Chapter 464: In This Together

ELRETH

Half an hour later, Aaryn had spread his shirt out on the dirt and they both sat on it, their backs to the trunk of the Weeping Tree. They sat shoulder to shoulder, their hands clasped and resting on his thigh.

Aaryn was very quiet, his scent shifting slowly, rolling from one emotion to the next. Elreth had sensed everything from melancholy to fierce pride in him so far.

She understood. As she thought back through the evening she experienced every kind of emotion too—thrill, anger, fear, and yes, pride. Pride in herself. Pride in Aaryn. Pride in her brother, and in all the Protectors. Pride in her family…

But under it all, that rippling fear wouldn't lose its grip.

There was suddenly a sense of the sun dragging towards the earth. Of a day about to end, and no way to stop it. That no matter how strong she might be, or how fierce, the darkness was coming and she could no more delay it than shift into a wolf herself.