Black River looked different when we got back.
Or maybe I just saw it differently.
The way you look at home after you have been somewhere makes you realize how easily it can all be taken away.
The eastern wall was almost finished.
The burned buildings in the outer ring had been cleared away.
New foundations were already going up.
People move around with that steady rhythm you only get when a place has started to heal after everything fell apart.
Erica was waiting for us at the gate.
She looked at my face first. Then at Kael’s. Then, I thought on purpose about the space between us, like she was reading something from how we stood together.
“He is okay,” she said. It was not a question.
“Yeah, he is fine,” I answered.
Something in her shoulders eased.
“He said to tell you.” I
