Page 93 of The Hunt of Night

“I love you, Nora,” I breathe, the words coming straight from the heart.

“I love you too, you big goof. Now stop thinking you have to suffer to protect everyone else,” she states, wagging her finger at me once again, and I roll my eyes.

“That’s too much wisdom for me right now.” A yawn parts my lips, confirming my words.

“I have more loaded up,” she offers with a waggle of her eyebrows.

“You always do,” I muse, and a comfortable silence descends over us. Slowly, she inches back to the bed, lacing her fingers through mine in comfort, and I take the quiet moment to appreciate my sister’s presence.

The two silhouettes are still on the other side of the drapes, piquing my interest. “Is Dad out there?”

“Yeah,” she answers, squeezing my hand before settling her gaze on mine again. “Kryll said Mom was there?”

Well, that’s not where I was aiming this conversation.

Clearing my throat, I nod. “She was.”

“How was she?”

I sigh. “I don’t know. I was too busy being mean,” I admit, acutely aware that I really was bitchier than usual.

“Good. I taught you well,” she says with a smirk, and I gape at her. “What? Just because Dad gives you the whole calm andcollected speech doesn’t mean it’s something I live by, too,” she adds, a grin spreading across her lips, and I shake my head.

“She gave me a letter.”

“This?” She pulls the envelope from her cloak pocket, and I nod. “Do you want to open it?”

“Nope,” I answer without missing a beat.

“Fair enough.” She tucks it back into her pocket, no further questions necessary, and I silently thank her for it. Her thumb strokes over my knuckles as she smiles down at me. “You seem…different,” she offers, and I sink my teeth into my bottom lip as I nod.

“I feel different.”

“I can’t put my finger on it, but I think the academy is changing you.” That’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one, and I don’t know how I feel about it. “Whatever it is, I think it looks good on you.”

“You think?” A warmth spreads through my body as I smile at her before my eyebrows gather and my gaze narrows on her. “Something is different with you.”

She sighs dramatically. “I thought you were never going to notice,” she flicks her hair over her shoulder, fluttering her eyelashes at me.

My heart rate skyrockets, my mind finally paying full attention through the hazy state, and then I spot it. How I didn’t sooner, I don’t fucking know, but it floors me.

“Nora, how the fuck are you standing on two feet right now?” I blurt, a sob bursting through my lips as I fling myself from the bed. She cackles, taking a step back as I fall to a heap on the floor beside her. The jolt shoots from my knees to my hips, but I ignore it as I stare up at my sister. “Nora,” I rasp, tears coating my cheeks as she twirls in front of me.

Fucking twirls.

My sister.

“It suits me, right?”

“Nora, how?” I rasp, watching in awe as she dances around the room. She’s been standing beside my bed this entire time and I didn’t pay enough attention to realize.

Holy fuck.

“Kryll, well, his mother, but?—”

“Kryll did this?” I gasp, falling backward. My back hits the side of the bed as my eyelids press closed, unable to believe what I’m seeing.

“What’s going…You’re awake.” My father’s voice carries into the room with purpose, and when I find him in the opened drapes, a soft smile touches his lips.

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