Although we were 1599 miles away from my home county. It didn’t stop the shaking feeling that I was getting as I stepped off of the plane and into the city of Rio Grande, located in the state of Rio Grande Do Sul Brazil. This was the most important port city in the area, both for those that worshiped the light and those that worshiped the darkness. I had just as many bad memories of this city as I did being in Peru. After all there was one part of my story that I had kept hidden from Emily and the others, even my step parents. I had been sent to this port city, to be shipped on a boat after I met the man that had bought me as his lover.
I thought I was ready to be back in this city, but I was wrong.
I wish Daniel was here, cause I knew if he was here then I would be able to have someone I could break down to that night. My chest was rising and falling so quickly that it was becoming hard to breathe. Any and every man that walked past us in the airport made me silently tremble. I was worried that one of them that might remember me from nearly five years ago, might grab me and try to take me back. To punish me for leaving that night, for running all the way back to Peru, well rather than flying all the way back to Peru. I moved beside Emily trying to make small talk, lying about some places I might remember, I just wanted to keep them moving. I knew that as long as I was beside Emily I was gonna be safe, after all she had a dark side that I was so sure she was keeping hidden. A primal need that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, it was like she was a different person sometimes. However, she shared the same faith as me, she sees me as a sister not only in our jepei blood but as one in our relationship with our father in Heaven. I had never read the entire bible, but I did know that it was asked of us to protect other christians and keep them safe.
So regardless of what darkness she might have. She would protect me with her life, and I could only hope that I could find the strength to do the same.
I was more than grateful to climb in the back of the rental car that Emily had gotten us for the week. I had no idea that the girl could even drive until today. I mean to be fair on the island she probably either ran, jogged or rode on the back of Esther to get to and from place. Turns out that little wolf is not as little as I originally thought. A point that Emily pointed out before we left our hotel in New York. In her true form, Esther was about 5 feet tall and nearly 15 feet long in her wolf form, When she was in her more werewolf-like form, she was slightly taller than Emily, and her claws were like small daggers. “Esther likes being in her smaller forms better, besides it takes less aura for her to maintain the smaller forms.” That was the explanation that Emily had given us.
Now whether or not that's the truth I had no idea. She had held back information from us before about her little fight in New York. Even then I had no idea if that was the whole story, cause there was something she said that kept ringing in my head. “Did you think I just picked a fight for no reason?” Why would she say that? There was also that dark look that appeared on her face when we had been on a trip through central park.
I looked out of the review mirror as Emily was giving a reminder of the rules for our trip to Sarah, Bonnie and Esther. As well as probably telling them the consequences of breaking those rules. Personally I found it quite funny watching the three of them squirm in separate corners the other night. I felt a bit bad for Esther as she got a bit more firm punishment when we got off the plane today. But hey, as long as they behaved I was gonna be fine with them. PLus maybe the more she had to look after them, the more I could see her kindness and maybe that would be enough for me to stop worrying about the darkness that was around her.
She was kind and loving, and that is all that I could ask for.
Eventually the doors opened as the others hopped in, Esther being taken back inside of Emily’s wolf headed gemstone for probably a much needed nap. “Are you ready?” She questioned as she adjusted her seat and her mirrors. “I would suggest buckling up, cause it has been a bit since i drove a car.”
“Should we be worried?”
A bit of pinkess appeared on the girl’s cheeks. “Well last time I drove a car, I crashed my friend's truck and had to spend weeks working to get it repaired. But I have gotten much better since than.” As we pulled out into traffic she nearly hit another person on a motorcycle. “That was the only mistake, I promise.”
As we drove through the mostly empty streets of Rio Grande. I couldn’t help but stare out of the window for a few moments. I hadn’t gotten a chance to actually see the city proper, as the last time I was here. I was more focused on escaping what faith I was being thrown into. The buildings look older, I had faint memories of running across what many called the longest beach in the world. My feet slipping in the cold sand, the tight dress they had forced me into tearing with each stride I took. The feeling of adrenaline that raced through my body as I summoned my wings for the first time and flew. The pain that erupted in me when I ran out of aura and crashed into a small pond. Even then I just kept racing back, only stopping to take what I needed from places and eventually ended up on the top of Machu Picchu, back in Peru.
