Chapter 6 A New Adventure #2
Aoife turned back to Ember and gave her a kiss on the head, lingering like she didn’t truly want to pull away. “I’ll be back soon,” she promised.
“I’ll see you Friday, Mum.” Ember smiled. She didn’t want to let go, afraid that if she took her eyes off her she would disappear again.
“I’ll be here, Mo Stór,” Aoife whispered, “I promise.” She gave her one last hug and waved to the Kitts and Thea as she slipped out the door and into the darkness.
“I suppose you won’t be needing that meeting tonight,” Thea said with an awkward chuckle, but no one else laughed.
“Well,” Eira breathed, “I think takeaway is in order tonight. Are you hungry, Thea?”
“Starved.” She nodded.
Otto bobbed his head as he took a shaky breath. “I’ll run to Florin’s,” was all he said before walking to the closet and slipping out the door. Eira smiled at Ember and squeezed her hand.
“Go start packing,” she whispered to Ember. “We’ll eat when your da… when Otto gets back.”
Before Ember could turn around, Fen was racing out of the room and up the steps. After a few moments, she heard his door slam closed, and Ember’s heart sank.
Eira sighed as she took a breath. “He’ll be okay, love.”
The faraway look in her eyes told Ember she wasn’t only talking about Fen.
Ember took a shaky breath and gave her a half smile. “I’ll go talk to him.”
She steadied herself against the railing of the stairs as she climbed, counting down from ten to try and slow her breathing.
She was excited, thrilled to be going home with her mother, but something deep in her chest ached for the life she had built that she was now leaving behind.
She knocked gently on the door as she gripped the pendant swinging around her neck.
“It’s open,” Fen said quietly from the other side, his voice sounding small and hoarse. The door creaked open, and Ember stepped in, shutting it quietly behind her. Fen was sitting cross legged on his bed, twiddling his thumbs, eyes red and puffy as he sniffed and rubbed his arm across his cheek.
“So, I guess this is it.” He sniffed as he pulled his sleeves down over his hands. “You’re leaving.”
Ember sat on the bed beside Fen and grabbed his hand. “Hey,” she whispered, “I’m not moving off the island. We’ll still see each other every day.”
“But you won’t be down the hall anymore.” He sniffed as moisture built on his lower lash. “You won’t sit across from me at the breakfast table or fly in the orchards with me before supper.” He took a shaky breath and shook his head. “Everything is about to change.”
Ember squeezed his hand tightly. “This won’t change anything other than our sleeping arrangement.” She smiled.
“You promise?” He looked up at her expectantly. The grief in his eyes was palpable. Ember was getting her family back; she was gaining something incredible that she had only ever dreamed of…
But Fen was losing his sister, and her heart ached.
“I swear it,” she whispered, as she held tight to his hand.
Fen let out a sigh as he ran his fingers through his messy hair. “I don’t like change.”
Ember shrugged as she dropped his hand and leaned back on her elbows. “Then, we don’t let anything change.”
The family spent their evening together around the fire in the living room eating curry chips and reminiscing on the last year.
Maeve held tightly to Ember’s arm as she snuggled into her shoulder.
Ember relaxed into the couch as she laughed along with Fen’s retelling of their final Rukr game last season, which ended with Killian in the mud and Fen somehow upside down on his board.
“Ember!” Maeve squeaked, as she bounced on her knees, “this weekend, can we ride in the orchard?”
Ember’s heart sank as she looked at the girls’ expectant smile.
That summer, after receiving her own AirWave, she had been helping Maeve learn to ride.
She would hover a foot off the ground, gripping Ember’s hands as she squealed.
The board didn’t move fast, and she didn’t go very high, but it was thrilling for the little one, nonetheless, and Ember had come to love spending time with her in the sinking summer sun.
“Maevie,” Ember breathed, “I’m leaving Friday. I’m sorry.”
The little girl furrowed her brow as she crossed her legs on the couch. “When will you be back?”
