**Chapter 15 – First Day back of Sophomore Year (The Day After He Came Home)**
**Monday, November 31 – 7:03 a.m. – Lakeside High parking lot**
The second I step off Crimson Fang (titanium deck still gleaming), I feel every pair of eyes snap to me.
I grew six inches over the summer.
Six.
I'm six-foot-even now, long legs in baggy black cargo jeans, wearing the exact same black coyote-pack hoodie Remy left me in June.
It used to swallow me whole.
Now it fits like it was tailored: sleeves to my wrists, hem brushing mid-thigh, still drowning in his scent because I never washed it once.
And then there's Remy.
He unfolds himself from the passenger side of Calder's truck and every conversation in the parking lot just… stops.
Six months of Colorado mountain training turned my boyfriend into a weapon.
Broad shoulders that weren't there before, arms thick with new muscle under his leather jacket, jaw sharper, hair longer and wilder.
He's 6'2" now, maybe 6'3", and when he spots me his whole face breaks open.
**Remy (voice deeper than I remember):**
"Holy hell, Vale."
He crosses the lot in four strides, lifts me clean off the ground like I weigh nothing, and just stares.
**Remy (quiet, only for me):**
"You're taller."
**Celeste (laughing into his neck):**
"You're huge."
**Remy (grinning against my hair):**
"Still fits, though."
He tugs the sleeve of the hoodie I'm wearing—his hoodie.
I never gave it back.
He never asked for it.
**Seras (wolf-whistling from her bike):**
"Get a room, giants!"
**Brittany (filming on her phone, smirking):**
"Internet's gonna love this reunion."
**Noah (grinning beside Brittany, hand in hers):**
"Told you the hoodie would still look better on her."
Remy sets me down but keeps one arm locked around my waist like he's scared I'll vanish again.
**Remy (eyes tracing every new inch of me):**
"Six feet and still wearing my clothes.
I'm never surviving this year."
**Celeste (fangs peeking when I smile):**
"Good. Suffer with me."
The first bell rings.
He laces his fingers through mine—his hand completely swallows mine now—and we walk into Lakeside High together.
Sophomores.
Taller.
Stronger.
Still messy.
Still forever.
**Crown HUD (soft ping in the corner of my vision):**
```
Remy Tsatoke – Sync: 118%
Height difference: 2.5 inches
Status: He grew into the alpha. You grew into the queen.
Quest "Winterglass Mirror" – Departure countdown: 4 days
```
I squeeze his hand once.
Six months apart made us giants.
Six days until Romania.
Let the new school year try to keep up.
The first time Remy sees what I became while he was gone is Thursday after school, in the empty PE field behind the gym.
Everyone else has gone home.
Just us, the frost-rimed grass, and the low winter sun.
I step back ten paces, roll my shoulders, and let the Crown fully manifest for the first time since June.
The invisible circlet burns cold across my brow, the bloodstone flaring ruby-red.
My Hellebore Blade 2.0 materializes in my right hand, longer now, edge flickering with violet-white lightning that smells like ozone and blood.
**Remy (eyes wide, voice low):**
"Celeste… what the hell did you do all summer?"
**Celeste (quiet, almost shy):**
"Trained. Every single night.
Dacia and Elowene stopped holding back.
They said if I was going to wait six months for my coyote, I'd better be worth coming home to."
I raise the katana.
A perfect circle of crimson runes ignites in the air around me, spinning, interlocking, humming with power.
Lightning forks from the sky, threads through the runes, and fuses with the blade until the whole thing is wrapped in living scarlet electricity.
**Blood Lightning** (my voice, but layered with Dacia's ancient timbre):
"Arcs of the First Blood, obey."
I slash once.
A whip of crimson lightning tears across the field, carving a ten-foot trench in the frozen ground and leaving glassed earth behind.
The smell of burnt iron and petrichor hangs heavy.
Remy doesn't flinch.
