Book Two: KOTLC One-shots and More

No Easy Answers (Edaline POV)

Edaline rose the next morning even more exhausted than usual. She and Grady didn't go downstairs for breakfast, but instead went straight upstairs to the cupola to wait for Sophie by the Leapmaster. Grady locked the device down, and Edaline knew he was determined to ensure Sophie couldn't leave without talking to them.

And then Sophie was there, looking disheveled and weary, with puffy, blood-shot eyes.

Edaline knew the feeling well.

Sophie wouldn't even look at them as she approached the Leapmaster. Edaline's eyes found Sophie's cape, and she realized with a powerful surge of grief that Sophie had ripped the Ruewen crest off of it--apparently with her bare hands.

Edaline couldn't stop staring at that gaping hole, and was suddenly overcome with the urge to beg her to let the gnomes sew it back onto her uniform and forget all about last night.

But she couldn't find the words, and couldn't guarantee they'd be the right ones to say anyway. Not in the long run.

Sophie tried to call down the crystal for Foxfire, and bristled when Grady explained that he'd locked it down so that they could talk.

"There's nothing to talk about," she retorted, looking at them at last. "You don't owe me anything. I'm not your daughter."

Edaline was surprised how much it hurt, hearing her say that.

Which was stupid, really, since they were the ones who had decided that she wouldn't become their daughter.

"Sophie..." Grady tried, but Sophie cut him off.

"No, it's fine. I thought we were a family but I was wrong. I can't replace Jolie and I guess you don't want me."

The shock of hearing Jolie's name come out of Sophie's mouth knocked both of them back a step.

How did she know? They had been careful not to tell her about Jolie. Partly because they just weren't ready for her to know, and partly because they didn't want her to think she was being compared to anyone.

And the bitterness and anger with which she'd spoken...

It hurt.

"There. We talked. Can I go now?"

Her comment about Jolie seemed to have knocked all fight out of Grady. "I want you to come straight home after school," he told her. "We need to talk, regardless of what you think."

When she didn't respond, he added, "Sophie, we're still your guardians. You have to do what we say."

Edaline was surprised at the resentment in Sophie's eyes as she looked at him. "Fine. If you want to keep up the charade, I'll play along. Would you like a hug while we're at it? Should I tell you 'I love you' again?"

Edaline brought a hand up to her mouth, but it did little to muffle the sob that escaped her.

That little voice that kept chanting she loves us had something new to say. See? You've made things so much worse. She loved you. Edaline was barely keeping it together as wave after wave of regret, of pain, of confusion coursed through her, making her sobs harder to muffle, harder to contain.

"No," Grady said weakly. "Just... have a good day at school." He snapped his fingers to unlock the Leapmaster, and they watched as she stepped into the light and disappeared.

And then...Edaline sank to the floor, right where she was, and gave herself over to her tears.

"I'll talk to her," Grady promised as he joined her on the floor, his agony evident on his face. "She's understandably upset and angry with us, especially given how she found out, but I promise you, Edaline, I will talk to her. I'll make her understand."