Ember sucked in a breath and turned to Eira and Otto, each bearing expressions that she couldn’t quite place.
“Maevie, love,” Eira said quietly, “Ember is moving home.”
Maeve’s bottom lip trembled. “But this is Ember’s home,” she whispered.
Ember closed her eyes as she bit her bottom lip. Tears threatened to spill over as she took slow, steady breaths.
“Mo Chroí,” Otto said gently, as he knelt beside the teary-eyed girl, “Ember is going to live with her mum now. She’s going back to her home with her family.”
Maeve shook her head furiously. “We are her family,” she argued, as tears pooled on the bottoms of her lashes. “Ember lives here with us. They can’t take her.”
Fen rolled his eyes. “No one is taking her, Maevie. How would you like it if someone kept you from Mum and Dad?”
Maeve crossed her arms over her chest. “I wouldn’t like it,” she mumbled.
“And we would miss you very much,” Otto whispered. “That’s how Ember’s mum feels. She’s been searching for her for ten years, longer than you’ve been alive, and she deserves to have her daughter back with her.”
“But why does that mean I have to lose my sister,” she whispered.
Ember wrapped her arms around the little girl and held her tight, running her hand down her hair. “You’re not losing me, Maevie,” she whispered. “Not now, and not ever.”
“You’ll come back, won’t you?” Fen asked, as he twiddled his thumbs on the floor in front of her. “Come fly in the orchard on the weekends?”
Ember grinned as she kicked his knee playfully. “Wild draics couldn’t keep me away.”
Light filtered through Ember’s bedroom window, bathing the wood floor in what was left of the slowly setting sun.
She was busying herself with packing her suitcase, meticulously checking each drawer in her dresser to make sure she had everything tucked away to take with her.
She smiled as she pulled one of Maeve’s drawings off the mirror above her dresser, laughing as the stick figure of a curly headed girl came to life and floated across the page, chasing chickens and donkeys through a wind whipped pasture.
Ember folded it gently and tucked it inside her messenger bag to hang it in her new room.
Her heart sank, stomach coiling into knots as she walked around the warm room.
She perched on the edge of the bed, eying the packed bags sitting by the door, and took a shaky breath.
This had been her first true home since she had been placed in the foster system—the first place she had ever felt welcome.
These walls had seen more love in the last year than any of the houses she had been in combined since her sixth birthday.
She clutched the blankets on her bed, rubbing them between her fingers as she chewed her lip.
“Bittersweet, isn’t it?” a voice rang from the doorway.
Ember wiped away the silent tear sliding down her face as Eira walked into the room and sat on the bed beside her. “It is.” Ember gave a half smile as she nodded.
“You’re allowed to be excited.” Eira smiled as she tucked a stray piece of hair behind Ember’s ear. “You don’t have to keep it tucked away to save our feelings.”
“It’s so strange,” Ember breathed, as tears pooled at the corner of her eyes. “I gave up dreaming of seeing them again before I even turned seven. I never would’ve imagined she would show up at my front door. It’s all so…”
“Overwhelming?” Eira breathed with a laugh.
“Very.” Ember shook her head with a smile. “You’ve all been so kind to me. You treated me like a daughter. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you for what you’ve done for me.”
“We did for you what we would’ve done for any of our children.
” Eira smiled as her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
“No matter where you go, you will always be family, and we will always consider you a daughter. Nothing could change that. We are so thankful for the time we got with you. Now get some rest.”
Eira hugged Ember tightly and walked out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her. Ember took a shuddering breath as she changed into her pajamas and slid beneath the sheets, wrapping herself tightly in the heavy quilt.
Her life was about to change forever. This was a moment she hadn’t even let herself dream of, let alone think of how it could feel.
Joy and grief thrashed in her chest like a tsunami, beating against her ribs and swirling in her stomach.
Tomorrow, she would say goodbye to the home she had known for a year, the home that had saved her, and begin a new adventure.