He was lost to her. He never wanted this to end.

“What time do you think it is, Govek?”

He grumbled unhappily. “A bit after midday.”

“Hm, so like one o’clock in the afternoon? Does that math seem right?”

“You and your math. My mind does not obsess over numbers like yours does.”

Her voice was tinged by withheld laughter and he was relieved to hear it after the sorrow she’d overcome. “I’m not obsessed with numbers!”

“I think all Earthfolk must have been.” He pulled her in further. “Times, ages, speeds, money, distance, dates... constant numbers.”

“Hey.” Her irritated tone was drowned out by her laughter. Fuck, he loved the sound of it—warm and rich. He wanted to cup it in his palms and drink it. “We only did math, like, ninety percent of the time.”

He snorted in amusement.

She rested heavily against his shoulder, a deep sigh escaping her parted lips. “Govek, the seer told me... told me...”

“You do not need to speak on it if it causes you pain.” His guts twisted up at the mention of the seer.

“No, I want to. I just...” She sat up enough that he could see her dark expression and she murmured. “He told me that he can’t show me what happened to them.” Her voice grew strangled. “To my babies.”

He brought a hand around to cover the back of her head and pressed his forehead to hers. “I am sorry, Miranda.”

“I can’t believe it. I was so sure that’s what he was going to tell me.” She shook her head against his. “But it wasn’t, and I just have to accept that I’ll never know.”

Fuck, he was a wretch, but her words eased the ache in his chest.

Evythiken did not have answers for her, which meant that she wouldn’t seek him out again. She would not be thrown into this chaos—fall apart in his arms, be lost to him so completely that once the sorrow and rage subsided, she slept like the dead for a horrifically long time—again.

He’d clung to her in her sleep, concentrating on every intake of breath. She’d been so still and quiet that without her chest and stomach rhythmically pressing his own he would have thought she’d left him.

She could never leave him.

“The seer told me that Rogeth isn’t the one who framed you.”

He blinked, mind working around this information.

“It’s strange, isn’t it? I thought for sure it was him, but looking back, he was pretty adamant that you had done it.” She stroked the back of his head, scratched at his hairline as she thought. “The seer said he suspected who it was.”

“Did he give any clues?”

“No, I was... I was too caught up in my own stuff. I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

Fuck, he was so glad this chapter was done. Now they could finally move on, together. Miranda’s grief could proceed naturally. She would not continue to force her way through it.

A knock sounded at the door.

“You think that’s the clan back to convince you to stop the merger?” Miranda crawled out of his lap and his chest tightened at the loss.

He took a deep breath but he couldn’t catch the smell of who it was. He went to the door and swung it open. The day was sunny, but the cool air still hit him.

Right before the scent did. Sage.

“Viravia?” he asked. It was undoubtedly her, but she was almost completely bundled up. Only her eyes were visible beneath the thick cloak. A wool scarf covered up her nose and mouth.