Chapter 55: Not Leaving
The three girls stopped talking and just looked at Nox.
"Stay here? What are you talking about?" Kendra asked, her brow furrowed.
"With your families," he said, his gaze moving from one to the other. "You found them, they’re safe. You should stay with them, protect them. You don’t need to be running around with me."
There was a moment of silence. Then Kendra started to laugh. It wasn’t a mean laugh, just one of pure disbelief. Yeda giggled a little, covering her mouth with her hand. Even Vasa cracked a small, rare smile.
"Are you serious?" Kendra asked, wiping a tear of laughter from the corner of her eye. "Did you hit your head or something while you were gone? We’re not leaving you, idiot."
"Yeah, we’re a party," Yeda added, her voice a bit more confident than usual.
Nox’s expression didn’t change. He wasn’t joking, and their laughter just bounced off him. "I’m not kidding," he said, the tone of his voice, cold and serious, made them stop laughing. The smiles vanished from their faces.
"This is it," he said, his voice flat. "We’re done. You guys have people who need you here. I don’t. It’s that simple." He looked at them, his eyes unreadable. "It’s been... whatever. But it’s over. This is goodbye."
Yeda was the first to speak, her earlier confidence wavering a little, but her voice was firm. "No," she said, shaking her head. "We’re not going anywhere."