CHAPTER 222: NATHAN

Darius propped up his feet on the table and sighed. He had found himself coming back to his family archive just to stand blankly ahead. He got up and stood at the spot where they had kissed. His fingers brushed his lips and he sighed wistfully, he did want more than a kiss but Serena seemed like she was not ready for all that sort.

’Who would have thought you would be reduced to a mess at the thought of ours. Lunara be my witness, when I swear that a little over two moons ago you would have refused to be in the same room that she stood in,’ Ronan said with so much snark that brought a frown onto Darius’ face.

"Hm, who would have thought indeed," Darius murmured out loud.

He shook his head and went back to the chair and rested his chin in his palm. Her scent assaulted his nose positively, he missed her. Despite her words and protest, the man still felt like he had a part to play in her brief absence. To him, it was so bad that she went to the best thing that was a god, the Moonseeker for ’air’.

He looked up at the moment to see someone he would have not imagined to see until the next winter. Darius squinted and then rose slowly.

"You still have terrible manners after so long," the man said gruffly.

"Nathan," Darius breathed.

"Darius," he said, returning the greeting.

Darius crossed the floor in long strides and reached Nathan in two heartbeats, pulling him into a firm embrace. The shorter man grunted, but he patted Darius’s back with practiced ease, like the motion had been done a hundred times before.

"By the gods, you have filled out," Nathan said, stepping back and peering at him with amused scrutiny. "All that brooding must do wonders for one’s shoulders."

Darius chuckled low in his chest. "And you’re no leaner yourself."

"Aye, well, the cooks near the northern pass have been fond of my company. It’s the cheeks, you see. They find them endearing."

Darius gave a quiet snort, then gestured to the chairs near the table. "Sit, please. You are a sight I had not expected today."

Nathan did so with a quiet grunt, adjusting his cloak as he sat. "Nor had I planned to arrive unannounced, but your scouts are lax, and the guards at the gate remembered me too fondly to deny entry. I would be worried, if I were you."

Darius shook his head, though the corners of his lips twitched. "They remember who you are and what you’ve done. That is no crime."

"They remember the fool who nearly burned down the east watchtower with a stew pot."

"I remember it was the stew that caught fire, not the pot."

"That is a lie and you know it."

Both men chuckled, the sound echoing faintly within the cold stone chamber. The air in the Hawthorne archives always carried the scent of old parchment and dried herbs. Nathan’s arrival brought warmth that Darius hadn’t realized he’d been missing.

Nathan glanced around and furrowed his brow. "What are you doing in here anyway? Don’t tell me you have taken up the family habit of talking to ghosts."

Darius shrugged lightly, he was not going to bother with telling him the embarrassing tale of trying to recall a memory in all its perfectness. "Just brushing the dust off old stories. There’s peace in it."

Nathan gave him a knowing look. "Peace? From you? Now I know you’ve gone soft."

Darius scoffed. "Says the man whose cheeks have betrayed his diet."

Nathan grinned. "Touché. Though I assure you, I have not grown soft, merely...round."

They shared another quiet chuckle before Darius leaned back in his chair and regarded his friend with something close to fondness. Nathan was a welcome change from the usual stiffness of the council and the constant work that came with being an Alpha. Here was someone who remembered who Darius had been before war, before grief, before leadership had followed his every breath.

"How long do you intend to stay?" Darius asked, reaching for the small pitcher of water near the ledgers. He poured a cup and slid it across the table.

Nathan took it with a grateful nod. "A fortnight, if the gods are kind. I have reports to deliver and a few requests from the pass that require your hand. Also, the scouts down south have grown restless. They want reinforcement, or at least someone who can speak a sentence without grumbling about goats."

Darius raised a brow. "I will see to it. Are things stable?"

Nathan hesitated, swirling the water in his cup. "Stable is not the word I would use. Calm, perhaps. But I do not trust the calm in the borderlands. It tends to come before something unpleasant."

Darius inclined his head slightly. "Noted."

A silence fell between them, not uncomfortable, but full of thoughts neither voiced. Nathan glanced sideways at a worn volume on the edge of the table and then back to Darius. "Truly, though. What brings you back here? This room held more ghosts than books last I visited."

Darius looked away for a moment, tracing a thumb along the carved edge of the table. "It’s foolish," he said quietly. "There was a moment I wanted to hold onto. I thought perhaps if I stood where it happened, it would not slip from me so easily."

Nathan studied him, brow slowly furrowing. "A memory, then?"

Darius gave a faint nod. "A good one. One of the few in recent moons."

Nathan leaned forward slightly. "Is this about the envoy from Crimsonclaw? The woman, Serena?"

Darius blinked. "What makes you say that?"

"You mentioned her once, briefly, in your last letter. Barely a sentence, which told me more than if you’d written three pages. You, my friend, are a man of omission."

Darius let out a quiet, rueful laugh. "You assume too much."

"I know you too well. And I’ve eyes, Darius. Your face changes when you speak of certain things."

There was a flicker of something behind Darius’s gaze, but it vanished before Nathan could name it. He shook his head and rose, crossing to the window that overlooked the upper courtyard. "She is... a complication."

Nathan remained seated, though his voice held a gentle weight. "Is it the kind that heals or the kind that festers?"

Darius didn’t answer right away. Instead, he watched as a pair of swallows chirped behind the window and flew away. "I am not yet certain," he said at last. "I thought I might. But the longer she stays, the more I wonder."

Nathan tapped the side of his cup. "You’ll figure it out. You always do. Though I will say this, you’re easier to read than you think."

Darius turned with a small smile. "Liar."

Nathan gave a short bow from his seat. "Only occasionally. When it suits the cause."