probably make some ridiculously expensive designer weep at the sight but I couldn’t help it. She was like a sister to me and it had been hard to keep up this act around her for so long.
“I’m sorry. I know you only did what you thought was best but just seeing him again…it…it hurts, Sophia.” My voice broke on the word ‘hurts’ and I pulled back to wipe my tears away for hopefully the last time tonight.
“I know honey, and I am so sorry you’re in pain but Kaz, did you really think that was it…that you would never see each other again?”
“But he was the one who did this… he was the one who threw away my love, Sophia not the other way around.” Sophia took a deep breath, closed her eyes and released it slowly.
“One day you will understand and when you do it will mark the day of change for us all but until then, all I can say is it’s not my place or my story to tell.” She had said something like this before or at least tried to but like now I had brushed it off as an excuse. I mean really, what could there possibly be to have made him act the way he did?
“So what changed his mind?” I asked hating myself for needing to know what had changed.
“Why he came back?” I nodded at her question. She gave me a mischievous half smile that screamed the Sophia I knew and loved.
“Why do you think?” I turned to look back at the view of the national park lit only by the moonlight and felt my heart getting heavier by the second. Of course I knew why he had come back and I hated the feeling of self-loathing it created.
“He heard about Alex.” It wasn’t a question as it didn’t need to be. There was no doubt this was the only reason Draven was back and the idea hurt me more than it should after all this time. He wasn’t back for me…to see me …no, he was back to see me with Alex .
“Right, I get it.”
“Do you?” I shook my head, begging her silently for her not to continue, one she thankfully took on board.
“So what do you say to just one night…that’s all I’m asking for?” Could I really do it…? Could I really go back to those days knowing how it would rip me apart for many months to come? It was like being offered the sweetest torture, one you knew could destroy all you have left but leaving you dying with the most blissful memories to hold your hand. I sighed as I knew before I even asked myself this, what my answer would be.
“Have you ever known me to say no to you?”
“I dread the day.” Sophia said laughing and walked past me giving me a pat on the arm. I continued to look out at that view even with Sophia by the door at my back. I focused on the moon as I would often do since all that had happened last year and it took me back to how I did the same when locked away in that filthy prison thinking about my mission...
My mission to save Draven.
I heard the whoosh of the door and my voice broke free, saying words so painful they hurt making their way out.
“He died, Sophia.” I felt her freeze without even needing to see her but at her reply my body turned to ice.
“Yeah, and without you…
He still is, Keira.”
Chapter 6
Through Draven’s Door
After that bomb, kindly left by Sophia, I had no choice but to remain frozen, suspended in time alone on this balcony with nothing more than her words to haunt me. It was like being slapped across the face and then trying to ignore the action of it coming from your best friend. Why had she said that? Why would she tell me something like that knowing how I felt? It was like dangling one bloody carrot in a pen of starving donkeys with all my emotions trying to latch on to that one sentence. Was he really hurting that badly?
No! No, I couldn’t think about this. I couldn’t obsess over this one