chapter XIV
KREIOS AND MICHAEL LANDED in the little boulder clearing. He saw John lying in a patch of rough grass off to one side, still heavily drugged. Michael strode quickly over to Airel, who was kneeling before the prostrate form of a girl. This must be the half-breed Ellie, Kreios thought as he too approached them.
“Airel!”
Airel leaped to her feet and threw her arms around the boy, embracing him. “Michael, you’re… okay?”
“Yeah,” he said, looking down at the girl with eyes drenched in outsized responsibility and regret.
Kreios remained off to one side, looking at Michael’s expression.
“She saved me,” he managed, choking up. “Now she’s…”
“We have to do something,” Airel said, tears streaming down her face.
Michael pulled her closer to him.
Airel looked from Michael to Kreios with a spark of fear in her eyes. “Where’s Kim?”
“She…” Michael began. But he could not finish.
Airel’s face became white. She shook her head in disbelief, her eyes wide. She then fell into his arms sobbing. “No!”
Michael held her in his arms like a man would hold his bride of many years, consoling her, comforting her for some great loss; the grief of which he would be there to help her bear for years to come. Kreios was struck by the power of that image then, and the stock of the boy rose in his estimation once more.
So much pain and loss, and Kreios knew the taste of it well. Very well. Today one life had been snuffed. Kim was gone. Perhaps that was for the best, especially given how she had chosen…but it still didn’t reduce the sting, especially for Airel, he knew. But he could do something for this Ellie; maybe she could yet be saved.
He gently touched Michael’s shoulder. Their eyes met and Michael moved with Airel to one side.
As they moved away, Kreios looked down on the form of the half-breed girl, this Ellie.
He caught his breath, felt his legs go weak. He rushed forward and fell to his knees at her side, choking out his daughter’s name: “Eriel?”