I shook my head, trying to steer my mind away from these thoughts when I noticed Ava flying towards me from a distance. She, like my other family members, had not been happy with my decisions in leaving Keira and had even been openly hostile towards me at times. But as usual she came to me when she felt my pain, offering me a comfort we both knew I didn’t deserve.
She dipped her wings in a graceful swoop until she was close enough to land on my outstretched arm.
“Ah my Rara Avis, how are you my precious one?” She ruffled her feathers like she always did when hearing her pet name of ‘Rare bird’ in Latin. She nudged my hand and squawked at me, with her head tilted. I knew this was her way of asking me what was wrong.
“I saw my heart again tonight and she…she was not happy.” I never had any problems speaking so freely to my pet and I put this down to so many years of sharing her body when needed. Let’s just say it was certainly an ice breaker.
She shifted on my arm getting closer to my neck, where she rubbed her satin feathers under my chin in an affectionate manner. I laughed, stroking her and basking in a moment of freedom from my worries.
“I need you to keep an eye on her for me… can you do that, my girl?” She looked back at me and made a piercing call before she took off towards the direction Keira and my brother had taken. I instantly breathed a little easier for it but that was short lived when I felt I was no longer alone.
“Feeling any better after your little chat with bitchy feathers there?”
“This is not a good time, Sophia.” I said without looking at her but knowing she was sat on the wall of the roof garden behind me.
“Has it ever been a good time over this last year, Brother?” I didn’t reply but instead watched my bird until she flew out of sight.
“Say what you came to say and have done with it.” I almost cringed at the sound of my harsh demand but not being able to help it feeling the way I did.
“Something needs to be done about this Alex Cain.” This finally made me turn around and I noticed Zagan in the background keeping a watchful eye on his own heart. I nodded to my commander at arms and he nodded back respectfully before leaving us alone.
“Something will be done, have no doubt in that, Sister.” I promised jumping down from my view point until I was at the same level as my small sibling.
“You know most of what she says is because she doesn’t understand why…you realise that, right?” She said and I cracked my knuckles when they both flexed at my sides. This reaction couldn’t be helped when I thought back to all the hurt in her voice and the spite behind each and every word she lashed out at me like a weapon…Her greatest weapon against me.
“And she never will know.”
“Dominic…”
“NO!” I barked at her and then took a deep breath to calm myself before continuing on with what I needed to say.
“No, Sophia, for this she can never know.”
“And why not?” I was walking past her when I stopped. I shook my head and then turned back to her to hit her with the truth just as the Oracle once did with me that day.
“Because if she ever knew the truth, then she would never let me go.”
“And that’s bad because…?” My reaction to these thoughts was always the same. My panic at it ever coming to pass was soul consuming and made me close my eyes tight to hold in the greatest fear I had ever known…my one and only true fear.
“Because if she never let me go, then she would never let go of her destiny of death…”
“But…” I held up my hand and my eyes snapped open to express the seriousness of my next words, the only words that mattered when it came to my future and preventing it with my last breath…
“A death…Sophia,
“…at my hands.”
Keira
Chapter 9
Pity for Your Brother
I can say there is nothing quite like escaping your past whilst holding on to an Angel taking your breath away on the back of his bike. I clung onto his hard body in front of me and as I lay my cheek to his back I let my tears run down his leather. I didn’t know if he knew as I silently sobbed at his back but I would feel his abs tighten each time I inhaled sharply. I would feel bad if he did but I knew it couldn’t be helped. The dam had broken. It had crumbled beneath the weight of a year’s worth of tears and I didn’t know how I was ever going to fix it again.
That’s what Draven did to me. That’s what an immeasurable amount of love did to you. It was infinite, it was vast and it was endless. It was an ever burning flame that no matter what Draven did wasn’t ever going to extinguish, lighting his face even in the darkest of hours. And the painful truth was that I knew that I would grow old and blind well before I no longer saw him.