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I turned absolutely rigid.
All the pain.
All the grief.
It crashed against the walls I’d started building around my aching despair, pounding and thrashing, desperate to let go. To let go and purge, all while this beautiful girl embraced me.
My breath hitched.
My vision wobbled.
And just like the first time she’d embraced me on the floor of the boat when I awoke to a life I didn’t want, I didn’t have the strength to return her affection.
I hoarded everything she gave me.
Every shred of compassion and comfort.
Last time, I’d broken in my misery. This time, I held on just long enough for her to let me go, stand on her tiptoes, and press the softest kiss to my cheek.
“You don’t have to tell me yet. I can wait until your happiness is healed. The doctors may have patched up your broken bones, but I’ll be the doctor of your broken heart.” Drifting away, she added, “Your heart will never be perfect again, though. Losing loved ones always leaves cracks, but...eventually...those cracks become the strongest part of you.”
Turning on her heel, she skipped outside.
Leaving me shattered and shaking.
Anna cleared her throat, wrenching my gaze to hers.
Her tanned skin had whitened; her gaze glimmered with tears. “I’m sorry, Aslan. I’m sorry for her perception, her vibrancy, her determination to fix everyone.” Coming toward me, she clasped her hands and shook her head. “I told you she was sensitive. And I mean it. She always seems to know impossible things.” A single tear rolled down her cheek. “It all started when she was six. Her best friend from down the street—a little girl she practically grew up with—had a tragic accident. This is the part where people expect me to say it was Neri who found her, Neri who witnessed Sophie’s death. But...she wasn’t. Neri was in bed. It was close to midnight. The neighbourhood was quiet and still. That was until Neri started screaming.”
Anna shivered. “She screamed and screamed, then tore outside and bolted down the road. Jack and I followed, only to find Sophie in the middle of the street. What she was doing out there alone at that time of night, we don’t know.”
She dropped her attention to her entwined hands. “She’d been badly mauled by a loose dog. No one knew where it’d come from, and it ran before anyone could deal with it. Sophie was taken to the hospital, but we all knew it was too late. Ever since that night, Nerida has seemed...different. Almost as if she hears and feels things that others cannot.”
Slashing at her tears, Anna blinked back into the present. “Oh my God, what on earth am I doing? I’m so, so sorry, Aslan. I didn’t mean to bring death here tonight. Especially when you’ve lost—” Waving her hand, she mumbled, “I merely wanted to say...Neri might unnerve you. She might say things that spook you. She might even speak of Sophie because she claims she can still talk to her, even now. She is unique, and for that, I love her with all my heart.”
I let her words hover between us.
As awful as it was, her tale had mercifully distracted me from my own brush with death. Slowly, I stood from the barstool with legs that no longer trembled. “It means darling, sweetheart, my dear, but it’s true essence translates from my life, my soul.” I wiped my mouth. “Canim. It’s a term of endearment. It’s used so often these days that it’s lost a lot of its meaning...but my mother never used anything else.”
Anna winced. “Sounds like she loved you very much.”
My throat tightened. Pulling my shoulders back, I murmured, “Thank you for telling me...about Nerida. It helps to know she’d be this kind to everyone. It helps dull some of the intensity she brings.”
Not waiting for Anna to reply, I stepped outside and leaned against the house as Jack and his daughter squabbled over where best to place the pizza and salad on the table.
Anna swept past me with a jug of water.
Jack announced it was time to eat.
And Neri smiled at me as if she’d singlehandedly heal every crack and crevice within my broken, bleeding heart.
I sat at the glass-topped table, and the rest of the evening passed by in a daze of delicious smoky pizza, a family who joked often but loved deeply, and the ever-creeping knowledge that once the food had been eaten, I’d have to tell Jack anything he asked.
And once I did?
I honestly didn’t know what would happen next.
* * * * *