He just stares like he's looking at a goddess and a girl he's been in love with since she healed that bird at the same time.
**Remy (hoarse):**
"You're terrifying."
**Celeste (letting the blade dissolve into red mist, stepping closer):**
"I had to be.
So nothing could ever take you from me again."
He closes the distance in two strides, cups my face with hands that are bigger and rougher than they were in May, and kisses me like the world is ending and beginning at once.
When we break apart, his amber eyes are glowing coyote-gold.
**Remy:**
"Show me again tomorrow.
And every day after.
I trained to be an alpha.
You trained to be a storm.
We're gonna be unstoppable."
I rest my forehead against his, feeling the locket thump between us, two heartbeats and one storm.
**Celeste (whispering):**
"Four days until Maramureș.
Winterglass Mirror won't know what hit it."
**Crown HUD (quiet, proud):**
```
Title Earned: Blood Lightning Sovereign
New Affinity: Runic Stormcraft (Master tier)
Active Skill: "Crimson Tempest" – 30-meter AOE blood-lightning strike, 1/day
Passive: "Storm Queen's Presence" – Allies within 50 m gain +25% courage, enemies -15%
Sync with Remy Tsatoke:122% and climbing
```
I smile, fangs sharp, lightning still crackling faintly around my ponytail ties.
Six months apart turned me into thunder.
Now my coyote's home, and the sky is ours.
Saturday Morning, Sparks & Cinnamon**
**Saturday, 7:28 a.m. – My bedroom**
I wake up to the smell of cedar and ozone still clinging to my skin.
The lightning scars that used to crawl up my left arm like pale ivy are gone. Completely.
Only smooth skin and a faint shimmer of residual blood-lightning under the surface.
Healing mastery unlocked, apparently.
Dacia's voice, sleepy in the back of my head:
*"A queen who commands storms must also command life."*
I roll out of bed, stretch until my spine pops, and grin at the mirror.
Six feet tall.
White-blonde hair in high twin tails that swing like silk ropes.
Ruby eyes bright, fangs peeking when I smile.
Outfit of the day:
- Brand-new Lakeside Rams hoodie (oversized, dark blue with gold lettering)
- Baggy black cargo jeans, rolled once at the ankle
- Fresh light-pink Vans, still pristine
- The locket, the coyote pendant from Colorado, and the tiny carved pine charm Remy mailed me in July all layered on the same chain
I grab the titanium board, kiss the hellebore sticker on the nose, and I'm out the window before Mom can yell about breakfast.
**7:41 a.m. – Dam turnout (empty, golden light)**
The air is crisp enough to bite.
I drop in.
Switch heelflip the three-stair → clean.
No-comply impossible over the picnic table → cleaner.
I add a little flourish this time: crimson lightning crackles along the trucks, leaving glowing after-images in the air like red neon.
I land it so smooth the board doesn't even rattle.
**Seras (voice echoing from the top of the dam):**
"Show-off!"
She's up there in a cropped red flannel and black leggings, arms raised, maple-red flames spiraling around her wrists like living bracelets.
Her mom's training shows: the fire doesn't flicker anymore; it dances, controlled, deadly, beautiful.
**Seras (grinning):**
"Race you to the cedar?"
We bomb the hill side by side: lightning on my left, fire on her right.
The valley wakes up to thunder and flame.
**8:07 a.m. – Kitchen, Morau house**
I slide in through the back door laughing, cheeks wind-burned, twin tails messy.
Mom's at the stove flipping pances.
Dad's nursing coffee and reading deployment emails.
**Mom (without turning):**
"Feet off the table, storm girl."
**Dad (glancing up, doing a double-take):**
"Jesus, kid. When did you get taller than your mother?"
**Celeste (stealing a pancake straight from the pan):**
"Somewhere between blood runes and missing my boyfriend.
Speaking of: Remy's back. As of Thursday."
Mom finally turns, spatula in hand, eyes soft.
