Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 36

I lie sleepless in the middle of my bed at home, my comforter piled around me much like a nest. Sunlight is filtering in through the open shades of the windows, the golden light filling my room and gracing my tired eyes. There is a tightness around my throat, along with pain that is throbbing in time with my heart. I reach up to touch the bruises that still ache. I lie still, basking in the sunlight.

I can feel it growing stronger, the light slowly warming me as the sun rises higher. I lean into it, briefly closing my eyes. 

This is...peaceful. 

For a long moment, I don't want to leave. 

The events from last night leach their way into the present. I shiver as I resist the urge to crawl back under the covers and hide from the day. But I still get dressed, sensing that I need to get up since I can smell the sweet aroma of chocolate chip muffins. Mom doesn't make them very often because they're really only my favorite and everyone else likes blueberry. I try not to be long as I make my way down the stairs. 

I pause in the doorway to the kitchen as I take in the sight before me. The pile of papers on the counter has been neatly organized, a shocking sight to behold. Though it could only mean one thing. 

She's gone over every single note she's made likely in the past three months. 

She was looking for clues too.  

Connor sits on one of the stools at the bar, a tiny wyvern perched on his shoulder as he watches something on his tablet. Mom is leaned against the counter, her eyes trained on the oven. She gnaws on the corner of her lip thoughtfully, her gaze unfocused like she's in the midst of Seeing.

She has yet to see me.

In that moment, I realize that she's aged. 

There are the beginnings of wrinkles on her face that I haven't taken the time to notice before. On the far wall there is a picture of her and my father on their wedding day. The difference between then and now is striking and it shakes me to my core as she suddenly looks up at me.

"Kara?" 

She steps quietly across the kitchen, lifting an oven mitt clad hand to cup my face as she looks deeply into my eyes. Searching for anything and everything at all. 

"Are you okay, honey?"

"I'm fine," I murmur.

Her eyes crinkle at the edges as she draws me into a hug that makes me want to fall apart. Connor gives me a strange look as he glances from me to mom and I shake my head at him. The oven buzzes then, interrupting her as she promptly lets go of me. She opens the oven door before she pulls out the trays of muffins and sets them on the counter.

"So why are you home?" Connor asks suddenly, "and why does mom want me to stay home today?"

My mother looks from him to me before she sighs and shakes her head.

"We'll talk about it later, Connor," she promises him before she turns to me, "go sit," she tells me.

She turns away without another word and begins to extricate the muffins out of the trays before she starts to set them out on plates, steam curling from them. I sit down next to Connor, the tiny, silver-colored wyvern cocking its head as it crawls across his shoulder toward me. Its golden eyes glimmer with curiosity as it opens its tiny mouth to reveal baleen lined jaws.  

"What did you name it?" I inquire as Indigo enters the kitchen.

"Spike," Connor says proudly as he reaches up and touches the wyvern on its head.