Burning Key

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Dessa and her family watched as Cleo and Adeena stepped forward from the quickly closing portal. Having gotten to know her cousin over those last few weeks in Arloerin, she already knew Adeena was freaking out more than she was leading to believe. Dessa's portal finally closed behind them, the slight breeze that calmed with it fluttering her and Cleo's hair around the faces. Adeena reached up and tucked a rogue strand behind her ear, swallowing hard as she looked over at her sister.

"Come on," Cleo urged, squeezing her hand gently before tugging her forward.

Lyv took a slight step forward, sucking in a breath. "No...that's...it can't be..."

"Cleo and I want to introduce everyone to Adeena," Dessa smiled over at her mother as she squeezed her hand.

Kalla wasn't even hearing her, taking those few stumbling steps across the courtyard. Both hands covered her mouth as tears glistened in her ice blue eyes as she looked between the two of them.

Cleo smiled at their aunt as she urged Adeena to move closer. "There's someone I want you to meet...again."

But Kalla wasn't paying attention to her, eyes locked on Adeena as she slowly made her way toward them. Hands reaching up, Kalla gently cradled Adeena's face as she took in every one of her features, comparing them to Cleo's, who still had a tight grip on her hand.

It was clear emotion clogged Adeena's throat as she let out a strangled laugh. "Hi, Auntie Kalla."

"Adeena?" Kalla choked out. "What...how?"

She didn't even let them answer before crushing Adeena into her embrace, stealing the air from her lungs. It was only then that she'd let go of Cleo's hand so she could wrap Kalla in a hug of her own, clinging to the only other person she'd missed so much from her childhood. Undoubtedly, memories flooded her mind as they clung to one another, Kalla mumbling question after question through her tears. There would be time to answer them all, though, and standing in the Ayverian palace courtyard was unfortunately not where she wanted it all to happen.

Kalla finally pulled back after kissing her cheek, face streaked with tears. "I don't understand," she said. "How are you here? Where have you been? Why did you never come home?"

Adeena reached up and wiped her own tears away as she smiled. "Even at four years old, death couldn't manage to hold me...but there was far more to it than you would think. It...might take a little while to explain it all."

"All right," she nodded, then brought her in for another hug. "Gods, I missed you, sweet girl. You have absolutely no idea."

She finally returned her hug with a fierce one of her own. "I missed you, too."

From there, Dessa stepped back as Adeena was then reintroduced to almost every family member from Dalcaine – her grandparents and great-grandparents, her great uncles and cousin Roux, and of course the Dalcaine royal family. Sienna, Geir, Bridget, and Gaven were of course shocked and then thrilled to meet her, both with tears and laughter.

"You look so much like your mother," Bridget told her, holding her face in her hands just as Kalla had. "Both you and Cleo do. Gods...twenty years ago, we didn't even know you two existed. Then hearing about what happened when you were little...I never thought I'd get to meet you, Adeena, so welcome to our family."

Adeena's answering smile was one of the brightest Dessa had seen from her.

It was Dessa's mother and father who had yet to introduce themselves and meet Lyv's long lost cousin. One look over at her mother, who was still gripping tight to her hand, and Dessa's brows drew together. On her other side, Jai was giving her the same look, then met Dessa's gaze.