It is what it is.
Tears pricked at her eyes, and she blinked them away in frustration.
Of all the things to cry about, my appearance is at the bottom of the list. We’re alive. Be grateful.
When the trees became so thick they were all she could see, the train slowed and pulled into a small station. After this, it would continue to Evory, Clair de Lune’s eastern neighbor. It would’ve been one of Scarlett’s stops on her trip abroad. Maybe someday she’d make it there.
“Right.” Beni stood. “I’ll put the bags on the platform and come back to help you.”
“Thank you, Beni,” said Manon.
Rising, Scarlett helped Manon out of her seat and into her wheelchair. She leaned heavily on Manon’s chair as they made their way to the door. Tapping her foot impatiently, Scarlett waited with Manon as a staff member lowered the wheelchair ramp onto the platform while Beni stood next to him.
Scarlett searched the platform for border control. “He’ll get through with us, right?” she whispered.
Manon hesitated, then she nodded. Her hesitation was enough to make Scarlett tense.
When the ramp was down, Beni helped them disembark, distracting Scarlett from her momentary anxiety. Then she was hit with the beautiful scent of the trees. Soleil smelled like summer year-round. The sometimes sweaty heat could be too much, though she enjoyed it when they were at the beach. This smell was better, fresher. The damp soil, the dewy raindrops coating all the plants, and the oxygen flooded her lungs.
Scarlett looked around, enthralled.
For a train station, it was quite ornate, built with old stonework. The arched windows were made of stained glass, and an enormous vintage clock was fixed to the wall, near the platform’s high ceiling. One clerk at the turnstile glanced at tickets and passports. Manon handed him all their documents, and to Scarlett’s surprise, he didn’t even ask about Beni, the only one without a Clair de Lune passport.
Scarlett smiled as they exited. “That wasn’t hard at all.” She’d seen the walled-off space for passport checks in the Soleil train station, and it was a lot more intense than what they’d just passed through.
“I told you, getting into Soleil is much harder than getting into any of the other countries on the continent,” said Manon, hertone confident again now they’d gotten Beni through. “No one else is as obsessed with keeping people out.”
They went through the turnstile, and Scarlett’s heart leaped when she spotted Brayden and James waiting for them farther down the platform. She waved, catching James’s attention. He pointed, and Brayden’s head swiveled, finding her. His face came alive at the sight of her, and she beamed at him.
“You’re here!” he said, crossing the platform.
“I’m here.” She hobbled toward him.
The pull to him was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She’d barely formed the thought when Brayden closed the distance between them and wrapped her in an all-consuming hug. Scarlett dropped her cane and threw her arms around his neck, breathing him in. He smelled fresh, like the forest. His hard body pressed against hers, warming her. The scratchy stubble of his face rubbed against her cheek. She never wanted to let him go.
But then the contact was over.
He set her down, his hands lingering at her waist before dropping to his sides. He picked up her cane and handed it to her, giving her a smile that was familiar and yet devastatingly different.
Scarlett drank him in. There was a little bit of dissonance as her brain replaced some imagined aspects of him with reality. They’d been viewing each other through a mirror for over ten years, and now he was right here in front of her.
“Look at you,” she said.
Brayden was bloody huge in person and at least six feet tall. She realized with a jolt he’d seemed shorter because of the way the mirror was hung in Lachlan’s office. His fitted T-shirt showed off the body he worked so hard to maintain.
She was dying to run her hands over his chest, butthaturge was wildly inappropriate. In her mind they’d done everythingtogether, but in real life they were still just friends. For now.
Brayden’s eyes glimmered with amusement as she pored over him until, with an embarrassed grin, she forced herself to turn away and greet James.
“Thank you for coming to get us.” She gave James an arms-only hug.
“Of course,” he said, his voice bright. He resembled Brayden, but his lighter brown hair was shorter. He had a narrower—albeit still quite handsome—face that was dominated by thick, dark brown eyebrows. Scarlett had glimpsed him many times in passing over the years, but they hadn’t spoken much. He had a runner’s build, whereas Brayden, despite all the running Scarlett knew he did, looked like he spent all his time lifting heavy weights, wrestling, and maybe even throwing big rocks around a field for fun.
Scarlett reached for Beni, who hung back. “Beni, you already know Brayden. This is his brother, James.”
James waved. “Welcome to Clair.”
“Nice to meet you, James,” said Beni. Then he approached Brayden. “Thanks for helping me save my sister.”
