Lincoln's POV:
Our journey back to Duskbane does not feel like a falling back.
That is important.
The Pale Verge moved away from us unopposed as we walked farther, the pale soil growing deeper into familiar soil, grasses thickening, and the air warming by degrees that do not require measurement. No one talks about what occurred there—not because it is forbidden, but because it is finished in the only way that something like that ever can be.
We walk for hours before Sky slows down his pace, eyes lifting slightly, then drifting toward the sound beneath the wind, trying to identify what it is.
“Water,” he says.
It's not the type of warning.
He just noticed it.
A stream runs through the land before us, broadening as it drops into a shallow basin nourished by a gentle cascade. Not a ro