“It’s okay,” my closed eyes opened and I could see Fortune flying beside the car in her much smaller hawk-like form. Each beat of her wings filled the air with the light sound of thunder. “You are stronger, I am stronger, no one's gonna hurt us.” Fortune flew through the window and into my gemstone, filling my stomach with a sense of peace that I needed to get through the rest of this day. “I’m not going anywhere and I strong enough to do great things and worst things to those that want to hurt you.”
“I know,” I said, gripping my gemstone. “I just wish that Daniel was here, he knows more about me than these girls do.” I could see Fortune rolling her eyes as I said that. “Come on, Fortune just because he hurt me one time does not mean you have to hate him forever.”
“If you want them to understand, then tell them what you told him. At least they won’t abandon you for an entire day.”
“Fortune, it happened once.”
“It has happened three times since then.” I had no rebuttal for that. “For someone that loves you, he is terrible at showing it.”
“He is having a hard time.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.” That was all Fortune said before she faded deeper into my gemstone, probably to her netrix plain. A place where spirit animals could rest inside our gemstones, oftentimes making their own little world that they could explore while they rested.
“Are you okay?” I turned my head over to look at Emily who was controlling the wheel with one hand and the other one she held out towards me to hold.
“Y-Yeah,” I whispered as I held her hand a bit, giving it a tight squeeze. I opened my mouth to speak but quickly closed it once more. “Can we talk later?”
“Of course.”
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After a much needed nap, I woke up right as Emily and Sarah had returned from wherever they had gone. I didn't mean to fall asleep as soon as we got into the hotel, but planes stressed me out, and being back here was even worse. All I wanted was to sleep and I was glad my body obeyed me for once and let me sleep. The moon had long since set in the sky and I was grateful for the meal that they had gotten me. A truly great mix of seafood from the ocean located here. Sarah then had the amazing idea that we should go for a walk on the beach. A great idea to some, a midnight walk on the beach, but to me, it was gonna retrace my steps that I had I ran. If I could just retrace those steps and remind myself that I was gonna be okay, then I think I could maybe overcome these lasting chains.
Or at least start breaking a few of them off.
We had been walking for a good time now, and while our wild child ran off in front stopping every now and then to start building a sandcastle, only to run off again with Bonnie and Esther. I walked beside Emily taking a much slower pace, while to her it might seem like I was just enjoying my bare feet against the cold sand. In factuality I was retracing the steps that I remembered from when I ran down the beach. Each step sent a sea of sour memories slamming against my skull like waves hitting cliffs. I had been so desperate to leave, I had no idea what being a mistress meant, but even I at that moment had a feeling what that might mean. All I could do was keep running, to escape that fate, to escape my cage, and to never return again. However, here I was walking across this sand once more. Four years and ten months older, now armed with four years of martial arts training, an animal spirit that was the uncrowned queen of the skies. With a jepei aura that I could infuse with lighting and blows that struck like thunder.
Even thinking about all of that. It was only enough to ease my fears slightly. All of this new found strength and power, it meant nothing if I was too afraid to use it.
As I stared into the ocean that seemed to give us a perfect image of the low hanging moon. I spoke with Emily as she seemed to notice that I was still a bit scared. I tried my hardest to play it off, but she was annoyingly perceptive when something was wrong. “I just need one more day, and I will be fine for tomorrow” I replied, giving her a weak smile. I can’t keep us waiting anymore, we are here for a mission, and if your source is right the first piece is here. The Tower of Babel is somewhere off the coast of this place and Paraiba. That is gonna be the first step, and I can’t keep holding us back.” ‘
Emily's voice was firm but still filled with her usual kindness and love, she wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “I told you already, I don’t care about this mission right now. I care about how you feel being back in this place, the council can wait a bit longer for whatever secrets the tower of babel might hold. Though I do have to wonder, what are they looking for?”
“Well if they found that shard of The Behemoth in this place. Then perhaps there is something else they are looking for, maybe the broken tower holds more clues to where the behemoth is.” I looked up at the girl for a moment, I had already asked Daniel and Sarah this once before but I wanted to know what Emily thought. “How do you feel about all of this? About the council holding so much information in a library that only a few are granted permission to look at.”
Emily turned her head for a moment, probably making sure that Sarah was still within eyesight. “It is complicated how I feel. I believe we should have all the information to make our own choices. Regardless of what might happen if we see it. I know they probably want to protect us and something like those treasure maps and other relics could be stolen if not held down there. However, information is for everyone. It shouldn't be wasting away in a dark library, waiting for permission to be released to our people.”
