightening her voice.

  I cut a glance toward her, then back to Darius. “No,” I said louder now. “What was the point?”

  My hands curled at my sides. “I told you he could stay. I told you I could do this alone. He offered to walk with me, nothing more. And you were ready to kill one of your own for that.”

  I gestured to the torn ground, the blood still darkening the grass. “So why do this? Why make this a spectacle?”

  Darius drew a breath, his mouth parting as if to answer.

  “Brother.”

  Lioren’s voice cut in before he could speak.

  Darius stilled, his gaze shifting back to him.

  “I’ve got it,” Lioren said. His voice was rough now, stripped of humor for once.

  Darius held him there for a moment longer, then inclined his head and said nothing.

  Lioren turned toward me, careful this time, as if one wrong step might set me off again.

  “I can see how it looks,” he said. “From the outside.” His mouth curved faintly, not quite a smile. “Believe me, I didn’t understand it either. Not at first.”

  I crossed my arms, forcing my hands to still. “Then explain it.”

  He nodded once, accepting the edge in my voice.

  “What we have is freedom under oath,” he said, gesturing back toward the Brotherhood. “A way of making sure that when one of us walks forward, they do it with their whole spine intact.”

  My stomach twisted.

  “This wasn’t done in anger,” Lioren continued. “Not punishment. And not you.” His eyes held mine. “This fight didn’t happen because I offered you my hand, love. It happened because I chose to walk away – and once that choice was spoken, there was no half-step back.”

  I shook my head. “You could have stayed.”

  “I could have,” he said. “But when a Brother walks away, they do it clean. No doubts. No ties still pullin’ at their heels.”

  His gaze flicked briefly to Darius, then back to me.

  “If I couldn’t stand against him – if I couldn’t prove I was strong enough to choose something else – then I didn’t deserve to walk away believing in that choice.”

  “You couldn’t stand at all!” I yelled. The words tore out of me, raw and shaking. “Lioren – you almost died.”

  The clearing went still.

  Iven took a half step forward, then stopped himself. Somehwere behind me, a few of the Brothers shifted.

  Tears burned hot and sudden, spilling down my face before I could stop them. I wiped at them angrily.

  “I watched you almost die,” I said, my voice breaking beneath my fury. “You don’t get to tell me that was a choice.”

  No one spoke.

  The clearing held an uneasy suspension, heavy in the aftermath of my words. Eyes shifted between Darius, Lioren, and me, no one quite sure where to look, or who would move first.

  Darius did.

  He turned away without another word.

  Boots crunched softly as he walked toward the edge of the clearing, cloak stirring with each step.

  The Brotherhood didn’t follow.

  A flicker of hesitation passed through them as they watched him go, until Fira broke from the group and fell into step beside him. She didn’t call out, just matched his pace, her voice too low for the rest of us to hear.

  Lioren stayed where he was, kneeling in the churned grass. He didn’t look at me. Didn’t look at anyone.

  Elena stepped away from him and came to stand in front of me.

  For a moment, she said nothing.

  Then, gently, “You’re allowed to be angry.”

  The words caught me off guard.

  My jaw tightened. I looked away, swallowing hard against the burn in my throat. My hands curled at my sides, nails biting into my palms as I tried to hold myself together.

  Elena stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me.

  I froze for a moment, then the contact broke something open. I leaned into her, clutching at her cloak as the tension finally gave way. She held me without restraint, solid and warm, one hand pressing firm between my shoulders, the other braced at my back as if to remind me I wasn’t going anywhere.

  For the first time since the fight, I let myself be small.

  I didn’t know how long we stood there. But it was long enough for my breathing to slow. Long enough for the ache in my chest to dull.

  When I finally stepped back, it felt like surfacing from deep water.

  I lifted my head and met Elena’s gaze. I gave her a small nod.

  She smiled back.

  The Brothers lingered where they stood, giving us the grace of stillness. I caught Jaren watching from a short distance away, a small smile softening his features before he looked aside again.

  Footsteps crunched at the edge of the clearing.

  Fira returned alone.

  She slowed as she approached, taking in the scene at a glance. Whatever she saw seemed to settle something in her.

  “We’re heading back to camp,” she said, her voice calm.

  Her gaze shifted to Lioren. “You should come too. You need rest.”

  Then her eyes found mine.

  “Both of you do,” she said, “he may not be our Brother anymore, but he’s still our friend.” A faint smile touched her mouth. “And so are you.”

  The refusal was already on my tongue.

  But I looked at Lioren, at the way he knelt in the grass, blood darkening the torn fabric at his shoulder. At the fact that this might be the last time we ever stood among them, this strange, fractured family he was leaving behind.

  “…Alright,” I said finally. “We’ll come.”

  Fira nodded once.

  The Brothers began to move without further comment, the clearing slowly emptying as the path back to camp opened ahead of us.

  Lioren pushed himself to his feet with a quiet wince, and I stepped in beside him without thinking. He didn’t say anything, just leaned enough to let me take some of his weight.

  Together, we turned and followed the others back toward camp.

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