Page 72 of Into Darkness (Akrhyn 1)

“You chose Heir.”

“I did, it was all I knew, it was all I wanted,” Salem admitted. “Mikayla was willing to forgive the fact I loved another, she said I would love her in time. She was right, I did.”

“Do you think it was because you were bound?”

“I think that helped,” Salem nodded, sitting back down with a tumbler of bourbon, he handed Tegan a bottle of water. “And Mikayla was a wonderful woman, she gave me two wonderful children.”

Tegan nodded as she stared at her bottle of water. “You forgot my mother?”

“Never.” He replied quickly and she looked at him in confusion. “Celeste will live forever in my heart, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of her gentleness. She wassoalive. A wonderful Sentinel but she cared so much for others. I wronged her, terribly, her family never let me forget it, even if I could.” Salem took a deep drink of his bourbon. “I didn’t get to say goodbye, I didn’t get to say sorry.”

“She loved you,” Tegan said softly into the quiet of the room. “She kept journals,” Tegan took a deep breath. “Father let me read them when I was old enough, she wrote about you a lot.”

“I didn’t know she kept journals.”

“She wrote in them… after,” Tegan glanced at him quickly before lowering her eyes again. “I have them with me, if you would like to see them?”

“I would like that very much, Tegan.”

She nodded as she ran her hands over her thighs. “I’ll bring them down.”

“You stared that Drakhyn in the face without a flicker of emotion and you sit in front of me looking ready to run at the slightest movement,” Salem said bitterly.

“The Drakhyn cannot hurt me,” Tegan responded. “I don’t know you and you broke my mother’s heart.”

Salem closed his eyes at the staggering truth of the words. “Forgive me, I was out of order.”

“You’re broken?” Tegan looked at him in confusion.

“What?” Salem laughed suddenly in understanding. “No, it means I should not have spoken out of turn.”

“Oh,” Tegan sipped her water. “You all speak with words that confuse me, they are out of context from what I am used to.”

“We spend too much time with Sloane,” Salem chuckled.

“I would have thought it was Zahra that would use the slang words, with her being with humans.” Tegan suddenly stood as a wave of dread washed over her. “By the grace of Arflyn…”

“What is it?” Salem rose too in alarm at the sudden change in Tegan.

“Zahra… has anyone checked on Zahra?” Tegan looked at him, fear in her eyes. “They’re watching us, and they are waiting for the female… she isn’t here!”

“No…” Salem reached for the phone, “Get Michael!” he ordered tersely as he began to dial. Tegan nodded once before turning and running from the room, praying to the Ancients that she was wrong.

Tegan ran through the halls, panic making her push faster. She had no idea where Michael would be, but she tried the training rooms first. Her brother was as vigilant as she was in terms of training and she thanked the Ancients, that today, she wasn’t wrong. She found him sparring with Sloane. The training room had a few more Sentinels in it and she moved into the room before addressing him.

“I don’t know what he’s doing either, Michael,” Sloane said in exasperation as he dodged a heavy blow. “It’s not like Cord willactuallytell me.”

“Michael!” Tegan called softly as she hurried into the room. “We need you in the study, where’s your phone?”

“Tegan? What is it?” Michael asked dropping the kali stick and hurrying forward.

“Have you heard from Zahra?” Tegan asked him, seeing his confusion, “Since she left from here, has she returned your calls?”

“No, she’s being a drama queen,” Michael said, relaxing slightly at the line of questioning.

“Come, you need to come to the study,” Tegan pulled his arm.

“Tegan what is it?” Sloane asked as he came up and stood beside them.

---