Flight Of Fate

Chapter Seventeen - A Lover's Compassion

Thranduil's eyes were huge as he gazed down into Kira's, which were overflowing with tears.

"Your twin brother?" he repeated in a shocked whisper. "What are you talking about?" His eyes searched hers, confusion blatantly clear in the depths as he hunted for some reasoning behind what she'd just said. "Kira, what the hell's going on?"

She dragged a shaky breath in. "My twin," she repeated in a whisper through her tears. "He's...it's a long story...I..." She trailed off as everything became too much for her.

Strong hands gripped her upper arms as her knees gave way beneath her. One hand moved and she felt herself being swept up into his arms and cradled against his chest. The kitchen blurred and began to darken as she lost consciousness.

By the time she regained awareness, she found herself lying on her side on the couch with her spine pressed against the back. Thranduil was sitting next to her abdomen, one long leg crossed over the other, and one arm resting on the back of the sofa above her. Thoughtful eyes regarded her as she blinked and focused on his.

"You have to tell me everything," he said. His voice was calm and controlled, showing no signs of the explosion he'd shown previously. "I cannot do anything if I don't know what it is that you are running from."

She closed her eyes and turned her head away, but warm fingers gently but firmly turned her back to face him.

"You cannot run forever," he said quietly. "Talk to me. Tell me what's scaring you so much, this brother of yours. I assumed that you were an only child."

"I wish I was," she whispered.

He waited patiently. "What happened?"

The silence seemed to last forever. "Kyle is my twin," she said eventually. "He's younger than me by three minutes."

He uncrossed his legs and shifted slightly to ease cramped muscles.

"We were at each other's throats from the start, we never got on. There was so much rivalry between us when we were growing up," she said. Her gaze was fixed on a blank spot on the wall behind him. "I was so close to our dad; so close. Maybe it's because I was a girl, I don't know, but he was always so protective over me. We went everywhere together, did everything together. I could talk to him about anything and everything. I could do no wrong in his eyes, nor he in mine."

A few seconds passed before Thranduil spoke. "You were extremely lucky to have that strength between you," he said. "Although Eden has not been in my life for all that long, I too feel that protective love for her. I would walk through fire for her, I would die for her. A father's love is often underrated because it is not us who carry and deliver the child. But the love is just as strong as a mother's."

Her eyes moved to his as she heard the tinge of sadness in his words. "My mother never had that bond with me," she said. "She was bitter. Nothing I did was good enough. She doted on Kyle. But all he wanted was our dad's affections."

"Tell me why you ran with our child," he said softly.

She took a deep breath as she collected herself. "The night my dad died...it was in the middle of winter. I'd gone to a friend's for a study group. Exams were coming up, and we were going over the tutorials for the biology course. There was about six or seven of us." She stopped, and he knew by her eyes that she'd gone back in time to that night. "A couple of us started arguing – I can't even remember what it was about, to be honest. It turned pretty vicious, and my friend's mother went nuts. She tossed us all out, told us she wasn't having us over to study if we were going to fight and cause a disruption in her home."