Defy by Raine Thomas

Quincy’s
leaving the homeland and handing the care of the expectant mothers
over to commander Raphael. The two males noticed her before they
got into too much detail, but Sophia knew that she had managed to
prompt Quincy’s decision with her harsh and uncalled-for words.
    She wasn’t sure why she was so desperate to
speak with him before he finalized his decision to leave. He had
already disliked her before. She had merely given him one more
reason to have his low opinion of her.
    But he always provided the care for her
mother and her aunts during their pregnancies, and now he intended
to leave before the next children arrived. And the fault for that
lay squarely on her shoulders.
    Pausing for a moment to catch her breath as
she neared her destination, she watched as the cottage door opened
and Quincy emerged. He was empty-handed, but then, he had a paired
Lekwuesti and could afford to travel light. She figured he hadn’t
just stepped out for a casual stroll as he started in the direction
of the cliffs. She knew he was going to head for the water and the
enchanted platforms located there that would transport him to
Central.
    Once again picking up her pace, she hurried
after him. She didn’t want to call out to him in case her voice
carried far enough for someone else to hear her and alert her
parents.
    Just as he was about to step completely out
of the cover of the trees edging the property line leading to the
cliffs, she let out a shrill whistle. It was a sound he had taught
her as a child, and it caught his attention. He turned with a look
of surprise as she approached.
    “Sophia, what are you doing here?” he asked
as she stopped about a foot from him.
    “Please don’t leave,” she blurted.
    His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
    Trying to clarify herself, she said, “I’m
sorry, Quincy. I said those awful things to you because, well, it
was easier for me to blame you than to point the finger of blame
where it truly belongs. At myself.”
    He frowned. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “It’s true,” she said, and found that saying
the words helped loosen the debilitating band of dark guilt that
had shadowed her since Tate’s death. Taking a deep breath, she
said, “I was a coward. I didn’t have enough faith to fly. And if it
weren’t for those two things, I could have flown after Tate the
moment I saw the kragen.” She fought back unwanted tears. That
emotion would have to wait. She had to say this to someone. It
might as well be to the male she had wounded. “I could have saved
her.”
    He shook his head, but she had already
convinced herself. She didn’t need to convince him, too. She just
needed him to know why she had been so terrible to him.
    “And if I hadn’t shoved you off that cliff
because I was so frustrated over my lack of ability, you might have
had more time to fly after her, too,” she continued, reaching up to
rub her aching throat in another effort to stave off her emotion.
“So, anyway, I’m very sorry for being so unfair to you. Please
don’t leave. My mom and my aunts need you here.”
    He started to respond, but her attention was
suddenly turned. A sound near the cliffs had her stepping up next
to Quincy and peering through the trees. She spotted Ini-herit
standing with Clara Kate near the cliff’s edge. The elder caught
C.K. and lifted her back to her feet after a near-fall. Her cousin
had always been an extraordinary klutz.
    “Sophia—”
    “Shh,” she said, waving a hand at Quincy as
she watched C.K. interact with the elder.
    She didn’t know what had taken place between
the two of them while on the human plane, but she privately hoped
that her cousin managed to teach Ini-herit a thing or two about
emotions since he had gone through so much effort to try and
relearn them. Hearing that the transition hadn’t worked made her
heart ache for both of them.
    Then her cousin’s gaze moved to something
along the cliffs. Sophia’s interest piqued when she saw C.K. place
a