She's Home

She's Home
I hesitate at the opening, unable to stop myself from peering inside.

My heart hammers in my chest as I take in the wide chairs covered in dark leather. I reach over, running my fingers over them and gasping at how soft it feels. They look as though they’re made for sleeping rather than traveling.

Vaelor notices my uncertainty. “It is safe, Your Majesty.”

The word means very little to me anymore. At least not without proof. But I won’t find it here with Kaan.

I duck my head and climb inside. The moment I lower myself into the chair, it gives beneath my weight. I gasp, instinctively grabbing the edge of the seat as it molds around my body.

It isn’t stuffed with straw or woven from cloth. What could it be made of?

Kaan slides in beside me, watching the inside of the carriage with the same curiosity that’s followed him since we crossed the Wall.

The door closes behind us on its own as soon as Vaelor and Soren step inside as well. I jerk toward it. No one touched it. No servant stood outside to shut it.

A sharp click echoes through the small space.

I stare at the door until another sound pulls my attention away. A low hum vibrates beneath my feet.

Soren and Vaelor settle into the seats in front of us, giving us their backs. There is a smooth black panel between them, built into the carriage itself.

Soren reaches for it and I watch in confusion as it bursts into a bright white light when he barely brushes his fingers over the surface.

Lines and symbols, and colors. They all move beneath his fingertips as though trapped beneath glass.

Vaelor glances back, catching my expression. “A control panel.”

I don’t know what that means.

He smiles. “It’s how Soren tells the vehicle where he wants it to go.”

I nod, still not understanding how that’s possible.

There is a loud hiss, and then Vaelor’s seat spins, letting him face me and Kaan. But he doesn’t look at Kaan at all, he looks directly at me. He lowers his eyes, a deep red crawling up his neck as he swallows.

“Um, I can’t begin to tell you how long we have waited for you.”

I inhale, my nails digging into the armrests of my chair. I can’t handle another speech about this when I don’t even know how I fit into this strange place.

He digs the fingers of one hand into the palm of the other, as if massaging away his nerves. “I-I lost a brother when I was just a child. And—” he clears his throat, clearly upset. “I haven’t been able to see him in — years.”

My brows draw together, my lips pressed together as I begin to understand the weight of what he is sharing.

“You can hear them,” he says quietly. “Can’t you?”

I still.

He notices the way my breathing changes. “Can you see my brother? He used to follow me when I was working, and we would just—talk.”

I lower my eyes, trying to hide the fact that I’m looking around. But no, I see no one.

“When I was younger,” he continues. “I would sit outside my parents’ home every evening and wait for him to come so we could have dinner. My mother laughed at his jokes. She even scolded him when he interrupted her.”

The smile disappears, and I feel his pain as if it were my own.

“Now, we can’t see him or hear him at all.”

Silence settles over the carriage, and he looks out the window as the city glides past. The carriage lurches, a startled gasp tearing from my throat as my back slams into the seat.

Outside the window, the city blurs as we move fast. Faster than any horse I’ve ever ridden.

People become streaks of color. The silver trees melt into one another until I can barely make out their trunks. My stomach twists violently, and I grip the armrests harder with both hands, my knuckles turning white.

This isn’t natural, nothing should move this quickly.

The hum beneath us deepens as we glide through the streets without a single jolt from the road below. Pain blooms behind my eyes. I squeeze them shut, willing my stomach to settle.

The city slips past the windows faster than my eyes can follow.

“Mortuorum has changed while you were gone,” Soren says.

The words seem strange to me. The whole sentiment feels weird. He speaks as if I belong here. As if I had been lost and now I’m finally found.

I used to dream about this.

About finding the place where the ache inside me would finally disappear.

Ever since I was a little girl, I carried the quiet certainty that something was missing. I never knew what it was. I only knew that there was always a space inside me that refused to feel settled.

I spent years believing there was something wrong with me. That I was simply incapable of feeling at home.

Now I know the truth. There really had been something missing. An entire world. A family. A life that should have been mine.

Yet as the city rushes past the windows, that emptiness doesn’t disappear. It only changes shape, because the hole inside me no longer belongs to this place. It belongs to Dastan.

The carriage rounds another corner and I forget to breathe.

The palace rises above the rest of the capital like a mountain grown from moonlight.

Its white walls curve upward in sweeping arches that resemble branches more than stone. Water winds through transparent channels within the walls themselves, glowing silver as it climbs before disappearing beneath hanging gardens overflowing with flowers I don’t recognize.

Entire terraces bloom hundreds of feet above the streets, trees growing from balconies suspended in midair.

Kaan leans forward beside me, a low chuckle growing in his chest.

Vaelor raises an eyebrow in response just as the carriage slows without anyone touching it. The humming beneath us softens until it disappears completely.

“We’ve arrived,” Soren announces.

The door beside me unlocks with a quiet click. Before I can even wonder how it knew we’d stopped, it swings outward on its own.

Cool air rushes inside.

The whispers that have followed me since crossing the portal fall silent. Even the dead seem unwilling to disturb the palace.

I step onto polished white stone and I’m surprised by how quiet it is. There are no guards shouting orders. No servants rushing from room to room.

Only quiet.

Vaelor leads us toward the entrance. The wall before us has no visible seam. He simply places his palm against the smooth white surface. Light blossoms beneath his hand, and the stone ripples. Just like the wall, it ripples, letting him pass through.

I’m in awe, following with Kaan at my side and Soren behind us.

Warm air fills the palace, carrying the rich scent of vanilla. It makes my heart stutter in my chest. I know that smell. Memories try to come to life, but they can’t break through the fog of the years.

My body remembers what my mind cannot.

Vaelor bows slightly. “Welcome home, Your Majesty.”

I don’t know if this place will ever deserve that name. Not while the man I love remains in another world.

But as I step deeper inside, the voices in my head come back. Hundreds of voices speaking the same two words.

“She’s home.”