Lux [h.s]

sixty

"What do you mean, you don't know where he is?!" Cora asked, panic flowing through her. Thalia always knew everything. If she didn't, it meant that something was very, very wrong.

"I don't know what's happening." Cora didn't think she was imagining the panic in Thalia's voice. She opened the front door and let her bat out for a second time. "Try again," she instructed. "This time, you have to find him."

The bat fluttered away, leaving them to stare after it in the open frame of the door.

"What's going on?" Cora turned; Iris was standing at the bottom of the staircase, huddled under a blanket. She hadn't even heard her come down.

"Everything's fine," Thalia told her. "You should go back to sleep."

Iris tilted her head, sensing that something was happening, but decided not to press the matter. She went up the stairs again, leaving Cora and Thalia to stand alone in the living room—the spheres above them dark.

"What could've—"

"I don't know," Thalia interrupted her, as if she couldn't bear to hear the words spoken. "I just don't know."

Cora sat on the couch, but not long after she stood again and started pacing the room back and forth. Thalia didn't leave her spot by the window.

An hour passed, and the bat came back with no news. The air outside grew colder, the windows fogged, and Thalia had to open the pane to look outside. Her bat flew upstairs to find a warm cozy spot to spend the next few hours.

Cora and Thalia stayed up.

Another hour passed. Dwyn brought them a cup of tea, and from upstairs Cora heard the sounds of the house going to sleep. She sent Dwyn to bed as well, and though she forced herself to drink, she couldn't get through more than half of the cup, and the liquid inside grew cold.

"He'll be back before dawn," Thalia said, but it didn't sound like one of her usual predictions. Cora didn't know if she was telling it to her, or herself.

Another hour. They were sitting on opposite sides of the couch now, in silence, eyes heavy with sleep but kept open by worry. Cora couldn't stop thinking of all the things that could've gone wrong.

What if Harry hadn't found a way out like they had? What if he'd been caught?

And, at last, though she immediately regretted thinking about it: would Ives help them find him, if they asked him?

But Ives wasn't there, and neither was Harry, and she was so terrified she didn't know what to think.

One more hour passed, and suddenly there was a knock on the door.

Cora jumped up and Thalia ran to the front door, opening it without even checking who was on the other side.

But it wasn't one of Soren's guards—it was Harry.

"What happened?" Thalia asked in the moment he stepped inside.

"Chaos in the city." His reply came muttered, the black cloak almost swallowing him whole as he walked to the couch, tiredness in his step. "I barely got out."

Thalia frowned. "What kind of chaos?"

Cora's head snapped towards her. How could she not know? Knowing things was what she did best. But she hadn't known where Harry was, and now she seemed not to know what had taken place in the same town she'd been in until some hours before.

Harry slipped the cloak off his shoulders and Cora caught it; the shirt he was wearing underneath was crumpled up and covered in dark spots. Her heart jumped in her chest, but he didn't seem to be hurt—just dishevelled. What had happened?