Guardian (Sequel to Fearless)

Chapter Seventy Four

"I've dreamed this many times," Irila softly admitted. "It is you, isn't it? I'm not seeing things, am I?"

"This isn't a dream of yours," Rhalla whispered. "And it's me."

"Irila," Elliot drew his wife's attention backwards. "Who is this?"

She whirled around. "Oh, Elliot," she laughed softly. "Did you not hear my words?"

"No, I heard," he replied. "All of it. I just... I think I may have misunderstood. Somehow. You made it sound like this was... someone it couldn't possibly be."

Hench took a step in front of Irila, who let her by. Wordlessly, the mighty woman swooped down to the ground for a few moments. And then, she came up with a closed palm. There wasn't a way she was going to be able to just come out and say it... so she'd let this speak for her.

Rhalla walked toward Elliot. It was a hesitant few steps. She held her catch gently in her hand, taking great care not to crush it or hurt it. Elliot watched her until she stopped just short of him. Her eyes found where his hands hung at his sides, and then they moved right back up to his face. Something about the way she looked at him was expectant. Suddenly, he was thrown into a memory -no, a hundred memories. Each one was the same... his little Cricket squatting in the yard, looking over the grounds with sharp scrutiny. After a little time, she'd come running up to him, hand out in front of her just like that. She would stare at him just like that until he said--.

"What have you got for me there, then?" he asked Hench in a broken voice.

Just as those hundred times before, he got the same answer. Without a word, she took his hand and placed a cricket right in the middle of it. He stared in disbelief for what felt like minutes instead of seconds. The cricket jumped out of his palm and back out into the night, jarring him back to the situation. He looked back up to Hench.

He didn't fully believe it. At least, not until she smiled -really smiled. She couldn't help herself. Her eyes barely crinkled at the corners, and her wide grin was held up with very slight indentations at the corners. He hadn't seen that smile in twenty years. His heart rammed against his sternum. His breath got all caught up in his chest. No.

When he only stared in surprise, her grin quickly dropped into a face that looked terribly nervous.

His hand finally moved from where it lingered. Just as her mother had done, he rested it against her cheek. Finally, Elliot returned her smile. Try as he might, though, that was all he could do. He couldn't speak aloud. There was so much he wanted to say to her. A thousand sentences whirled in his mind, each attesting to how much he'd missed her or how much he loved her. None were enough. His little girl. Oh gods, this was his little girl. He could only mouth, "Rhalla."

Her smile returned. This time it was a small one -a tender one. She lightly rested her head against his calloused palm and shut her eyes. One of her tears ran down over his fingers.

He wiped the rest of the water track away with a thumb. After a second, she pulled her head back up and stared at him with eyes that matched his own. There wasn't a messy jumble of words like she'd shared with Irila. There was only understanding -understanding and undiluted joy. He took her into an embrace just as her mother had.

Rhalla felt as her mother joined in on the other side. She dared to open one eye to find Iris, Kayde, and Dane beaming and Azabela absolutely losing her shit beside them. Her war paint was smudged from her cries, and she was snottier than Hench had ever seen her. Her little body was shaking from happiness for her beloved. She looked beyond that a ways to see that Dyran and the girls had stopped to watch, too.