**Mom:**
"And how is our favorite coyote?"
I can't stop the stupid, happy grin.
I pull my phone out to show them the lock screen Seras snapped yesterday: Remy and me in the PE field, mid-kiss, my arms around his neck, his hands in my twin tails, lightning and coyote-gold eyes glowing.
Dad actually whistles.
**Dad:**
"That's going on the fridge."
**Mom (teasing):**
"Print it wallet-size so I can show my coworkers why my daughter is late to everything now."
I laugh so hard I almost choke on pancake.
Outside the window, the cedar leaves rustle like Elowene's clapping again.
One day until Romania.
One whole weekend with my family, my storm, my fire girl, and my coyote.
Life's pretty perfect right now.
I steal another pancake and head for the door.
**Celeste (calling over my shoulder):**
"Tell Remy breakfast is at ten. He's family—he doesn't get to sleep in anymore."
The locket thumps: two heartbeats, plus the valley's third, loud and proud.
Time to go pick up my forever.
Saturday Morning,
Remy Tsatoke
**Saturday, 7:03 a.m. – Calder pack house, my old room**
I wake up reaching for her before my eyes even open.
Muscle memory from six months of an empty bed.
She's not here.
But her scent is everywhere: cedar smoke, cherry lip balm, and the ozone tang of fresh lightning.
It's soaked into my sheets, my hoodie she stole, the air itself.
I grin like an idiot into the pillow.
The locket she gave me back is warm against my chest.
Two heartbeats: mine and hers, finally in the same zip code again.
I roll out of bed, stretch until every new muscle pops.
Six months of Colorado turned me into something my fourteen-year-old self wouldn't recognize:
6'3", shoulders broad enough that my old leather jacket barely zips, new scars across my knuckles shaped like coyote claws and pine bark.
I pull on gray sweatpants and the black hoodie she asked for last night (the one that still smells like me from before I left).
I left it folded on my desk.
She broke in through the window at some point and stole it again.
Of course she did.
**7:19 a.m. – Kitchen**
Calder (my uncle, the current alpha) is at the table reading pack reports.
He looks up, does a double-take.
**Calder (gruff, trying to hide proud):**
"Kid, you filled out. Good. You'll need it."
**Remy (shrugging, pouring coffee):**
"Colorado was brutal.
But I kept thinking: if I'm gonna stand next to a six-foot storm queen, I'd better not look like a twig."
He snorts into his mug.
**7:34 a.m. – Front porch**
I'm leaning on the railing, coffee steaming in the cold, when I feel it:
A low roll of thunder that has nothing to do with weather.
Then I see her.
Celeste bombs down the dam road on her titanium board, twin tails flying like white banners, lightning crackling along the wheels in perfect rhythm with her heartbeat.
Seras is right beside her, maple fire spiraling off her board in controlled rings.
They hit the turnout at the bottom, ollie the curb in perfect sync, and coast straight toward the pack house like they own the valley.
They do.
Celeste spots me and her whole face lights up: ruby eyes glowing, fangs flashing in that wild grin I dreamed about for six straight months.
She kicks the board up into her hand and walks the last ten feet.
**Celeste (breathless, cheeks pink from cold):**
"Morning, coyote boy.
Mom says breakfast at ten. You're required to attend."
I set my coffee down, step off the porch, and meet her halfway.
**Remy (voice rough from sleep and want):**
"Missed waking up to you."
**Celeste (soft, stepping into my arms):**
"Never again."
I kiss her right there in front of the entire pack house like I've been starving for it.
Because I have.
Seras pretends to gag, but she's smiling.
The locket between us thumps so hard it's practically a drum solo.
**Remy (murmuring against her lips):**
One day until Romania."
**Celeste (fangs grazing my lower lip):**
"Then forever after that."
I pick her up (easy now) and spin her once just to hear her laugh ring across the valley.
Six months apart turned us into giants.
Now the giants are home.
And I'm never leaving this storm again.