“What are you gonna do if we find part of the tower?”
“I don’t know if I am being honest. I mean I would be overjoyed, because if it is the real thing then it will help prove that events in the bible that many people feel are false or could not have happened can be and are true. I told you before, that while I don’t need to see things to believe in him. This might be the small push that some need to fully come back or even to him for the first time.” She smiled up at the moon. “With this team I can get answers to things that have confused me, and it gives me a chance to do something I never had a chance to do.”
“And what is that?”
“Go forth and spread the good news of the gospel to every place I can, to every ear that can hear and every tongue that speaks” I answered with a smile. “So I am glad I get to come on this mission, and I look forward to other missions we go on.”
“I am too,” I answered, leaning my head against her side.
It was at that moment that I felt something was off. My entire body had a chill that ran up it, like a feeling of being watched. Rather there was a dark jepei aura in the air now, one that was stronger than I could have thought. Emily spun on her heels and I jumped back as in a flash of white light a very deadly and long double sided blade appeared in her hand. The guard was beautiful, a silver wolf head with two sparkling eyes, its face stuck in an angry growl with the blade coming out of its mouth. The handle had a twisting design like it had been made of two tightened ropes, on the end of the handle was a wolf paw. It was also in that moment that I saw it again, that anger and wild look that had appeared on Emily’s face before. I took a step back as I don’t even think she heard the wolf-like growl that was escaping her lips.
“W-What's wrong?” I asked, grabbing her wrist.
As quickly as that came it seemed to melt like snow in the sun. She turned her gaze back to me and then over to Sarah and the others. I gasped a bit as even Esther seemed on edge right now, she had grown a bit bigger in her wolf form. Her claws dug deep into the ground and a deadly growl escaped her muzzle. Her fur stood up in places and her ears were pinned back to her head. “Fortune?” I asked, looking up at my large animal spirit who had soared higher into the air, her head scanning around for anything.
“That was weird…” Fortune answered. “I swore I saw something on that big building over to the east. A hint of purple? No deep indigo maybe.”
“Friend or foe?”
“I don’t know… I haven’t felt something like that before.”
I looked back up at Emily and asked her again what was wrong? “Nothing,” she said unsumming her blade. “I just felt something.” She placed her hand in between my shoulders and began to very quickly lead me over to Sarah. “Come on, I think it is time we go back inside.”
“H-How come?” I didn’t like the feeling of being watched, or that very dark aura that had spread through the air for just a fraction of a moment. I rubbed my arms a bit as I suddenly felt so much colder now. Fresh goosebumps were running across my arms now.
“I just want to get inside for tonight, It just feels weird right now.” Emily explained and while she had a smile on her face, I knew that she was worried. “I will explain to you in private,” she whispered as we approached a startled looking Sarah. “I don’t want to scare her.”
I understood why she would say that Sarah stood up and crashed into me, burying her head against my chest and her arms wrapped around my waist. Whatever aura that was sent fear through us, and since she was younger mentally. I am sure that for Sarah it was like being in the clutches of a boogieman. I had never felt that before but I had heard stories, stories of the day the island was invaded. My family had not been involved in the conflict two years ago, my father had run out of the house to go and give support racing off on his large horse like a knight. My friend that had been there and survived described what the order aura’s felt like. They were filled with dark power, rage, and anger, and sent chills down anyone’s spine, filling them with fear. If that aura was what I had heard about.
Then a member of the dark order was in the area.
And I couldn’t only ask… why?
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I was now convinced that every child on the planet earth turned ten times cuter when they were asleep. Sarah was snuggled up in bed with Bonnie cuddled right beside her like a stuffed animal. I adjusted her blanket just a bit to make sure she was gonna be nice and comfy throughout the night. After that moment with that odd jepei aura, I think Sarah really needed to go to sleep, she had been shaking the entire time I carried her home. She only stopped once she was safe in her pajamas and under a blanket. It had taken two stories and lullaby but her fear was gone and she had drifted off to a pleasant sleep. “You have an amazing singing voice, Unique.” I turned around to see Emily was sitting on my bed with her legs crossed. She had been like that since we came home, steadying her breathing with each breath she took. A few times she went to move but she would grip her hand as hard as she could, turning her pale skin pink before settling down. Almost as if she was holding herself back from something.
