Chapter 46: Growing Together

Seven years had passed since the landslide that took Liam and Elara from the world, and in that time, Nora had grown into someone the old nobility never expected a grieving orphan to become.

She’d moved into the Draven estate permanently within months of the funeral, and from that point on, Cassian and Sylvia had raised her alongside their own children without a shred of hesitation. She sat through the same lessons Neo did, mathematics, history, politics, magic theory, sword forms, proper noble etiquette, absorbing all of it with a quiet, methodical focus that left even the hired tutors impressed.

By the time she turned twelve, she had already taken partial control over what remained of the Valentina holdings, reviewing trade contracts and territory reports with a sharpness that startled the merchants who assumed a young, deaf heiress would be easy to take advantage of. She proved them wrong within her first year, quietly dismantling three separate attempts to cheat her out of her inheritance before any of the involved parties even realized what had happened.

Her personality had shifted as well, though not in the way most people expected. She wasn’t cold exactly, not anymore, not the same blank, distant girl who’d once sat silently beneath a table clutching a stuffed dragon. But she wasn’t warm either, not toward strangers. She’d simply grown into something quieter, sharper, more deliberate. Something that watched carefully before ever choosing to act.

And there was one person, and only one person, she never bothered hiding anything from at all.

Inside the grand library of the Draven mansion, afternoon light spilled softly through the tall windows, illuminating rows of tall bookshelves stretching toward the high ceiling. Neo sat slumped over one of the long reading desks, his chin resting on his folded arms, idly dragging his pen in slow, lazy circles across a spare sheet of parchment.

At fifteen, he’d grown considerably from the small, chubby-cheeked child everyone once fought over squeezing. His frame had filled out into something tall and lean, his features sharpening into the kind of handsome that turned heads wherever he walked, exactly the way Sylvia had once wished for so many years ago. He carried none of Cassian’s broad, intimidating bulk, favoring instead a lighter, more elegant build, striking silver hair falling loosely across his forehead, his deep blue eyes carrying a faint trace of restless energy.

Across from him, seated in one of the armchairs near the window, Nora sat quietly with a thick book resting open across her lap.

She had grown as well, her once small, doll-like frame now carrying the graceful, elegant figure of a young noblewoman. Her violet hair had grown longer, falling in soft waves past her shoulders, and her lavender eyes, though still carrying that same distant sharpness, had softened somewhat over the years, at least whenever they landed on the one person seated across from her.

Neo let out a long, dramatic sigh, lifting his head just enough to glance toward her.

"How much longer do I have to stay here?" he asked, wearing an exaggerated pout. "Let me go. I want to head out and get some actual training in before it gets dark."

Nora’s eyes flicked up from her book, and though she couldn’t hear a single word he’d said, seven years of sitting beside him had taught her exactly how to read every shift of his expression, every small twitch of his lips.

"No. You’re staying until I’m finished."

Neo groaned, dropping his head back down onto his arms. "You’ve been reading that same book for three hours. What could possibly still be left to read?"

Nora simply held up three fingers, indicating exactly how many Chapters remained, her expression completely unbothered by his obvious impatience.

"That’s basically a whole other book," Neo grumbled, though he made no actual move to leave, settling instead back into his slumped position, resigned to his fate.

What he didn’t notice, buried carefully beneath her calm, composed expression, was the quiet, watchful way her eyes occasionally drifted up from the page, lingering on him for just a second longer than necessary before returning smoothly back to her reading.

It had become something of a habit over the years, one she’d never mentioned to anyone, least of all him.

She liked keeping him close. Not simply near her, but within sight, within reach, somewhere she could quietly account for at any given moment. It wasn’t something she consciously decided to do; it had simply grown, slowly and steadily, ever since the day her parents died, ever since the fear of losing someone else she cared about had settled permanently somewhere deep inside her chest.

Whenever he left for extended training sessions with Cassian, she found herself unconsciously counting the minutes until he returned. Whenever unfamiliar nobles visited the estate and lingered a little too long around him, particularly the daughters of certain ambitious houses, she found her grip tightening slightly around whatever she happened to be holding at the time, her expression remaining outwardly calm even as something far sharper coiled quietly beneath the surface.

She told herself it was simply because he was important to her. Family, in every sense that mattered. That was all.

It didn’t explain, however, why the thought of him spending time with anyone else, anyone at all, left a strange, uncomfortable weight settling in her stomach.

Nora glanced back down at her book, though her eyes barely registered the words on the page now, her attention still quietly fixed on the boy slumped across the desk from her.

’He’s my family and family stays together. That’s all this is.’ she thought simply, the words settling into her mind with the same calm, matter-of-fact certainty she applied to everything else in her life.

She didn’t examine the thought any further than that.

Neo, completely unaware of the quiet, careful attention being paid to him, let out another long sigh, tapping his pen idly against the desk.

"You know, Yuki’s probably wondering where we are by now. She gets sulky if we leave her alone in the garden for too long."

At the mention of Yuki, Nora’s expression finally softened slightly, a small flicker of genuine warmth crossing her otherwise composed features. The little dragon had grown considerably over the past seven years, now roughly the size of a large dog, its wings finally strong enough to carry it properly through short bursts of flight, though it still preferred curling up in either of their laps whenever given the chance.

"Fine. One more Chapter, then we’ll go check on him."

Neo brightened instantly. "Deal."

He propped his chin back onto his folded arms, watching her return her attention to the book, the afternoon light catching softly against her violet hair.

’Guess a few more minutes won’t kill me,’ he thought, a small smile tugging at his lips as he settled back into comfortable silence.