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I shot her a sheepish smile. "I should have checked my pockets first but I just... I didn't. Anyway, I found this flashlight. It was old-fashioned and had this glass plate. I smashed it with my heel, broke the glass, and used it to cut through Aidan's zip ties."
"That Jungle Jane training of your dad's worked, didn't it?"
"Apparently," I said with a laugh as Aela smirked at me.
Aoife took a sip of coffee. "How did you fuck up?"
I shoved a hand into my pocket and pulled out my dad's gift to me.
"Nail clippers?" Aoife asked when she took them from me.
"Nah. Open it up."
She frowned but started tugging on the sides, pulling out the attachments.
"My dad had them custom made for my sisters and me. He gave them to us when we hit eighteen."
Aela took it from Aoife. "It's really light."
I nodded. "Strong though. I should thank him for saving my ass, but if I tell him that his gift came in handy, he'll need to know what happened and I don't want to scare them."
Which, of course, was when I understood my mom's dilemma.
Sometimes, you kept things from the people you loved. Not to be selfish, not to hide, but to protect them. The truth didn't always serve a purpose.
Just because I'd spent most of my life seeking it out didn't mean that it was everyone's friend.
"I think we can forgive you for not realizing you were carrying this with you," Camille said, as kind as ever. "In the fray, you wouldn't have noticed it. It's too lightweight."
Grimacing, I muttered, "I have to admit, for my first true glimpse at the Five Points in action, I was woefully inadequate."
"Meaning?" Aela asked.
"Meaning that I almost got shot by friendly fire and I hit Finn over the head with a flashlight." I rolled my eyes. "I acted like a moron."
"I think you're being hard on yourself," Camille chided.
"Maybe." I shrugged. "I mean, Finn was the one who blew out the lock. If he'd been one of our captors—"
Aela grinned. "He'd have had a key."
"Exactly." I scrunched up my face as I grabbed my glass of champagne. Lifting it in a toast, I declared, "To it never happening again, but if it does, I channel my inner superheroine and singlehandedly get us out of there by myself."
Chuckling, they joined me in the toast, Aela too, but she subbed the mimosa for orange juice.
It felt good to hang out with them. Better when I realized it might never have happened.
Accepting my mortality triggered predictable responses that were, nevertheless, aggravating.
I was spending most of my time in bed, slept a lot, and had brought Star's research into the bedroom where I was reading up on how the Sparrows selected their newest members.
In between, I cried, ate too much chocolate, thought about how Aidan could have died, and then ate cake before my new cat let me snuggle it to sleep—the tiny beast recognized a woman on the edge.
Today was the first day I'd actually wanted to get out of bed.
If Aidan had spent more than an hour beside me on the mattress, I was pretty damn sure getting laid would have gotten me out of my funk sooner.
I wasn’t saying that he had a wonder dick or anything, but it was a better wand than Harry Potter’s… That was for damn sure.
