cascade | kotlc

7. Change: Light and Shadow

 Days passed.

The Council didn't call again. Linh and Marella returned to Tiergan's place, practicing control over their abilities, and June firmly stayed by her sister and boyfriend's side. Faye saw her. She didn't even bother to shower, or change, to sleep. By the third day her eyes were heavy with shadowy eyebags and four new creases had folded into her forehead. Her clothes clung to her, dampened with sweat, and her hair was limp around her face, dry like grass.

June had been doing nothing but stare at Fitz for the entire time. Sophie had recovered, though Faye heard about the echoes and what seemed to be chronic injuries, and Keefe had insisted on training for skills with Sophie. Even Elwin and Ro had joined in, and every time Faye passed by the Healing Center, pretending nothing had gone wrong, she could hear Keefe's jokes or Ro's snark or Sophie's halfhearted cheers or June's forced laugh. It hurt.

Another day, and another, and Faye was sitting by the foot of June's bed in Havenfield, clutching her Imparter, waiting for the time another call would flash and blare as the screen would glow white.

And now, it finally came. It was from June.

"Come," was the only word she said, and she hung up immediately after, leaving Faye to rush to the Leapmaster and glint away.

She didn't know what to expect when she twisted the knob, and she even hesitated, wondering if it was good or bad news. But the door creaked open as wind blew onto it, and Faye burst into the room.

Her eyes scanned over Sophie's jubilant face, then set onto June's watery eyes that shimmered like crystals under the sunlight, before they focused on the boy she was holding onto. His hair was disheveled and like a bird's nest, his expression sleepy and clueless, and his lips were stretching into wide yawns. But he was very much awake.

Fitz's eyes widened at the commotion.

Faye screamed. It wasn't a rational response, but she felt like screaming and she did. There was no sense to it, but June screamed too, her voice filled with sparse, broken sobs that ran out in bits as she practically dived onto him. The tears in her eyes ran loose as her face hovered over Fitz's, before she made up her mind and kissed him tightly, quickly pulling away as she scratched at the corners of her eyes.

"Does he know?" were the first words that slipped from Faye's mouth. It was static electricity as it ran over her lips, numbingly still.

"I told him," June breathed, and the wind coalesced around her, freezingly, chillingly, nervously, and Fitz seemed to hold onto her as tightly as she was holding onto him. "I apologized."

"It wasn't your fault," Fitz snapped sharply. "It was the damned Neverseen that attacked your-"

He yelped, clutching his chest and rolling onto his side as much as his bandaged leg allowed. Air condensed around him and formed shimmery white substances as Fitz's knuckles turned white, his nails digging into June's wrist. They held each other and Fitz slowly returned to his usual position, propped against his pillow.

Faye winced. "So those are echoes," she mumbled. While she knew what they were, she never witnessed one happen before her face. And judging from June's expression and the way she glanced at Sophie, echoes were much, much more dangerous than that revealed.

"I'll have to check your ribs," Elwin told him, flashing a red orb and placing his hand on the left side of Fitz's torso. "A couple of refractured bones. But don't worry, I can fix this. I can fix all this."

"Except the echoes," Fitz murmured, his crestfallen face heartbreaking as he slumped into June's shoulder. His chest heaved along with June's subtle swaying in the autumn wind, and his hand slowly creeped around her waist. June retracted her hand from Fitz's neck and intertwined their fingers, her other hand cupped around his pink-flushing cheek.