“Well, when you are all alone and very scared for ten years of your life. Singing is the only thing to do to comfort yourself and I had a lot of time to practice singing.” She patted the spot in front of her, a simple invitation to come and join her. I climbed up in front of her, her face barely visible over the soft candles that we had lit for tonight. We had all brought out netrix candle stands, there were simple relics that we lit with our own aura and we placed our netrix gemstones on a hook between the flames. It helped our animal spirits relax as they absorbed the smoke from our flames into their spirit forms. Emily’s by far had the strongest smelling of all of the candles, the rosemary scent overpowered but also seemed to help amplify our softer smells. “I think she is knocked out so we can probably speak more openly right now.”
“It makes it easy since she is a very heavy sleeper, as long as the sun doesn’t touch her eyes.” Emiily chuckled a bit at that but her smile was gone within a moment. “I didn’t want to scare Sarah, and I don’t want to scare you either… however I think that there might be a member of the dark order here in the city.”
My heart sank deeper into my chest but I had been expecting that answer. “How can you be sure?”
“That feeling we all fell down by the beach. I have sensed something like it before, that powerful dark aura but also one filled with pride. I am not sure why they gave that sudden pulse of their jepei. Perhaps to tell us that they were here, or maybe even to tell another member that they were in the area. However, what I do know is that there is a member here.” Emily looked down for a moment. “I was not expecting something like this to happen.”
“We couldn’t have known that this could happen, the real question is are they looking for what we are looking for?”
“I think I have a feeling what they might be after.” Emily answered in a sour note. For a moment she actually showed a bit of vulnerability, that strong image faded just slightly and sitting in front of me was a girl that was only two years and seven months older than me. “I am worried that they are here looking for the same information that we are looking for. I am worried that they might have a headstart on us, that would be the best if they were ahead of us.”
“What happens if they aren’t after what we are after?”
“Then we might go our entire trip without even coming into contact with them. That would be the best case for us.”
“You sound worried,” it was honestly more worrisome that Emily seemed a bit scared of the idea of a member of the dark order being here.
Emily gave me a small nod. “I am worried or rather I have a bit of an issue with the dark order myself.” Emily looked away from me for a moment, her eyes locked onto the sparkling white flames of her netrix candles. “When they invaded, I was running for my life for a good 45 minutes. I was being hunted by two members of the order, they would be around your age if they are still alive. I had to fight them when I ran out of places to run. It was so different fighting them than it was fighting against classmates. I hold back against my classmates, these two forced me to actually fight to wound, fight to survive, fight to kill or I was gonna be killed. It got bad, really really bad.” Emily lifted her shirt up to show me her stomach, and she had a series of healed scars on her chest, but one was much bigger than the others, located right in the center of her chest. “I was lucky that I didn’t meet our father in heaven that day. If my friend didn’t come that day than I would have died for sure.”
“Your friend?”
“Alona Ameko, the hero of the port, and savior of the day.” She answered with a smile starting to appear on her face. “She arrived and used her animal spirit to heal my wound and we fought tooth and nail before one of them ran. Leaving the other for one of our teachers to come and capture. The reason I am telling you this, is because the dark order are very dangerous fighters. They fight for whatever reason they are given, I am certain that if the two I fought were adults I would have been killed. I am not sure how old, gender, or race they might be, but I need your help. Someone to lean on for strength. Cause if that person truly is a member of the darkness, then we are gonna need as much as light as we can to destroy it.” She looked back at me with a shy smile. “I know I am being selfish, I know that you are still getting over being back in this continent and only 1600 miles away from a bad place. However, I need your strength to help me.”
I reached out and took her hands and gave them a small shake. “Don’t worry, I am gonna do what I can to help you through this. I am not a slutch when it comes to a fight, and I know that together we can really do some damage.” I smirked at Emily for a moment, “who knows maybe I can even beat you.”
Emily’s eyes widened a bit at my slight challenge but she gave me a playful smirk back. “If you want to test that theory, we can go at it whenever you are feeling up to it. Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure?”
Emily gave me a serious look. “Is there a reason you kept looking over your shoulder since we got here, especially in the airport and even on the beach you looked scared to death.”
“Was I that obvious?”
“Kinda.” It was her turn to give me a small shake of the hands, for someone with seriously callused hands from combat training, they were also as soft as the sand we had just been walking on. “What is wrong, Unique.”
