Before today, I hadn’t been comfortable enough to test the magic on something other than grass, but now I felt ready to try. So I pulled out my dagger and focused on a pinpoint of rust in the blade. I set my finger on the spot and trailed it up the knife, spreading the rust until it had corroded through the metal. Then I reversed it, restoring my dagger to its original state. I went back and forth with the rust for a couple of minutes, but my eyes wandered across the meadow to Ava as I did, and eventually my work ceased as I lost myself in thought. Lost myself to wondering what she was thinking about, to wondering what was going on behind that empty stare. Was she thinking about all the things she’d been through the last six months? Or what she’d do with herself now that she was back? Was she thinking about me?
During my thoughtfulness, a gentle hand set on my shoulder and rubbed across my back to the other. I pulled my gaze away from Ava and glanced up at my mother, seeing the concern in her eyes even though she didn’t voice it.
“She came to me again,” I sighed. “I don’t know what it means, and she still won’t speak to me.”
“That she comes to you at all tells me she wants to,” my mother said. “Sometimes grief makes things hard to say, but give her time.” Her hand made another soothing run across the backs of my shoulders. “She’ll find the words she’s searching for.”
I nodded, unable to respond because Nilson ran up, throwing his arms around my neck for such an eager hug that it knocked me over. “Morning!” he greeted. I chuckled, returning the hug and pushing myself back up once he let me go. Though he’d been so excited to see me, he dropped to his knees at my side with a suddenly serious look on his face. “Kiena?” he asked, and I hummed curiously. “Is that the girl you were looking for all this time?”
I followed his gaze across the meadow to Ava. “Aye.”
“Oh,” he mumbled, and paused for a long moment to study her. “She looks sad.”
“She is,” I answered, stretching over to brush my fingers through his messy hair.
He reached up to smooth his hair on his own, turning more to face me. “Why aren’t you trying to make her happy?”
It was an innocent question, and I tried to smile kindly at him, but it was difficult to smile at all while I tried to come up with a good answer. In the end, all I could say was, “It’s complicated.”
“Oh,” he said again, sounding disappointed. A moment later, he asked more enthusiastically, “Could I try?”
“To make her happy?” I clarified, and he gave an eager nod.
At first, I wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good idea. The last thing I wanted was for Ava to think I was trying to force her to cheer up, and that I’d sent Nilson. Nor did I want her to feel that she had to force herself to smile because she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. On the other hand, however, maybe Nilson really could cheer her a bit. He had a unique way of making someone feel special, even if he couldn’t completely get them to smile. Maybe it would help Ava just to know that he’d been thinking of her, and that he wanted to help.
“Alright,” I agreed, and his face lit up. “Just don’t bother her if she doesn’t want to talk.”
“I won’t,” he said, and got up to run across the meadow.
When he reached her, he sat down so earnestly that he practically slid into her side, and she’d been so focused on staring that it appeared to startle her. Nilson was all smiles, and even if I couldn’t hear what he was saying, I knew he was introducing himself. He held out his hand, and though the hesitation was clear on Ava’s face, she took it. Nilson pressed a kiss to her knuckles, something I knew he’d learned from me, and while Ava didn’t laugh or smile at his exaggerated friendliness, her lips moved. She spoke to him. It was obvious she’d only just told him her name, but perhaps Nilson would do a better job of cheering her up than I thought.
Once she’d accepted his introduction, he leaned over to look at the paper in her lap. He said something to her, and she flipped to a different page in the leaflet and angled it so he could see. Then he pointed at me. Ava followed his finger and met my gaze, and my cheeks shaded darkly even though I had no idea why, and I was the first to look away this time. It took a few moments, but eventually I gathered the courage to look over at them again. She wasn’t watching me anymore. Nilson was leaning so comfortably into her side it was as if he’d known her for years, talking with such animation that his arms were moving, and there was the faintest hint of a smile on her lips.
It was genuine, and it was the first time since she’d been back that I’d seen her look anything but desolate. She actually looked… content. It wasn’t something I’d caused or was even remotely responsible for, but just the fact that she didn’t look heartbroken was enough to make me grin. I don’t know if she could sense the smile on my face, but Ava looked across the meadow at me once more, and she held my gaze. It wasn’t a conciliatory stare, and it did nothing to brighten or darken her expression, but she was looking at me. Something she hadn’t done like this since she’d got here.
Nilson’s chattering eventually pulled her gaze from mine, and it looked like he was saying goodbye, because he pushed away from her side and stood up, and he kissed her on the cheek before leaving. One corner of Ava’s lips curled with what looked like amusement, and my mother must have been watching too, because she chuckled.
I glanced up at her, mumbling, “The little shit.”
My mother laughed harder. “Perhaps he could teach you a few things.”
“I taught him everything he knows,” I grumbled. Nilson ran back up to me, and I grabbed him and pulled him into my lap, attacking his ribs with my fingers. “You think you know how to talk to women?” I teased. He was squirming, laughing so loudly as he tried to get away from my hands that he couldn’t answer.
I stopped tickling him, and he climbed out of my lap to sit cross-legged at my side. “She drew a portrait of you,” he said. That came as such a shock that I just stared at him for a moment, wide-eyed. “She’s very good.”
“Aye, she is,” I agreed, meeting those blue eyes across the meadow for half a second before she looked away.
“Oh,” Nilson giggled with realization, shoving me in the shoulder. “You fancy her.”
Before he could blink, I reached out and grabbed him, pulling him back into my lap and wrapping my arm around his neck like I’d choke him. “What was that?”
“Mum!” he shrieked through his laughter, tugging at my arm. “Mum, Kiena fancies that girl!” He snorted, cackling as he teased, “I kissed her.”
“That’s it,” I chuckled, and he was light enough that I could stand with him in my arms, and I threw him over my shoulder. “Where’s the wolf, I think she’s hungry.”
“Mum!” he giggled, kicking his arms and legs as he dangled. “Help!”
I’d hardly carried him a couple of feet when a group of rangers exited the caves. They were my rangers, and Nira and Kingston were among them. The group headed to the side of the entrance, where they’d go into a small inlet of the mountain to reach the stables. I set Nilson down and went over to where Nira and Kingston had stopped at the entrance of the caves to wait for me.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“A signal fire just went up at one of our villages,” Kingston answered. His eyes wandered past me to make a deliberate glance at Ava. “I understand if you’d like to sit this one out.”
A signal fire at a village meant an emergency, but since Ava had been back, Kingston hadn’t been tasking me with things. I knew it was because he wanted me to have all the time I needed to make sure she was alright, and because I’d want to be here if she decided she was ready to talk to me. Now was no different. Even though a signal fire could mean danger, my rangers were well equipped to handle it.