What Now?

[Oriena]

The confession permeated quickly but with little reaction on her part. Truth was it was already written in every line of his body language so she had no reason to doubt or question it. She said nothing, just looked him over with a quick flick of the eyes. The horde was the heart of their connection, but also its mask, and without it Oriena was unsure she wanted to confront what was left. She knew the impact turning and walking out would have on him; the deep pain it would cause. And for a moment she did want to hurt him that way. Because he’d escaped in a way she couldn’t. Because the truth was he’d be better off without her now, and it was the easiest way to make the cut clean.

He had a houseful of misfits to return to. Family was everything Nox wanted. He craved that sunshine the same way he craved Rafael.

Her look darkened when he closed his mechanical hand around her throat, and she knew it was a promise – or perhaps just a desperate desire not to lose her. Nox knew her as well as she knew herself in some ways. But it wasn’t an invitation she’d take knowing his reasons for offering, and in the moment the gesture only reminded her of Sasha. The drug packet he’d left by her unconscious body was still stuffed in her pocket, and she’d always had a visceral dislike of that kind of transaction. The pitying kind.

“Everything changes eventually,” she said bluntly. “And it was getting old anyway.” She added the latter scathingly, though it lacked any true venom. She pushed down the wave of sudden tiredness inside, didn’t shove away his hand, in part because she imagined he’d let go himself, but also because she wasn’t sure what she’d do when he did. “It wasn’t the only thing you lost, I take it.”