Forgotten Ties (Ties, Book 3.5) | ✓

Epilogue

For a long time, the only thing Nim could feel was a burning core of heat. He wasn't even sure which part of his body it was coming from because he couldn't feel anything else for context. He had laid there for what seemed like hours, the heat slowly expanding, before the realisation came to him that he wasn't breathing.

Was he dead? Was this what it was like? He had always sort of just assumed death would be a whole lot of nothing. This wasn't much, but it was definitely something.

The burning sensation was coming from his chest. That was becoming more obvious as it crept out towards his limbs. Could he move? He hadn't thought to try. He wasn't sure he even knew how to try. He continued to lay there and wonder.

The last little push happened all at once. The sensation of suffocation flooded through him and then, without thinking, he summoned all his strength and shoved himself up, bursting out from beneath a thick layer of snow.

Nim heaved in deep breaths, fighting to satisfy what felt like an insatiable need for oxygen. He was naked. His skin was blue from the cold, but not frostbitten.

In front of him stood a trembling figure made of pale blue light. The fae. Had he died? He remembered the fight. He remembered falling. He'd taken a few good slices from a machete if nothing else, but a quick examination of his body showed no signs of injury.

Was he still himself? He'd never heard of the fae just bringing someone back unchanged before, but as far as he could tell he looked like himself and, as the rest of the strangeness that had surrounded his resurrection faded, he really did just feel like himself.

Nim shifted. A dense coat of fur was his best defence against the cold. Last he remembered, there had only been a thin layer of snow on the ground. Now he made channels through it as he sniffed the area.

The first thing he found, buried under the snow, were the bodies of the humans. He didn't want to think about that too much. He'd never wanted to hurt anybody, but faced with people who were all too willing to hurt him, to hurt Skye, who had already killed Aris... Well, he'd done what he'd felt he had to. He was sure he would spend many sleepless nights wondering whether there may have been another way.

The fae briefly investigated the bodies Nim had uncovered, but it didn't seem very interested in them. So they really did play favourites.

Nim sniffed around the hole in the snow his body had left. At first all he could smell was his own blood, but then something sweet tickled his senses and he dug a tunnel through the snow to a frozen pool of vomit. It had to have come from Skye. No one else would have had that many different foods in their stomach.

But how long ago? It was buried deep under the snow. Even the mountains above Nim looked taller. It had to have been days at least. Skye must have come down looking for him, seen his broken body, and left.

And then... well, who knows. Skye had almost lost himself after a stressful day at school. Nim had died. He had died and Skye had seen it happen, had seen his body afterwards. Would he have been able to find his way back to the others, or would he have just wandered off somewhere?

Skye had said he'd spent most of his life in that state, just existing without a proper mind. Somehow, he had survived. He had to have good instincts. Surely even if he hadn't been able to stay present in his head, he would have found his way out of the mountains.

Nim hoped so, anyway, because he didn't stand a chance of picking up a trail beneath all this snow. He'd have to get himself the rest of the way across the mountains and then go from there.

A bit more sniffing uncovered Nim's bag, and after shifting and unzipping it, he found his clothes shoved inside. Skye must have packed everything up and thrown Nim's bag down for him. Nim hoped he would get the opportunity to thank him.

Nim dressed, shouldered his bag, and let out a breath that fogged the air as he stared up at the mountain in front of him. Time to go find his friends.

THE END