Rogue Queen ➵ 2.0

➵ III. The Plan

Sunday, December 10th, 2017, 10:00am

Rei's POV

"It was a fun day, that day," Killian says softly, staring at the floor.

We're all in the living room. Killian's sitting on the love seat with Zaine leaning against his side, one arm around Zaine's shoulders. Clove and I are across from them, both of us at either ends of the couch, backs against the armrests, our legs stretched out and taking up the middle of the couch. Chase and Rhea are playing with their toys on the floor in the space between the couch and the loveseat.

"I bet it was," I whisper. "Lyria was such a good person. I'm sorry I couldn't save her."

"You did your best," Clove says. "You saved the twins and you were willing to go back inside to try and save our older sister when you'd just met her."

I smile softly. "She saved me. And she was the first genuine friend I'd had in a long time."

I growl quietly, remembering Kia. I shared some of my deepest secrets with her and she had acted sympathetic and understanding. I trusted her and it turned out she was only using me to get Raiden. She doesn't deserve him.

Raiden... I do miss him, a lot, and Dad. They were the only ones who cared about me. I can still mind-link them if I wanted to because we're family but I don't. I don't block the links but I don't reply when they ask where I am, if I'm alright. Both of them tell me they love me every night. Raiden says Asher never banished me. I don't believe him.

Why wouldn't Asher banish me? He probably got me to leave, then took back his rejection to taunt me, a constant reminder that I'm bound to him, my biggest bully, unable to break the bond on my own.

"Reina? You OK?" Zaine asks softly, his voice concerned.

I give my head a small shake, smiling weakly. "Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine."

"No, you're not," Clove scolds, lightly smacking my leg. "Don't insult our intelligence. What is it?"

I bite my lip, hesitating.

"Rei, you know you can tell us anything," Killian says softly.

I sigh, "I miss Raiden, and my Dad. I... I sort of wanna go back, just to see them again."

Clove smiles understandingly. "But you know you can't."

I nod sadly. "I can't go back to Moonblood."

"Why not?" Chase asks.

"Because they'll hurt Reina if she goes there," Zaine says gently.

"What if they didn't know she was there?" Chase asks. "Reina can be a ninja and sneak around and hide and they won't know!"

Chase stands up and does a few ninja moves, like a jump to the left and little kick. I smile, watching him. Rhea giggles and joins her twin in being a ninja. Clove chuckles softly, smiling fondly.

"You know, he's got a point," Killian says. "Why can't Reina go back if they didn't know she was there? We could come up with a fake name and backstory for her, convincing enough that they wouldn't be able to tell it's fake."

Clove taps her lips with a finger. "That might work," she murmurs. "Send an email to Asher asking for temporary shelter. We could all go and spend Christmas there... We'd only need to come up with an ID for Reina, they don't know of us. What'd'ya think, Reina? Wanna try it?"

"And don't say no just to keep us safe," Killian adds. "If they did find out about you, they'd have a hard time trying to hurt us, with all of us being witches and warlocks."