I expected things to feel… abandoned. Tragic. Like something horrible had happened here.
But everything looked so normal that it was almost worse. It was like my parents could come downstairs at any moment, asking where I'd been. With the darkness outside obscuring the signs of fighting, of death, you could almost pretend the last two days had just been a horrible nightmare.
Almost.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and walked through my house. Running my hand over the old blue couch in our living room as memories of movie night with my parents and Jax threatened to undo me. Straightening a family picture on our wall, my parents still very much alive, smiling down at me. Picking up the shoes my dad had left by the stairs—something my mom hated because someone would always trip. I clutched them to my chest now, the black scuffed leather of his soles still stained green by the grass.
Taking a deep breath, I put them back where he'd left them, unwilling to change anything tonight. One step at a time. I'd stay the night, which had seemed like a great idea until I'd gotten here and realized just how lonely it would feel. But I had no choice. I'd stay, pack, say one last goodbye, and lock it up for good.
Or at least for a while.
On the couch, my purse from last night still rested on its side, the contents almost spilling out. I'd almost forgotten about Jax's gift to me, back when he was just Jax, not a Teutonic Knight. I pulled out the silver gift bag and removed the wings, pinning them on my shirt. I ran a thumb over the carved metal feathers and tucked the memory of those moments before the battle into a safe pocket of my mind. Those were the last moments of normalcy, of happiness, I had.
A light flickered from our wall and I walked over to the grey screen, which blinked with a green light. I activated it and watched as the image of Dr. Crayton appeared. He looked bewildered as he spoke his message to us. "I have good news for Miss Night. Against all odds, Miss Night passed the vision test. I will issue her a special exemption to get her pilot's license, should she still wish it. Congratulations."
The image flicked off and I stood still, silent, at a loss for what to think. My dreams had just come true and it didn't even matter anymore. I focused my attention back on my house, on what I'd come here to do.
Near our bookshelves, my dad had set up a little table where the two of us had played chess late into the night. I walked over to it slowly, knowing this would hurt the worst. We had been mid-game, our pieces spread over the board, before he died. I'd have to decide, take the set or leave it as it was? I didn't know. Couldn't imagine leaving my home, leaving everything here as if nothing had happened.
From the corner of my eye something flashed and I looked up, startled out of my melancholy. I'd left the front door open for fresh air, and I could have sworn something moved past the house outside.
I poked my head out the door but didn't see anything unusual. Must have been a trick of the light. I thought about closing it, but I wanted the cool draft to clear out the stagnant feel of the house. We often left our front door open on nice nights as we watched a movie or dined on the porch.
I moved to my mother's desk where she had tools out for making her handcrafted jewelry. I rubbed the ring I wore on my middle finger, one she'd made me for my 16thth birthday. A Celtic pattern of links with a Ruby cross. The Templar symbol, I realized.
Seeing the leather straps and pliers gave me an idea. I pulled out the Token of Strife and used her supplies to make a leather necklace to hang it from, which I tied around my neck. Somehow I felt better with the ring resting against my heart.
Once again, something bright, glowing, shot past the front door, and I turned quickly and ran outside, determined to solve the mystery.
I didn't have to run long. Standing outside was a little girl, pale as moonlight, transparent even, with her back to me. She turned her head, and I recognized her as the girl from my dream. She still held the glowing orb.
"Who are you?" I asked. Was she some kind of new Zenith I'd never heard about?
But she didn't answer. Instead, she ran away from me and toward the woods by my house.
"Wait!" I yelled for her but she didn't turn, didn't stop, and so I followed. Knowing it was stupid to run around in the middle of the night, I still followed. Something compelled me.
We passed into the forest, the trees tall, dark and menacing—so very like my dream I had to look down to make sure I wasn't walking on the body of corpses.
I wasn't. Just plain old dirt and rock.
I kept running, twigs snapping under my feet as I ducked under low branches and followed her over fallen trees.
We soon came to two large boulders. She squeezed past them, a glow in between the space, and I sucked in my breath and did the same, with a lot more effort and less breathing.