Chapter 10
Ten
Kira
Kira patted the back of the girl’s hand, laying it in her lap before signaling the others with her eyes and stepping away.
“I’ll stay with her,” Elodie volunteered.
As she moved a short distance away with Quillon and Raider, Kira noticed several of the children watching them surreptitiously.
Smart little tykes.
They’d let the eldest test the water to see how things went.
Kira wouldn’t be surprised if Elodie and the team saw a difference in their behavior going forward.
“Kira,” Raider growled, shooting her a look out of the corner of his eye.
“Hush.”
Raider reacted like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on. “Just who do you think you’re hushing?”
“A big, dumb idiot.”
“If I’m an idiot, what does that make you?”
The queen of idiots.
“Don’t you think we should talk about this?” Raider demanded.
What a dumb question. Obviously, she didn’t. Otherwise, they’d be discussing it already.
“How did she even know?” Raider hissed.
“Quillon already explained that. She’s telepathic or empathic or whatever.”
While they were talking, one of the children broke away from the pack. The youngest. A girl with unruly blonde hair, wide set eyes and a pixie chin.
She came right up to Kira and placed a stone in her hand.
Kira squatted to bring herself to eye level and smiled gently at the girl. “What’s this?”
To her shock, she realized she was holding a yellow sapphire that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to shape and polish into the amazing specimen that it was. For a moment, Kira was transfixed by its sparkle. The shimmering light and glittering depths.
The girl gave Kira a closed mouth smile, pointing to the sapphire and then herself.
“Your name? This represents your name?” Kira asked.
The girl dipped her chin in a yes.
Kira looked from the stone back to the girl. “Sapphire?”
The girl pouted.
“I take it that face means no.”
Kira considered the sapphire, running through several options. Yellow didn’t feel right.
Maybe Goldie?
No. That wasn’t it either.
A moment later, it came to Kira. “Gem.”
The wide smile that lit Gem’s face told Kira she’d guessed right.
Kira dropped the sapphire back into the girl’s waiting hand. “Gem, it is.”
Gem’s giggle was a thing of beauty as she darted back to join the rest of the children.
“Do we want to know where she got a sapphire that size?” Raider asked as Kira rose.
“In cases like these, I’ve found it’s better not to ask too many questions.”
Even if Kira found out that Gem had appropriated that sapphire from its rightful owner, it wasn’t like she had any intention of returning it.
“What promise was she talking about?” Quillon asked.
Kira sent Raider a look that said, “see what you did?”
He folded his arms and glared right back.
“I’m not sure,” Kira told Quillon. “Could be anything.”
Raider’s soft snort had her curling her fingers into a fist. What she wouldn’t give to be able to kick him right now.
Quillon’s glance was probing. “Is that right?”
“It is.”
Technically, Raider and she were only guessing as to what “promise” the girl was referencing.
“I’m going to let this go since neither of you seem willing to share,” Quillon explained, his expression making it clear that he knew they were lying. “But I expect to be informed if this matter threatens to affect the children.”
“It won’t,” Kira promised.
“You hope,” Raider muttered.
Kira glared at her friend. “It won’t.”
“Yes, because things always work out the way you want, Nixxy.”
With that, Raider stalked off, leaving Kira rubbing her temple and wishing the pain there would go away.
“Another headache?” Quillon seemed concerned. “You’ve been getting a lot of those.”
Kira dropped her hand. “It’s nothing.
“Are you still having those dreams?”
Kira looked away, avoiding the question.
Quillon’s sigh was filled with frustration. “One of these days you’re going to learn I’m not the enemy.”
“I never thought you were.”
Otherwise, she would never have let him examine her.
“You’re as stubborn as your uncle. And sometimes just as blind as him.” There was resignation on Quillon’s face before he mercifully changed the subject. “I assume your next stop will be to check on Elise.”
Kira didn’t know about that. She had a lot of unresolved issues with her friend, and she wasn’t sure if now was the time to address them.
And yet, the thought of walking away was like a dagger in the heart.
Agonizing.
“How is she?” Kira asked in a low voice.
“Confused.” Quillon gave her an encouraging look. “A friendly face might be helpful right now.”
Kira nodded. “I can be that.”
Later, there could be a reckoning. For now, she would simply be happy her friend was awake and part of the world again.
“Looking for someone?” Quillon inquired as Kira’s gaze wandered in search of the other person she’d originally come here to see.
Not finding the general’s distinctive silhouette amongst the children, Kira’s attention shot back to Quillon.
The expectant look on his face made her feel guilty even as she shook her head. “Nope.”
No one but those present at the time knew about the promise she’d made Aeron, the general she’d broken out of prison.
Kira wanted to keep it that way.
She knew what would happen when they found out. There would be questions and demands that she rethink her course of action. Since she had no intention of going back on her word, she’d prefer to avoid all that.
Raider might not approve, but he wouldn’t intervene either. Not unless he saw things going south.
Moreover, Kira had had time to think since promising Aeron that she’d free his people’s children from Tsavitee control, or die trying, and she’d decided that this felt right. A natural progression to what she was already doing.
There was disappointment on Quillon’s face at her answer but he didn’t push. “She’s outside. I’ll take you to her.”
Kira shivered as she stepped onto the rocky outcrop that served as the children’s outdoor space.
The Tuann-made platform, its surface flat and smooth enough to walk across unobstructed, blended with the natural cliff formations around it.
Located meters above the ocean, she could feel the spray of its waves as it crashed against the coastline.
Wind buffeting her, Kira held her hair out of her face with one hand as she scanned the outcrop for Elise, finding her at the very edge, entranced by the ocean waves.
The boy Kira had been looking for earlier was next to her.
The Tuann clothes he wore couldn’t hide his otherness. His skin was a shade of graphite gray, different than the others of his kind, who trended toward the dark black of the void. A set of runes ran down the side of his face. He was young. Maybe a few years older than Elena.
Kira scanned the rest of the platform for the oshota she knew had to be standing by. She found Auralyn not far away, her gaze locked on the two figures at the edge of the platform.
“She looks lost,” Kira observed.
“You’re not wrong.” Auralyn studied Elise as the other woman held her hand out to catch a drop of water. “There seem to be some gaps in her memory that Quillon thinks may be a side effect of what the Osiri did to make her sleep.”
“She’s probably lying,” Kira remarked.
“For what purpose?”
A bitter smile touched Kira’s lips as she glanced at Auralyn. “I can think of many reasons to fake a bout of amnesia.”
Everything from dodging responsibility for what she’d done to gathering information on her new set of circumstances. This was what the forty-three had been trained in. Going deep behind enemy lines and fooling them into thinking they were one of them.
Amnesia was a convenient way to reset the board and throw off her caregivers.
Or maybe Kira was being too hard on Elise and she really didn’t remember.
Auralyn didn’t seem bothered by Kira’s suspicions. “Whatever the truth, it will reveal itself soon enough.” The oshota gave Kira a tiny smile that warmed her eyes. “I’m glad you were able to successfully return from your incarceration.”
Kira held up the arm with the cuff. “I managed to bring back a souvenir.”
Auralyn shifted to fully face her, examining the cuff with interest before running a finger lightly along its surface. “What a horrible device. I’m surprised you let them put it on you.”
“It seemed easier than starting a fight.” Kira lowered her arm, rolling her sleeve down to cover the cuff before nodding at Wren. He stood a couple feet away from Elise and the general. As close as possible without crowding them. “How’s he doing?”
“He’s managing.” Auralyn glanced at Kira out of the corner of her eye. “But that’s not what you really want to know.”
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.