"What is this about?" Kira asked, struggling to avoid the sense of frustration she always got when dealing with one of the forty-three.
Once, they had been as close as brothers and sisters. Bonded and forged in the same fire. It should have given them common ground.
Instead, Kira couldn't help but feel she was out of step with them anytime their paths crossed. Her reaction to events was always different than theirs. It wasn't easy feeling like an outcast even among the people she should have been closest to.
The Curs had filled that void, providing for a short time the family and sense of solidarity she needed until they too were gone.
"Did you tell him?" Selene asked, coming to a stop at the edge of a small pond, a set of wide, flat stones emerging from its surface to provide a path across.
"I didn't have to. Elena so helpfully delivered the message you and the rest entrusted her with." There was a bite in Kira's tone.
She still wasn't happy about that fact. Bad enough the rest came out of hiding once in a blue moon to make demands on Kira, but she'd be damned if they did the same to her niece.
A heavy sigh came from under the veil. "I was afraid that was what happened."
"You're supposed to keep her safe from that shit," Kira snapped. "She's not a pawn for them to use in their giant game of chess. I thought you understood that."
"You assume your niece is willing to sit safely on the sidelines. She's no more likely to be controlled than you or the youngest." Amusement touched the woman's voice. "Speaking of—where is the youngest."
"Around."
Kira couldn't be quite sure where. It'd been a while since she last saw Jin. Likely, he'd seen something interesting and gone to investigate.
"You've changed," Selene observed.
"People have a way of doing that."
Selene stopped and faced Kira. "Other people. Not you. You've always been fairly consistent. Time was you would never have allowed one of their dogs to watch your every move."
Kira carefully controlled her reaction to that statement. "It's nice having someone to watch my back for a change."
She knew her small dig had landed when the other woman looked away and silence built between them.
Yeah. She thought that might sting.
The forty-three didn't have a lot of ground to cast stones. Kira remembered approaching them and begging them for help after she'd learned Elise's fate.
Never once during the war did she ask for their help. Not when the Consortium was losing. Not when she realized that every use of the burst brought her one step closer to death.
She'd made a deal. She'd honor it.
They had no love for humanity, and Kira understood why. Humanity hadn't done anything for them. Throw in the fact there'd been several humans amid the Tuann and the Tsavitee in that place who were only too happy to hurt them, and it was easy to see why they wanted to exist apart.
When she realized the Tsavitee had Elise, she'd gone to them, thinking this was different. Elise was one of their own in a way she and Jin could never be.
She'd thought this time, they'd help.
Only they hadn't helped. They’d turned her away, leaving Elise in hell and Kira to struggle alone.
"Kira." There was a wealth of guilt and regret in that one statement.
Kira relented. "I know."
Selene was one of the few who’d disapproved of the verdict, but she had demands on her that couldn't be shirked. Too many small lives counted on her for protection for her to abandon them for any reason.
"How are the children?" Kira asked, extending a small olive branch. "Tommy and Grace look good."
A small huff came. Thin hands came up to part the veil, tucking it on top of the parasol’s brim. The heart-shaped face she revealed was a study in perfection, its beauty heightened by the fairy tale-esque setting. Deep, dark eyes that held a serene wisdom peered into Kira's. Over one shoulder a loose braid draped almost to Selene’s waist.
