Guardian (Sequel to Fearless)

Chapter Sixty

A/N -- Sorry for the wait, guys! Been real busy. Hope you enjoy!

Iris and Hench stood side by side at the grave markers. It was a sight Iris was, for lack of a better word, used to. That wasn't to say that she'd ever be completely fine with the fact that they were gone, but she'd come to terms with the fact that they weren't alive any longer. Hench, on the other hand, just stared at both the graves with a pale-faced horror. It was as if it had finally hit her that she'd never see her parents again -not in this life, anyway.

Iris placed the flowers she'd picked from the garden at the base of their marking-stone. "Fare you well, mother and father," she whispered to them as she always did. "I made it home safe. May we meet again in the hall of the gods." It wasn't a long speech like she usually gave, but it was enough to settle her for the time being.

"This isn't real," came Hench's whisper.

Iris chuckled humorlessly. "I know. It feels like a dream, doesn't it?"

"Despite everything, I think a part of me always knew that I'd make it back home one day, if only to say good-bye," Hench told her sister. "And I imagined what it would be like if I had. I went through every possible scenario. I imagined their excitement at my return, the possible disgust for who I had become since they'd known me. I imagined what they'd say about Azabela... about Dane. I imagined how horrified they'd be if they found out what had happened to me. And if I decided not to tell them, I thought of how disappointed they be of me for having an older son. I wondered if they'd love my son. All of that... and..."

Hench pinched her lips shut.

"No, don't do that. Not anymore." Iris put a hand on Hench's shoulder. "Talk to me, Rhalla."

Now, the mighty woman faced her sister. "All of that, and now I realize that there was only one scenario I never thought of." Her gaze found the graves. "The one where they're not here at all. This one."

"That's not necessarily true," Iris said. "We keep them alive in here." She put a hand to her heart.

Hench barked a short, humorless laugh.

"What is it?"

"That's some happy-land, rainbow shit right there," came the large woman's brutal honesty.

"Now, you quit that. It's true." Iris sniffed and crossed her arms.

"You're right. They're in our hearts. What good does that do?" came the answer. "In my heart, I can't put my arms around my mother. I can't laugh with my father. What good does it do to say that they're in our hearts? Better to forget and stop the bleeding... the pain." Hench's lips turned into a hard frown.

"I'll tell you something about life." Iris grabbed her sister's wrist suddenly and whirled Hench to face her. "We were built to smile, to bleed, to dance, to feel. We were built to live. And sometimes there's pain. But let me tell you something about pain... it heals."

The large woman grumbled. "If you say so."

Iris could tell she wasn't going to get anywhere with Rhalla. Not right now. Not that she could blame her older sister... it was hard visiting the grave of a parent. She imagined it was especially difficult because this was the first time. "I'll let you alone to think... to mourn if you must. Helps me to talk to them."

"The dead don't hear us."

Iris chuckled. "Ever the cynic."

Hench turned to face the graves again. Her face contorted, and she chuckled with great effort. "Ever the optimist."