She shook her head, still looking at the table. “I took some time off, after… well, after. And then the Council came.”
He looked thoughtful. “Would you like to finish it?”
Her head came up at that. “Yes! Of course, I would. But … I don’t want to go back to Florida… ever!” Beth said vehemently. “Back where it all happened, I simply can’t. So, it’d mean starting all over again up here, transferring credits and… it feels so hopeless,” she finished, her shoulders slumping.
“Okay, here’s the thing you have to remember. Both of you,” Liam said, his gaze traveling from one face to the other. “You’re no longer all alone, having to figure out things on your own. You are part of a strong, supportive family. Talk to Maroulla, Beth. She can approach the Council, see what doors they can open for you locally, here. At the very least, they can facilitate your application and transfer to whatever university you choose.”
Beth’s eyes misted a little. “They can do that? Theywoulddo that, for me?”
“For any shifter,” he told her. “You’re one of us. Family. Albeit, an immensely huge, widely dispersed family.”
“I… I don’t even know what to say,” she stammered.
He smiled. “You don’t have to say anything. Talk to Maroulla. Explore your options. Take your time to figure out what it is that you want to do… not out of necessity but out of choice. Then let your family help you make it happen.”
She smiled, and squeezed Naomi’s hand. “I can do that.”
Chapter31
A few days later,Naomi and Liam had been summoned to Troy and Katerina’s for sledding in the pasture, hot cocoa and s’mores. Winter had finally arrived, hitting hard. It had come virtually overnight, Mother Nature dumping a foot of snow on the Hudson Valley. The Kazakis clan and their Chosen, along with Jacinth and Douglas, plus Liam and Naomi, were all gathered at Troy’s house. The slope of the horse pasture was perfect for the young children to sled, not too steep or dangerous, and easily negotiable.
Naomi looked up the snowy hill to where Beth stood, getting young Benny securely settled in a red wooden flyer. It was Troy’s old childhood sled that he’d hauled out from somewhere in the barn, along with a saucer sled. Behind Benny, Talya danced impatiently, wanting a turn down the hill.
“Me, too,” Molly insisted, tugging at the hem of her parka. Naomi looked down. The little girl was adorable, in her hot pink snowsuit, her fair hair flying, blue eyes wide with excitement.
“Um, okay,” Naomi glanced at the messy path cut through the snow made by the adults going before. “Do you need help getting up?”
The rosebud mouth set in a determined line. “I can do it myself,” the child announced.
Biting back a smile, Naomi nodded, gesturing up the long, shallow slope to the top of the hill. “Okay, then, off you go. I’ll stay here and be your spotter.”
Molly paused, looking back over her shoulder. “What’s a spotter?”
“I stand at the bottom of the hill to be sure you don’t coast too far and run into the fence.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Molly began trudging upward. Naomi watched her carefully, ready to rush to the rescue. The foot-deep snow was no real issue for the adults, but she thought it might present a difficulty for a small child. Molly seemed determined, however, and made her way to the top of the hill with no apparent effort.
“Bombs away!” Her sister’s voice rang out, as Beth gave the sled a nudge, and Benny came flying down the hill. He was laughing, his brown hair sticking out at all angles from under a knit cap, his eyes bright with fun. He came to a stop well before he reached her, as she stood guard at the bottom of the slope, a few feet from the pasture fence. In an instant he scrambled off the sled and was heading back up the hill, dragging the sled behind him.
“Naomi!”
She looked up to the hill where Beth stood lifting her chin toward the house. Turning, Naomi saw that all the adults there, who had been sitting about on chairs around a fire pit, had risen to their feet. They were clustered about a man, not anyone Naomi recognized, at least from this distance. She looked back at Beth, who shrugged her shoulders in a “who knows?” gesture.
“Naomi! Beth!” Troy hollered across the distance, waving one long arm at them, beckoning.
Beth leaned down to have a word with Talya, who was helping her get Molly settled in a saucer. Talya nodded, and Beth made her way down the hill. “Do you know what’s up?” she asked.
“Not a clue. Looks like somebody’s just arrived, but I don’t know who it is.”
They made their way through the snow, out the pasture gate, and over to the patio where every eye was on them. Naomi gulped a little, and groped for Beth’s hand. Holding tight to each other, they approached the group warily.
The small group seemed to part, like a wave, and a man stepped forward. He was in perhaps his early to mid 30s, his coloring fair, with pale blond hair worn a trifle long, curling over the knit scarf wrapped around his neck. The scarf was a shade of light grey-blue that matched his eyes. He looked vaguely familiar, although Naomi couldn’t place where she might have met him.
“It is you!” He came forward, his gaze intense, as if he couldn’t bear to take his eyes off them. His voice was strained with emotion, eyes brimming. “I never thought to see you again, to find you, not after all this time.”
Liam came forward, laying one of his hands on the man’s shoulders.
