Page 40 of House of Kallan
There were many quiet voices of agreement.
I smiled sadly, still looking at the little girl. Reaching for the cage, I touched the bar. She looked at my hand and then slowly put her finger on mine.
It might not have been wise, but I reached for the latch and opened the cage. The room remained silent. So still I could almost hear my heartbeat in my ears.
She moved slowly toward me, picking herself up as if she was hurt. I held out my hands to her, offering her to come to me. She hesitated, staring at my hands and then looking up into my face. Whatever she saw made her feel safe enough to give me a chance.
The girl was tiny. So small. I didn’t know how old she was or what kind of monster she was supposed to be, but I curled her gently in my arms and held her firmly to me, rocking her a little. “It’s okay, now,” I said quietly, tears filling my eyes as her little hands gripped me tightly. “You’re safe.”
The door behind me opened and closed. The girl in my arms tensed, but I just held her firmly. “No one here will ever hurt you. I promise. You will never be hurt again.”
Around the room, I felt more than heard the kids shifting. I wasn’t sure if it was in response to me or the person in the room. While I wanted to know who it was and what they wanted, I wasn’t going to break this moment.
Footsteps and then he sat at my side. My heart jumped as I spotted Hawthorn. He smiled his regal smile, small and debonair.
“Of course, I’d find you here,” he said quietly. His voice was warm, and he shifted closer to me so that his arm pressed against mine.
Sighing, I leaned my weight against him. My lack of sleep just caught up as my adrenaline crashed and I yawned.
“There’s so many of them,” I said quietly, momentarily forgetting that they were listening and understood my words. “I can’t believe someone did this to them. They’re just babies.”
“I know,” he said and kissed the side of my head. “They’re safe now. We’ll get them all healed up, physically and mentally, and find them loving homes.”
We remained in the new nursery for a long time as I held the little girl. Eventually, when I began to fall asleep, I decided I needed to give in and head home. But the little girl was sleeping, and I didn’t want to put her back in the cage.
“What do I do with her?” I asked.
“What are your options?” Hawthorn asked.
“You can put her in with me,” one of the kids said, and I turned to find a little boy sitting at the edge. “We were born together.”
“Will you get some blankets?” I asked Hawthorn. “Water.” Turning my attention to the kids, I asked, “Are you hungry? What do you need?”
Hawthorn left me as I crossed the room to the little boy. Now that I was close, I could see that they definitely looked alike, with the same physical features. It only occurred to me after I opened the cage door that I was too trusting.
But the little boy helped me to situate the girl with him and Hawthorn returned with a stack of blankets. More nurses came in with travel cups of water and spill resistant bowls of snacks. The kids remained docile while they were given these new comforts.
“I’ll be back,” I promised. “If you need something, you can tell the nurses, okay?”
No one answered, but all the eyes watched me. I hated to leave them.
Hawthorn wrapped an arm around my shoulders and led me out. As we stepped into the parking garage a few minutes later, he held me against him. “Come home with me?”
I nodded. Honestly, there was nowhere I’d rather be right now than with my men.
Tobiael
I hatedwhen we weren’t all together. Especially when one of us went somewhere that Silence was involved. It made me uneasy. Scared.
There were two moments that stood out clearly in my head as the most horrendous days of my life.
It might have been several decades ago, but the day that we stumbled upon Hawthorn and Lazarus again after years apart only to find that Hawthorn had died, and he now lived a half life would forever keep this hollow in my chest filled with grief. The kind of grief that makes you feel sick.
When he wanted to move away years before that, none of us had tried to stop him. Hadrian was a little growly and irritated about it, but we were young. I think even Hadrian knew we needed to grow on our own before he could keep us together.
Lazarus left shortly after and while we might have spoken here and there via the phone or letters, there wasn’t a lot of communication. Which was fine. Again, we were young and exploring the world.
But when they showed back up and Hawthorn faded for the first time, I burst into tears because I knew what that meant. Itmeant that he’d died and had remained dead for some time before Lazarus had found him.
