Warrior of the Moon

7

Serena curled her knees up to her chest as she sat on Lyla's bed, listening to the voices of her foster parents downstairs. They were only one staircase away. All she had to do was throw open the door and call to them, and she knew they would take the stairs three at a time to reach her. It was not until she could actually hear them again, that their presence was more than just a memory she could push away when she needed to, that she realized how much she had missed the Murphys.

She had briefly considered heading into her old room, but decided that it would just make her feel worse. The sense of unfamiliarity for this life that was no longer hers was painful. So she had strode into Lyla's instead, and waited for her friend to escape her parents' clutches.

Will and Isaiah were both with her, drinking tall glasses of water in silence. Isaiah was looking toward the floor as if afraid to meet Serena's gaze, but Will's expression was soft - something she had not seen from him since he had been teaching her how to use her bow. He offered his glass of water to her, and she could tell it was a gesture of goodwill. He may blame her for what happened in the Realm, but the fact of the matter was, she had lost her mother and been chased out of her kingdom, only to come to her old home and have to pretend she was not there at all. She was without home and family, and Will was too good a person inside to hold a grudge at a time like this.

Her lips trembling, she took it from him and took a long draught, hoping to hold back the tears. She failed.

It was not just that she was hurting. It was that she was making these people hurt, too. She had done a fantastic job of hurting innocent people in her brief time back in the Realm, and now, even though she was in the same house as them, she was still hurting the Murphys. At least in the former situation she was only doing those things because of the potion she was forced to drink. And now, even without the excuse of a blood potion, she was hurting two people who had given her everything she had ever known as a human. It was unforgivable.

"Forgive me for saying so, your Highness," Isaiah spoke out against her gloom, "But... you don't have a choice. We all support you."

"They're my parents," she choked out, feeling a tear slip down her cheek as she did so.

Will was watching her curiously now, as if her words confused him. She supposed it made sense; he would not understand what the Murphys meant to her. He had been in the world where her mother had desperately searched for her for years. To him, that was her parent. And of course she was not saying the Murphys replaced Triana, but all three of them had raised her, even if they bridged two worlds to do so.

"I know, your Highness. But you were right. Speaking to them would only hurt them further when you leave again, not to mention jeopardize your mission to get back. I've learned in my time here that humans are scrappy creatures; they find the most incredible ways to get things done without magic even in their bloodstream. There are these things called cell phones that are just--"

"Thank you, Isaiah," she cut in, breaking in before he could talk about all the marvels of modern human technology. It was the closest she had come in a while to breaking into a smile. "But please call me Serena. You aren't one of my subjects, and we're not even in my kingdom. Here, I'm just Serena. Especially to my friends."

He smiled softly and surprised her by sitting down beside her on the bed. "Serena... I know that we don't know each other very well," he began, and she found herself listening intently, entranced by the genuineness of his expression, the warmth of his gaze. "But maybe that's better. I mean... what I'm trying to say is, I know that you're hurting, Serena. And you haven't mentioned Tarin's name unless you absolutely had to ever since you came here. So if you wanted to talk about him, or anything else... well, you can to me. And I won't judge you. Because... well, you know. I don't even know you, so how could I?"