Page 75 of Escape from the Green

"Then don't motivate me to be hostile," I suggested, eyes boring into Foren.

"Can you tell us more about your savior?" Drayven suggested.

"Savior?" Kieran asked, blue eyes pinning me.

"Her name is Amethyst. She is the youngest Winters offspring. Don't," I cut off Foren who went to speak, "interrupt me," I told him, voice brooking no argument. They could accuse me all they wanted, but they were not going to second-guess Amy's innocence in her family's wickedness. "Trust me when I say her fate was not much better than mine. She had made up her mind to run away from home in an effort to avoid being used as a pawn at her mother's hands. And before she left, she risked her own freedom to ensure mine. This is after a lifetime of trying to ease the burden of my beatings, trying to distract the guards. Don't you dare try to question her innocence. She is the only reason I am here now instead of wrapped in chains that would continue to eat away at my flesh for decades to come."

"We will want to speak with her," Aurelia chimed in, voice soft, almost motherly. It would make you think you could trust her. But I wasn't sure I trusted any of them with Amy.

"That's fine. But after she has been able to settle in. She's terrified right now," I added.

"Of us?" Foren croaked. "Her kind is the reason all of us have needed to hide behind a veil, why we had to forbid anyone ever leaving it after we overlooked youthful folly when you and your friends would venture out to explore, and you never came back, why we have needed to..."

"Foren," Kieran cut in, voice sharp. "All due respect, but I don't believe any of us need a history lesson. We know why we are behind the veil. Drake clearly needs to see his family, settle in, check on his friend. Perhaps we can delay any further questioning for another day or two. He has been through hell. I think we can all offer him some solace."

"Of course," Aurelia agreed, giving me a small smile.

"We have no reason to need to get into all the details right this moment, now that we know there is no threat," Drayven agreed.

And that was three.

The majority ruled.

"Kieran, why don't you bring Drake back to his friend. And his family," Drayven suggested. "If I remember correctly, you used to be friends."

"We did," Kieran agreed, but didn't elaborate, simply moved away from the table, brushing past make his way to the door.

"I apologize if I seemed disrespectful," I told the rest, not meaning a word of it, but going through the motions of it anyway. "It has been a long couple of weeks. I'm tired. I will be more open at our next meeting."

"Of course," Aurelia said, waving a hand. "We know you wouldn't mean any disrespect. Go, see your family again. We will find you when we need you."

With that, I turned, taking long strides to the door to catch up with Kieran who closed it carefully behind us, taking several long strides before he let it out.

"Those clueless, fearful, ridiculous old fucks," he growled. "I told them. Dozens, hundreds of fucking times. And they wouldn't listen. So wrapped up in their old, bitch-ass ways to take any fucking risks. Even for the safety of one of their own kind."

My lips curved up. "It's nice to see you again too, K," I told him, watching as he stopped, turned back, let the tension go.

"It's been a misery for you," he said, shaking his head. "But believe me, our pain has been great as well." His arm reached out, clamping over my shoulder, the closest thing to affection we would ever be comfortable with.

"I appreciate everything you've done," I told him, meaning it. "I know all you have sacrificed."

"It's nothing. You're safe. You're home. What's a couple hundred years hanging out with those old, stuck-in-their-ways fucks? Come, your mother must be beside herself," he reminded me, releasing my shoulder to lead me back to the square where the crowd had split in two. There was an inner circle of people allowed breathing room by the much larger outer group.

I couldn't see faces, but I knew.

That inner group was my family.

My stomach knotted, twisted so hard that it made me stumble back a step even as my heart pounded frantically in my chest.

We were all of twenty feet away when someone pointed, making the whole inner group turn.

And they swarmed.

I was pulled from every side, arms closing over me, tears soaking into me, so many voices speaking all at once that I couldn't make a single one out.

But they all seemed here.

My heart swelled at that, at realizing I hadn't lost anyone, that no one had passed without me being able to say goodbye.