They returned to the Pearl Coast.
This time, there was no pretense of separate trips. Lyra and her father drove together. Kael and Aldric arrived the same night. The house on the cliff became a meeting place—not just for planning, but for something that felt almost like normalcy.
Lyra and Kael walked the beach in the early mornings, when the fog was thick and the world was reduced to the sound of waves and the warmth of his hand in hers. They talked about nothing. Music. Books. The way the light looked on the water. They didn't talk about the Council, or the treaty, or Marcus Valerius.
One evening, Lyra led Kael to the widow's walk. It was a small platform at the top of the house, accessible only by a narrow staircase. The view was endless—gray water merging with gray sky, the horizon invisible.
"My mother used to come up here," Lyra said. "My father told me. She'd stand for hours, just watching."
"What was she watching for?"
"I don't know. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything."
Kael leaned against the railing beside her. The wind pulled at his hair. "She sounds like she was brave."
"She was. Braver than me."
"I don't believe that."
Lyra turned to look at him. "You don't know what I'm afraid of."
"Tell me."
She was quiet for a long moment. "I'm afraid of being forgotten. Of living forever and having no one remember who I really was. I'm afraid of becoming like my father—burying my failures so deep that I forget they ever happened. I'm afraid of losing you and having to pretend I never knew you."
Kael reached for her. His hands were warm on her shoulders. "You won't forget me. I won't let you."
"You can't promise that."
"No. But I can promise to try. Every day. For as long as we have."
She leaned into him. His arms wrapped around her, solid and warm. The wind pulled at them both, but they didn't move.
"Kael," she said against his chest.
"Yes?"
"I don't want to go back to Portland. Not ever."
"Then we don't. We stay here. We figure out the rest later."
"Okay."
"Okay."
They stood on the widow's walk, wrapped around each other, while the Pacific crashed against the cliffs below.