I looked down for a bit. “I told you how, I had history in Peru right.” Emily nodded her head. “Well, I also have some history in this very city as well. To be more specific-” My voice got choked up for a moment. “It was here that I was gonna be sold as a man’s mistress for the rest of my life. I was taken here and cleaned up, made pretty…. Checked to see if I was still a-”
“Don’t,” Emily interrupted, her voice becoming choked up for a bit. “You don’t have to say it. I am sorry.” She pulled me closer and rested her forehead against my own. “I am sorry, that you had to suffer for so long, and tell me, if you see anyone that reminds you of the people that hurt you tell me.” Her voice grew darker, a primal fury seemed to erupt one that much louder than the whispery voice that she had used. “And I will make them suffer for what they did to you.”
I had a feeling that she would keep that promise no matter what, and it made me feel safer than I had been since coming to this place. But it also filled me with a fear that was worse than that pulse of dark aura this evening.
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“Will you stop being so annoying!” I spat out angrily towards Sarah as I sat on the couch of our hotel room with my arms crossed. Don’t get me wrong, I very much like the slightly younger girl but she was starting to get on my last nerves. I knew I was truly angry when I chose to switch from English to spanish. Now there were a few ways to get me truly angry.
If you took the last of something and left the empty box.
If you called me a bitch, or a whore.
Daniel when he was being a bit too difficult.
But the biggest of all of those was if you woke me up from my sleep. Something that Sarah seems to do every single morning.
“I am not being annoying, you are being a bully!” She snapped at me, in perfect spanish, she even had the accent right. Her hand was stretched out in front of me, and a large pout on her face. I honestly wished I could curse her out in Spanish without her knowing what I said, she probably just run to Emily. It was early that next morning and we were supposed to be going to a local museum to meet with someone that might be able to help us. While we were waiting for Emily to finish her hour-long shower (just why she needed an hour to bathe, I did not know.) I had taken the remote to watch something on the news, however Sarah wanted to watch cartoons. Now at my house whoever got the remote first had television rights for the first hour. (Unless my dad wanted to use the tv downstairs, then we had no choice but to give it up to him) However it seemed that Sarah was so used to getting her way back home, that she just assumed I was gonna give up the remote with any protest. “Please give me the remote!” She whined for probably the first 5th time this morning.
“No!” She hung her head back and let out an even louder high pitched whine as she flopped onto the ground. I could hear her sorta sobbing into the carpet, but I had been around and tricked by younger siblings at home for the first year of my life that I knew the difference between real and crocodile tears. “Your not even crying, just shut up already.”
“Make me!” Sarah snapped as she held her hand back up, and just as I thought her eyes were completely dry. “I’m gonna tell Emily!”
“Tell her what!” I said holding my hands out in true bewilderment at that. “I didn’t give you the fucking remote after you kept whining about it for ten minutes!”
“No, I am gonna tell her that you cursed at me!” She answered with a smug little smirk.
“You know what, go ahead and tell her! I’ll come with you and watch you do it. Then I will tell her how on the first night of us being in New York you snuck out to go flying in the city. So by all means you take me down I will take you down with me!” Sarah’s face became beet red like she was teapot in a cartoon. “So do you want to take a trip into the bathroom to go tell on me or are you gonna just sit there and be quiet?”
Sarah’s mouth opened and closed for a moment and I could see the gears turning in her head. She looked at the bathroom door as if she was making sure Emily could not hear her. As she quietly said to me. “Give me the remote, you stupid.”
“Sarah,” I said in a deadly voice. “I swear on my life, if you call me a bitch I will come across this couch and slap the taste of your mouth. Please try me!” Sarah opened and closed her mouth before violently calling me a bitch! “I warned you!”
She let out a scream of pure terror as a very interesting game of cat and mouse started in our hotel room. Now we had a pretty big room but not enough room that she couldn’t avoid me for too long. However, this little girl was far too quick for her own good. I found myself getting tired as she kept jumping over me or sliding between my legs, she was small enough that she could crawl underneath the bed with ease. “You little!” I snapped as she threw a shoe at my back when I crawled out from underneath the bed in my chase for revenge.
