Kira’s response stalled in her throat as she caught the knowing look on Auralyn’s face.Her halfhearted smile turned rueful.“No, I suppose not.”
“Delaying won’t fix what’s broken.Only communication can do that.”
“I’m afraid,” Kira confessed.
Her feelings toward Elise were—complicated.
There was love, yes.A lot of it.So much that it sometimes hurt.Elise was the sister of her heart.Kira didn’t think that would ever change.
But there was also anger.
Elise had made choices that couldn’t be taken back.She’d betrayed Kira.Not just once or twice but over and over again.Every time she’d had the opportunity to let Kira know she was alive and semi-well but hadn’t.
One message.That’s all it would have taken.
So much of this could have been avoided.Maybe Kira and Jin could have helped rescue these children sooner.Given them an actual childhood.
Then Elena was taken and everything changed once again.Suddenly, Kira saw the Elise that had been her best friend.One every bit as vital and important to her as Jin.Elise stepped up to protect her daughter.Just the way any mother would.
“You’re not ready to let go of the version of her you used to know,” Auralyn guessed, voicing Kira’s truth with an ease that should have been startling but somehow fit with the oshota she’d come to know.
“No, I guess not,” Kira admitted.
“People change.They break.They adapt.They become something new.”Auralyn touched the spot where her arm had once been with a poignant look on her face.“Learning to accept that—or not—is an inescapable part of life.”
And the only way to do that was to have the conversation.
“There’s nothing to say it all needs to happen at once.The years are long.Plenty of time to rebuild what was destroyed,” Auralyn added.
Wise words.
Kira should remember them for future times when the walls felt like they were caving in.
Auralyn nudged Kira.“While you’re out there, be sure to send your seon’yer on his way.His lurking is irritating me.”
Marching across the platform, Kira avoided the puddles of water from the ocean spray, careful not to slip on the slick stone.
Too soon she was steps away.The reunion she’d both dreaded and anticipated for over a decade looming large in front of her.
And still, she had no idea what she was supposed to say.
In the periphery of her vision, she saw Wren silently excuse himself to give them privacy.He grabbed Fyr on his way by.
The general bristled, baring sharp canines.
Wren cut him a simple glance that had Fyr closing his lips over those sharp teeth of his.But not before he shot Kira a fierce look.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“Later.”
He looked like he wanted to argue, but another quick warning glance from Wren shut him up before he was dragged away.
The silence was stifling as Kira took Fyr’s place beside Elise.
They listened to the crashing waves.The sound oddly mesmerizing.
In the end, Elise broke first.
