112 | PINECONES

The days after Samyak’s revelation passed in a haze. The world around me felt blurred, only coming in to sharp focus if I looked too long or too hard. My hearing was muffled, the thudding of my heart pounding rhythmically through my brain.

I’d wanted to scream at him, to yell; but instead I’d sat, very still, very quietly, as he’d cried. There was a strange emptiness in the air now: the tension was gone, released, but in its place there was… nothing. Just nothingness, pushing us apart.

I didn’t want it to be that way. I’d promised to understand, to know him as only he knew himself. And it was not his fault, not entirely at least – I felt certain that the hunters would have uncovered the knowledge they needed without Samyak’s help.

I fixated on this point as I folded linen. Luna Carla was beside me, scurrying between guest rooms and setting candles in windowsills. The