"This is where he tried to erase my child."
Yamm stood with Rowan at the edge of the pond. New tines sprouted on his antlers, raw and bloody at first, then darkening to angry, black points that looked like charred wood against the curved lines of ivory. One by one the blackened tines crumbled to dust and showered down on the grass below.
"Yes." Rowan's response was quiet.
The memory of Wren winking out of existence like he was never there in the first place, the fear and despair in his eyes when he finally saw the real Rowan calling for him to stop right before his heel grazed the surface of the pond…it was too fresh. Too painful to think about.
"Ciprian knew exactly which wounds to reopen so that Wren would lose himself," Rowan said. "But I will heal them all so that it can never happen again. Just as he has healed mine."
