Time's Tragedies- The Books Of Beginning [2]

21. Serenade

Kate sat on the edge of her bed, running one hand over the comforter, smoothing the wrinkles habitually. She had gotten out of the shower just a bit ago, so her damp hair clung to the back of her neck and stuck to her pj shirt. Usually, she would have dried it better or bothered to brush it away. But today, she simply could not find it within herself to care.

The door to the bedroom was opened quietly (so as not to wake the sleeping children) and Rafe walked in, spotting the lost look on Kate's face immediately. He closed the door behind him and went to sit beside her.

"Kate? What's going on?" He asked. 

Kate didn't bother denying that something was very wrong. To anyone else, she might have masked her feelings as to not cause panic, but this was Rafe. He knew her, he could handle what life threw at him, and he never expected her to be perfect. Plus, after so many years, the two of them could read each other like books. There were no secrets there.

So she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder, and said, "I hate this all so much. I hate that the kids are in danger. I hate that we don't have a clue where Robert is or what he's planning. I hate that the magical council ignored our warning. I hate that we're in this mess in the first place!"

"I know," Rafe murmured, turning to kiss her head and inhale the soft scent of her hair, "we never had and never will have normal lives, but I thought we would have safe ones. I thought after all the evil we defeated, all the happy years spent building our family - I never expected the past to come back like this."

"I thought even if the past did come back, there would be signs," Kate admitted, "but this came out of nowhere to shake our lives up in every way."

"It's hard," Rafe agreed.

Kate sighed, "it is. And now the kids are in danger and- and I never wanted this for them. I wanted carefree childhoods and teenage years of personal growth. I wanted them to never have to worry about some maniac plotting their deaths. I wanted them to have everything I didn't. And now...."

"And now they have to hide from our old demons," Rafe finished, "it's terrible. But we have to believe we'll triumph and make it out ok. That they'll make it out ok. They're resilient kids, I have faith in them."

"They've never had to deal with anything like this," Kate said.

"But they're your kids, yours and mine," Rafe smiled a bit, "they're extraordinary, and they have us to  make sure they make it through."

"Yeah," Kate agreed. A pause of silence swept over the couple and then... "Rafe?"

"Yes?"

"I'm scared."

Rafe felt his heart tighten. He knew what it meant for her to admit that. Kate was the master of putting on a brave face. She was calm in the face of adversity, cool and peaceful where he was fiery and temperamental. Her entire life she had pretended not to be afraid so as to keep her siblings calm (though until now she had not had to do the same for her children). He knew Kate was vulnerable but there were many times, even to this day, where it was hard for her to admit it.

His arms went around her, "I am too, darling. I think we all are."

"My nightmares have already started to come back," Kate admitted. The two nights they had spent in Loris were plagued by dreams she had thought she was rid of long ago. 

His arms tightened around her. Rafe knew as well as Kate herself did that for a while after everything that had happened, Kate had frequent nightmares. This insomnia had lasted in part for a few years before finally the horrible dreams left and rarely, if ever, returned. It had been a turning point, a major moment in their healing when the nightmares were gone, so Rafe did not miss what it meant that they had returned.