The Widow's Daughter ✔︎

Chapter Thirteen

The next morning I stumbled out of my bed with an even bigger headache, the events of last night seeming like a crazy dream. At first, that's what I thought it was, but then I felt my locket, which was still warm, and knew that it wasn't.

Well. That was weird.

I showered and inspected my reflection in the mirror, grimacing at how crimson my hair looked today. I tied it up into a high ponytail and pulled on a clean T-shirt and a pair of denim jeans and wandered downstairs into the living room, where all of the Avengers were already sitting. I rubbed my eyes blearily and plopped into my chair, my eyes slowly drifting closed with tiredness. 

Natasha's eyes widened when she saw my hair. "That's your natural colour?" she asked. I nodded and tightened the ponytail self-consciously. "You look older," she said finally. "Pretty."

I blushed and mumbled my thanks, giving her a small smile, which made her smile back. Tony gave me a look. "You didn't go to sleep at ten, did you," he said.

It wasn't a question. I yawned and rubbed my eyes. "I had the craziest night," I replied.

Thor narrowed his eyes at me. "A mortal as young as Kira should not have a boyfriend yet," he boomed.

I slapped him on the arm, making the rest of them chuckle. "Gross," I said. "And no. I don't have a boyfriend. I don't ever intend to have one. They're unnecessary and take up too much space."

"Speaking from experience?" Wanda teased.

I gave my famous Kira-is-superior glare. "That's for me to know and you to wonder," I said, yawning again. 

"So, wanna tell us what happened last night?" Bruce asked gently.

I pulled off my locket. "Well, I was woken up by this blinding bright light at like 3am," I began, then shook my head, tiredness seeping into my bones. "Ugh. I'm so tired - I'll just show you." I pressed the locket against my lips and whispered, "маленькая птица."

Almost immediately, it heated up and I dropped it into the centre of the table, watching as the ruby stone glowed blue and the hologram of Tori emerged out of it like a floating ghost. "Kira, if you're listening to this, then you've obviously figured it out," the hologram of my sister began.

As Tori spoke, I heard everybody gasp, but nobody gasped louder than Natasha. I glanced between the two of them, putting the similarities together like one would a jigsaw. They had the same nose, I realised. And eyes. Tori's hair was lighter than Natasha's, straighter too, but they had the same face shape. Tori was taller than me now and she had more curves, which I looked at enviously (another thing she had in common with Nat). I was a literal ironing board. 

We watched Tori speak in silence. When she'd finally finished, nobody spoke for a while. 

Then Steve said, "Well, I'm pretty sure we just found our Evelina."

Natasha's face was emotionless as she said, "Perhaps," but her eyes, viridescent green like Tori's, glinted hopefully. I took her hand. She gripped mine gratefully.

"We don't know for sure if Tori is Evelina," said Bruce. "I mean, she and Nat do look alike, and I can see parts of all of us in her face, but I'm not sure. This entire thing seems suspicious... Kira, you've had the locket ever since you were six, right?"

I nodded.

"You're fourteen now," continued Bruce. "So-"

"I'm fifteen," I interrupted. "My birthday was a week ago."

Thor started to say happy birthday, but Tony shut him up. Bruce sighed and continued: "So, as I was saying, it seems a bit suspicious that you have only received the message now. Surely Tori would have sent you past messages? Why get notified now?"