Nyxlyn Nightbloom's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

The footsteps faded, and the room settled back into stillness. Nyxlyn searched for words, but her throat felt tight. Solara shifted on the couch, then reached toward the small table beside her. She lifted a frame Nyxlyn had never seen before and held it in her lap. The frame was gold and silver, twined together like they belonged that way. Nyxlyn leaned closer. Inside was a Polaroid — Solara and her, caught mid-glance, looking at each other instead of the camera. Nyxlyn did not remember the picture being taken. But Solara had kept it. Right here. Within reach. "I look at it every morning," Solara said. Her voice was quieter now, stripped of its usual brightness. "I wasn't sure you'd ever notice it. I wasn't sure I wanted you to." Nyxlyn's eyes moved past the frame and caught something else on the table — a small bracelet, blue and yellow beads, a moon charm and a sun charm hanging together. N+S=BFFL. Childish letters. Kept anyway. Kept close. "You made sense of us before I did," Nyxlyn whispered. The daffodil in the vase between them tilted toward the window light. Solara's fingers tightened on the frame. She did not smile, not yet. But she did not look away. "I made sense of you," Solara said. "I just didn't know what to call it." The words landed soft, but they landed. Something had shifted. The confession was no longer Nyxlyn's alone to carry — and neither of them knew, yet, what to do with that.