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He comes back to her in the night, unbroken and beautiful. Her heart stutters as she brushes a hand, feather-light, against his cheek. A gasping sob wrenches it's way out of her at the realization that he is there, really there, flesh and blood and bone there.
"How?" she asks, the word small and inferior in the midst of everything she wants to say.
"I don't know," he replies and his own sentence is so simple that it fits perfectly in the space left by hers. He fits perfectly in the space left by his own absence.
Tears slip down her face, though she can't be certain whether they were birthed by joy or shock, and she can't find it in herself to care. Letting them fall, she pulls him to her, wrapping her arms around his frame. He is there, really there, in her arms.
Death has released him from its grasp, giving him back to life. Giving him back to those who love him. Giving him back to her.
In her ear, he whispers, "I'm sorry."
"You don't have to be," she soothes, her fingers playing in the ends of his hair. "You don't have a single thing to be sorry for."
"I do. You have no idea how much i do, Elora."
She pulls away, concern tugging at her features, her hands already drifting back to his face, but she pauses. Her blood goes cold and her arms stop, lifted toward him, but not yet touching his skin. Her voice shakes while her heart breaks again, "Graydon?"
Face marred with wounds and boils, he stares back at her, expression open and mournful. The version of him that had just been in front of her is gone, replaced with a dangerously familiar one. The Lich. Maybe even... She doesn't dare let herself finish the thought. She can't bear the idea of losing him like this, so close, yet so far from salvation. Losing him to another possession, a worse puppeteer.
She can't lose him again. She can't.
She staggers back and her surroundings shift in her vision, turning from trees and lakes and nature to stone walls and glowing orange evil. He reaches for her, but she flinches away despite how much she longs for the contact. Her instincts are the only things keeping her from going to him.
"What happened to you?" she asks, failing to keep her voice steady.
His eyes drop to the ground and he repeats, "I'm sorry." Not once does he offer an answer to her question, instead he says, "Find me, please."
Her head spins, her mouth goes dry. She blinks, her brows pulled together. "What do you mean?"
"Find me," he says again, voice low and trembling.
Giving up on saving herself, she reaches out to grab his hand, but it fades from view. And before she can touch him one last time, he's gone. Again. The walls of stone around her begin to close in, trapping her in a tomb all her own. Pounding her fists against them, she screams for help, for anyone. For him. But he can't hear her and she doesn't know where he is.
A sob escapes her, followed by another, and another, until she is huddled on the ground encased in stone. The orange liquid bubbles somewhere to her right and she squeezes her eyes shut, unwilling to watch her own death.
"Elora," her name comes from somewhere and she tries to look for the source, but everything is dark.
"Graydon?"
"Elora!" she shakes and shakes, her eyes open wider, soaking in the darkness. Except, she blinks, and it's not pitch black anymore. The night sky sits above her, trees all around. Blinking again, she looks to her side and sees a panicked Jade. "Elora, are you alright? You were mumbling something in your sleep."
"Oh," she pushes herself up on her elbows and nods, her heart beating out two words in quiet repetition, 'Find me.' Swallowing the desperation to understand, she forces a smile, ignoring the tears drying on her cheeks. "It was just a bad dream. I'm okay now."
Jade doesn't look away for a moment, but she doesn't say anything else either. And after a few seconds, she nods once and goes back to where Kit is sleeping, settling down next to her.
Time ticks by and Elora stares at the stars. Once she's certain everyone is asleep, she whispers to them, making the stars her witness, making them accountable for her promise, "I'll find you, Graydon. No matter what, I will find you."
And she may have lied to Jade, but she won't lie to the stars. She won't lie to him.