I found Lucy standing at the edge of the training grounds, right where I’d seen her earlier. Here, the sounds of celebration were muffled, the laughter and music distant like a memory instead of a present moment. She stood still, facing the trees, her arms folded tightly across her chest as the breeze tugged at the hem of her sleeves.
She hadn’t moved for a while. Not even when I approached.
Not until I spoke.
“You didn’t come up earlier,” I said, quietly stepping beside her, my gaze following hers toward the forest ahead.
“I kept thinking of what I would say if you actually came back,” she replied, her voice low. “But even now, I haven’t figured it out.”
Then she turned to me, her eyes already glistening.
“You have no idea what that horror felt like, Rex. Thinking you were dead” her
