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"Are you okay?" she asked. "Owen told us about the fight in the boathouse. That you were facing down Clementine and Opal alone. What happened?"
I shrugged. "Nothing much. I took out Opal easily enough. Clementine almost beat me to death, but I got her instead. "
Bria nodded, then glanced across the rotunda at Owen, who was still speaking to Cooper. "And what about Owen?"
"What about Owen?"
"You two were together an awful lot tonight. Surely, you talked about a few things. "
"You mean before or after we killed all those giants?"
She looked at me.
Finally, I sighed. "No, we didn't really get a chance to talk about anything. There was just blood, dead giants, and a lot of awkward pauses. "
"Well, you should know that he brought Eva here into the rotunda after we secured the area. The second he knew that she and the others were safe, he helped Xavier carry Phillip outside, then immediately started to head down to the boathouse to help you," Bria said. "He would have too if Jo-Jo hadn't showed up and told him that you were fine and on your way back up to the museum. He still cares about you, Gin, and I know you care about him. "
"I do care about him," I admitted. "But I don't know that it's enough - for either one of us. "
"What do you mean by that?"
I didn't know how to tell her that Salina's death was still an issue between me and Owen. That I just didn't know if he could ever forgive me for what I'd done to the woman he'd once loved. And that his forgiveness wasn't the only thing I wanted from Owen - that I needed his acceptance too. Of what I'd done in the past and all the bad things I'd do in the future.
"Gin?" Bria asked.
"Nothing," I said. "It's been a long night, and I'm not thinking straight right now. "
"Well, maybe after this is over, you and Owen can finally talk. "
"Yeah. Maybe. "
"Either way, I'm glad that you're all right. "
Bria hugged me, her care and concern even warmer and stronger than her arms wrapped around me. After so many years of thinking her dead, it always surprised me to realize that she was alive and here with me - and that she loved me just like I loved her. I wondered if I'd ever stop feeling that way. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing if I didn't. Because I never, ever wanted to take her for granted - or any of my other loved ones.
Bria pulled back. The motion made the primrose rune around her throat wink, and the sly flash of silverstone reminded me that there was one more thing I needed to do tonight - for both of us.
I held my hand out to Bria. "Come with me. I have something to show you. "
She frowned in puzzlement, but she wrapped her fingers around my bloody ones. I led her over to the back of the rotunda and the recess where our mother's and sister's rune necklaces had been on display.
"Remember when I told you before that there were some things in here that belonged to us?" I asked.
"Yeah?"
"Well, here they are. "
I stopped in front of the wall and held my hand out -
But the recess was empty.
The glass had been smashed, and I immediately began scanning the floor around the recess, but all I saw were splinters of glass and chips of marble. I stalked back and forth along the wall, searching all around me.
Nothing - absolutely nothing.
The robbers must have looted this spot along with everything else. There was no sign of my mother's and sister's necklaces and no telling where they were. Maybe they were mixed in with the pile of cell phones in the front of the rotunda. Maybe they were outside in one of the moving trucks or in one of the cases I'd seen on the getaway boat. Maybe they'd even disappeared into someone's pocket when everyone was looking the other way. There was just no way of knowing. I could search the museum for days and never find them.
They'd been right here, close enough to touch, and now they were gone again, vanished once more like they'd never existed to start with. Pain stabbed through me at the loss of these last two pieces of my mother and my sister.