As we started to get a bit louder than I had planned to, the door to the bathroom was flung open. A wave of stream came flying out followed by a not so happy Emily with a towel wrapped firmly around her body. Her hair was now much darker from the water and still had some soap running down it. “Both of you, sit down now!” She said firmly pointing towards the couch.
“She started it!” We both snapped at the same time and pointed at each other.
“Did I ask?” I found myself looking down at the ground. “We might have a downstairs neighbor that we could be disrupting, and we have neighbors next door that might be sleeping. There is no reason to be shouting, or doing all of this rumbling and tumbling so early in the morning. So sit down, find something on tv and be quiet while I finish! Am I understood?!”
“She won’t let me watch cartoons.”
“Because I had the remote-”
Emily didn’t let us finish as she strolled forward and grabbed the remote that had been left on the coffee table. “Fine, then you can both sit in silence, while I finish. If you can’t act like responsible members of a team and compromise then I am taking this.” She walked back to the bathroom and gave us both a firm look. One that I couldn’t bring myself to look up at. Could I have been the bigger person? Yes. Did I want to at that moment? No. “Sit down and be quiet.” She remarked before stepping back into the bathroom and slamming the door.
It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop on the carpet. However the silence was quickly replaced with the sound of genuine sobbing. When I looked over at Sarah, I could see her shoulders hunched, her head bowed down as she shook with silent sobs. Now I felt even worse cause this all could have been avoided if I had just given her the remote. I wasn’t really watching anything important and if I was being honest. I was very much provoking her, even if she was being a brat. “Sarah…” I began softly but she quickly retreated from my stretched out hand. She just slowly walked over to her bed and climbed up and under the blankets. “Damn it,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Just let her be,” I heard Fortune say in my head. “She had every chance to stop being disrespectful and she even called you a bitch. So just let her sob until she falls asleep or something.”
“I can’t do that,” I thought back to her as I climbed onto her bed. “Sarah… can you please look at me, I’m not angry or anything. I just wanna talk.”
It took a moment but she did manage to peak her head out of the blankets. Alongside her adorable little griffen spirit, Bonnie. I took a tissue from the nightstand and began to wipe away some of her tears and the tear stains that were starting to spread across her round face “S-Sowwy,” she whimpered.
“No it is my fault, I was being mean and nasty cause you woke me up this morning. I shouldn’t have done that, and I definitely should not have swore at you either.” I honestly kept forgetting that she was still the youngest and probably was getting used to be away from home. She younger than me by three years and younger than me by seven if I took into account her mental state. “How about you and I make a promise right here and now, to be nice and kind to each other now until the day we die.”
She only nodded her small head before carefully wrapping her arms around my neck. “Is Emily gonna be mad at us forever?”
“I doubt that Emily is gonna be mad for more than three minutes. It was how she said, "We were disrupting our neighbors next to and under us.”
I felt her nod her head against my chest, now if she just acted like this every single day then I would be fine with that. Her more cute and cuddly side reminded me of my younger siblings back home. Her more wild side reminded me a lot of Daniel before we lost his parents. Full of life and energy, not a care in the world until their actions got him in trouble. Than suddenly he would care very much about how people felt.
30 more minutes passed with me holding Sarah against my side as I read to her from the book I brought with me on this trip. Now I did have to skip a chapter that was nothing but smut but I was sure she was enjoying it. Emily stepped out of the bathroom, the entire room taking on a sort of honey and cream smell. Her hair was combed out, she was wearing a light blue dress that flowed like water, she had a white ribbon tied around her waist as well. “I see you two have grown closer since I took the remote.”
Sarah wasted little time in wiggling free of my embrace and rushing over to hug Emily around her waist. “It’s okay,” I heard her whisper. “No one is in trouble.” She spoke that part a bit louder as she turned to face me. “Now I believe that we have a museum to go visit this morning, and maybe afterward we can have one more day of fun to explore the city.”
Sarah nodded her head and retreated to go put her shoes on. Giving me a chance to speak with Katie for a moment. “I’m sorry, I should have been the bigger person.”
“It’s okay,” she said back. “I know she probably was doing a bit too much,” Emily smiled at me before offering her hand. “Are you ready to go to this museum or do you want to stay here for one more day?”
“I told you already,” I said, grabbing her hand and taking a deep breath. “I am gonna be okay now, besides if push comes to shove, I trust that you can protect me.”
“And will, day after day.”
A much kinder promise that again I was sure she would be able to keep.
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