In the time that they fed their people with everything they had left in the kitchen. Celeste was scraping pots and pans for every last morsel to serve, and it was gone—all of it. They couldn't leave the palace to obtain any of the reindeer that Kallias was sure had suffered a cruel fate in the storm, along with their caretakers.
None of the other High Lords contacted them after Rhysand sent word that Nova was amid her meditation. A massive, dusty was settled in his lap, still searching for anything that pertained to the past or future that indicated a solution, and he recalled Helion's warning months ago.
Aside from the single scroll that Beron revealed and Nova connected with, nothing else existed. There was no mention of anything else, leaving them with only one source to follow. The scroll they only had access to through Nova's memory. That was to assume her experience wasn't faulty, that she had seen everything and remembered it all.
He looked up as Hollis reentered the room, "She's still in her meditation."
It was nearing evening now, and their hallway puzzle pieces had been moved to the parlor and scattered everywhere. All eyes that could be spared studied them. Since the moment he'd admitted their plan, anytime he looked around, his parents' gaze was on him. Watching everything he did. He soon realized why.
They'd come to the realization they wouldn't change their mind. There were no words they could say that would alter what was to come. Storing him safely away in their memory, they memorized him the way he had Nova only minutes ago. Her face was smooth, devoid of emotion, as she was lost in a deep meditative state. It had taken every bit of him to walk away. With that in mind, he didn't want their last visions of him to be bleak with fear.
When he felt like crying and falling apart, he smiled instead—a goodbye in every curve of his lips.
Hours passed in silence.
The snow didn't stop.
It was well past midnight when Nova stepped into the parlor, and they raised their heavy heads. She met their eyes before settling on Hollis. She offered a sad, tight smile and shook her head.
Rhys closed his eyes and hung his head as her mother turned away, a hand across her mouth to keep quiet as she trembled beside Nesta. Nesta, who did not drop her gaze, but whose eyes grew red with anger and sorrow. At her side, Ana lay unmoving. Her shallow breaths were the only indicator she was still alive.
"Eris, can you please take Eira to the ballroom and sit with her?" Nova asked, her voice surprisingly subdued. There was no more questioning. With nothing but darkness greeting her meditations, it was suddenly much easier to accept what needed to be done. There was nothing else to be done but what they'd decided. There was a comfort in that somehow, to know they could finally rest.
Eira, asleep on his shoulder, walked out with a somber passing glance as he closed the door behind him. Their friends were there, not all of them, but Sara and Cypruss were trapped in the Night Court. Unable to leave the library as the rot spread, taking Velaris hostage in decay. Neither was Adira.
Sitting on the rug in front of the fire, she sighed as Hollis sat across from her. Their daggers were pressed against the skin of the hips as everyone moved to sit around the fire.
"Did you see the sky last night?" Kyra asked, smiling through trembling lips.
Hollis grinned, "You're welcome."
"That was you?" Bran asked, raising his brows as Hollis nodded.
"Hm," Nova smiled, "It's true. I watched him do it."
They were quiet again, not looking around to see who sniffled.
"Oh," Feyre said, hands shaking as she reached into her bag, "I have something for you, Nova. I painted it sometime ago, but…" She didn't finish the sentence as she handed her the canvas.
Taking the rectangle in her hands, she set it half on her lap and the other half on Hollis's. She grinned through her tears as she stared at the depiction that looked just like her island.
"I may have spoken to Adira for a while at the Summer Court. She told me you have a love for fireflies."
Rhys gazed at the artwork, throat bobbing. "My Rhys…" The sound of Nova's young voice echoed through his mind.
It was an image of her tree.
The pond and the setting sun. Fireflies twinkled in the grass, and she sighed."It's exactly as I remember…" She murmured, staring at the image, losing herself in it for a moment. "It's my favorite spot. My favorite time of day, you know…" She swallowed. "The day animals have gone to sleep, but the night has yet to wake. When the sun's just starting to set, and it gets so quiet…" Her voice ended on a whisper.
A calm, quiet soaked the room before Nesta murmured. "A painter's palette of fading light…" Brows furrowed, she stared at the canvas over Nova's shoulder. "Fading light…fading sound…"
Nesta lurched to her feet and snatched the canvas from her, putting herself at Nova and Hollis's feet.
"You paint the sky with light, and you empty a space of sound." Her breathing came erratically, and she took Nova's hands tightly in her cold grasp. "You aren't meant to create balance by leaving this world; you make it by creating a new one. A new Court."
Nova stopped breathing, blinking rapidly.
"The Dusk Court."