She had convinced herself that finding him would feel different, there'd be relief maybe, closure. Some grand unraveling of the knot she'd carried in her chest since she left. Instead, when his scent finally drifted through the mist, she froze and her heart stopped first. Then it slammed back into motion hard enough to hurt.

No. The thought was a sharp sting, No, no, no. Because she knew that scent. Every mile she'd traveled, every stranger she'd questioned, every disappointment she'd swallowed, every dead end she'd forced herself through. All of it led here. The wolf standing beneath the trees remained unaware, half hidden by the drifting fog that curled around his legs. He was older, and larger like herself. Marked by scars she didn't recognize; but she would have known him anywhere.

Draugur... a broken word escaped her even as she stood rigid among the grass staring as though looking away might make him disappear. She'd imagined this meeting a thousand different ways, maybe she'd be angry, maybe she'd accuse him, or be triumphant in finally finding him? None of those survived the reality. All that remained was a little sister who had spent months chasing a ghost.

I looked everywhere for you, she managed roughly, she couldn't seem to breathe properly. Every wound she'd spent years stitching shut threatened to split open at once bringing her ebon ears flattened. Carefully Oniria took a single hesitant step forward, followed by another as fear and hope warred so violently within her she felt sick. What the hell happened to you? the question cracked beneath the weight of her guilt.

—

She hadn't heard that name in years.

Oni.

The nickname struck harder than hearing her own name ever could. It cracked straight through the armor she'd spent years forging, dragging memories to the surface before she could stop them. For one impossible heartbeat, she wasn't the hardened woman she'd become. She was his little sister again.

She watched him draw closer, watched recognition settle across features worn thin by hardship. He looked older than he should, tired in a way sleep could never mend. Those strange, glowing scars caught her eye, but it was his expression that rooted her in place. She knew that look, seen it reflected in herself.

His words landed with a quiet finality that chilled her more than any winter wind, followed by the sentence that died before it could live and she knew exactly how it ended. I know... voice barely above a whisper. ....so did I Silence stretched between them until he spoke again and when he sought to push her away something inside her recoiled. A bitter laugh escaping her then, she shook her head once, ears flattening as she took another cautious step. Don't do that, she insisted.

I told myself I'd come back, her voice found its resolve if only for a moment, I thought if I could just get away first... I'd find a way to get you out too, and she hadn't stopped trying. But every day I was gone... it got harder, Harder to return, to face what she'd done, to believe he'd even want to see her again.

If you want someone to blame... she said quietly, ...blame me. her tail remained low, her posture small in a way few had ever seen.

But I won't leave, I've already done that once.

A long silence followed before she met his haunted gaze without flinching.

I'm not making that mistake again

—

The snarl shattered the fragile stillness between them, she barely had time to register the movement before he was on her. Every instinct screamed for her to fight the desire to survive surging to the surface as his weight closed the distance and his fangs settled against her throat. Her body went rigid, muscles coiled to strike back if she had to. But...there was nothing. His teeth never closed.

She felt the heat of his breath against her neck the faint tremor running through his jaw, the hesitation he couldn't hide. He wasn't even trying to hurt her, he was trying to make her leave.

When he finally pulled away urging her to go Oniria wouldn't move an inch, wouldn't entertain the thought of retreat. Instead, she stared at him with an expression that shifted from hurt into something far more familiar. No The word came quietly, but there was steel beneath it.

No, I'm done listening to that,

She took another deliberate step toward him, refusing the distance he'd tried so desperately to create. Her tail lashed behind her, ears pinning flat against her skull as anger finally found its way through the grief tightening her chest. You think I don't know what you're doing? You think if you bare your teeth, snarl loud enough and convince yourself you're some kind of monster, I'll turn around and make it easy for you? a bitter laugh escaped her devoid of humor.

Her jaw tightened, You don't get to decide for me that I'm better off without you, no one gets to decide for me — not anymore.

—