Page 22 of This Blood that Bonds Us
The door clicked shut as I showed Kimberly some of Mom’s figurines. She collected the coolest stuff, and even though she had brought none of her old ones with her, she had the same ceramic collections. Cherubs. Check. The birds—who likesbirds? Check. Unusual tiny houses. Check. And one of her newer ones. Butterflies.
She’d started collecting them after Sarah went missing. I’d heard her pray over them a couple times.
“Oh. As you can see, not much changes. I just got that one this week actually.” Mom motioned to the tiny ceramic butterfly in my hand.
“It’s beautiful,” Kimberly said.
“It was Sarah’s thing. She wears—wore these butterfly necklaces all the time. I got her this butterfly pillowcase once, and it made Luke so jealous he hadn’t thought of it first.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, that weight in my chest sucker punched me. I swear Aaron winced.
“I wish I could have met her.” Kimberly smiled halfheartedly.
“She was lovely,” Mom added.
“You would have gotten along,” I said.
That icky kind of silence followed, and I knew who would be the one to break it.
Aaron shifted on his feet. “Uh, Mom. You have to be tired. It’s so late.”
“Oh . . . do you not sleep at all?”
“We do if we need to heal. Like if we lost a lot of blood from a fight or something.”
“Right,” Mom said, rubbing at the edge of her eye. “Well, I think that’s quite enough information for me to handle for the night. I have a spare bedroom down the hall next to mine.”
“Dibs,” I said.
It made her crack a smile. I missed that.
“We have some dry cabins here in the village you and Kimberly can stay in. I’ll talk to the property manager in the morning to work out payment.” She moved to a small chest next to the couch and pulled out a pile of fleece sheets and blankets for my brother. “It will be cold tonight, but there should be freshfirewood and a heater in there. No running water though, so you’ll have to shower here. It’s outside to the left. The porch light should be on.”
“No problem. Thank you,” Kimberly said.
Mom moved to give them a hug, then wrapped her arm around my shoulder and gave me a kiss on the cheek. The air from the wall heater was hot on my face, and I finally felt thawed for the first time in days. It was heaven compared to the car.
“This is the best day I’ve had in a long time.”
“Us too,” I added.
“You’ll be good?” Aaron asked, with his hand on the door and his brow lowered.
I rolled my eyes and flipped him off. Lovingly, though. He knew the difference.
The corner of his mouth tugged into a smile. “You know where to find me if you need me.”
What could I possibly get in trouble doing in the middle of the night?
I stepped into my empty room. It had a dingy wooden floor and a little bear night-light on the other side of the bed. The room wasn’t very big, but big enough to have its own wooden heater in the corner and a twin-size bed on the other wall. I sat my plastic bag full of everything I owned next to me on the bed.
It was quiet. There wasn’t anything to look at on the walls except little swirls of wood grain. The only sound was the crackling fire beside me. There weren’t any bugs chirping outside or loud parties. Not even any traffic. It was chilly evenwith the heater. Mom told me it would take some time for it to warm up.
I rubbed my chest. It was just me and the cold and the ache.Great. Good. This isn’t terrible at all.
It was all fine and not at all a complete and utter disaster.
I stared at the empty space next to me and ran my hand over the chilled quilt. One spot reserved for someone else. Only, he wasn’t here. I remembered the last time I’d felt like that—in an empty room at one of the random safe houses before we’d arrived in Blackheart.
