Ollie had spent half the night lying awake in the tent he shared with the other knights, wondering if Ashlynn would even be able to walk back to the Grove in the morning. Part of him hoped that she wouldn't. That she would stay away for at least a full day or two so she could recover her strength.
If he was honest, however, there was a large part of him that had felt lost in the fog without her presence. If something even stranger happened with Jocelynn's trial, Ollie was worried that he wouldn't know what to do beyond rushing to fetch the leader of their coven.
But now, the woman walking toward him had color in her cheeks again. Her steps were steady and sure, and she was holding her mother up rather than the other way around. She still looked tired. Her bone-deep exhaustion wouldn't go away after a single night's rest, but she looked like Ashlynn again, and that was more than he'd let himself hope for.
