Chapter 62a
Chapter 62a
Tanila stood in the doorway, her eyes fixated on their daughter, who was passed out. Max stood behind her, his hand on her shoulder, not saying a word.
She could feel the dampness of her dress where tears had soaked it. Her own soul felt empty and yet light, having spent the last few hours listening to every fear and pain that Miranna had.
“Come, let’s let her sleep,” Max said. “You could use a drink and so can I.”
Taking one last glance, Tanila nodded and gently shut the door. She turned, seeing Max’s eyes. His eyes held a spark of hope that she hadn’t seen in a while. Her chest had ached for so long, and it had hurt far more than any other wound she could remember. Even the fear of losing Max when he had been kidnapped hadn’t been this hard. She had the necklace back then and knew he was alive. Yet with Miranna, no jewelry granted her hope that the child she loved would return.
They made their way through the hall, holding hands and not saying a word until they reached the balcony where they often sat to talk or just look over the city below. Max pulled out a chair for her, and she fell into it, somehow worn out even though her body didn’t get tired.
“I feel that,” Max said as he plopped into his seat. “But I also feel she’s returning.”
“Part of me wasn’t sure she would,” Tanila said, admitting the truth out loud. “The way she behaved and rejected everything we said or tried to do was… painful. Parenting isn’t easy at all.”
Max laughed and shook his head, setting two glass cups and a bottle of wine she knew he had saved for special moments out from his storage. “I never thought it would be easy… just hopefully easier . I was certain I wasn’t this difficult. Maybe Stacy was, but I wasn’t.”
Tanila resisted the urge to roll her eyes, glad that they could joke and laugh for once. It had been so long since they could talk like this. The thread of hope felt thick enough to last, and she clung to it with every fiber in her body. “I’m glad I wasn’t there when Rakonath did what he did,” Tanila said as she took her cup, running a finger along the lip of it. “I might have gotten angry and… well, I would have been angry, and who knows what I would have done then.”
“Been a mother bear and tested out your bloodline bonus. I wonder who would have won that fight.”
“You’re saying you wouldn’t have helped?” Tanila asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t know what I would have done,” Max told her. “I wanted to stop him, and yet Bob told me not to. Part of me wanted to free her from Rakonath’s hands, but the other part of me knew that if I did, she’d never change.” He sighed, picked up his cup, and then drank it all in one go. After finishing it, Max sat back and looked out over the city. “Rakonath was right… the whole world has suffered for over two years, and we let it. I’m not sure what I could have done to hasten or push past her pain, but I see now all the things I was blind to before.”
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“You weren’t blind. You just chose to ignore them,” Tanila stated.
“And that’s worse,” Max replied. “You saw them, you pointed them out, yet you did something to try to help. I just kept giving her rope, hoping Miranna would finally stop running.” He sat up and set his cup on the small wooden table and started rubbing his thumb over his knuckles on the opposite hand.
She could see his eyes staring off somewhere. “What are you thinking so hard about?”
“I know she’s scared about so many things,” Max said, looking up at her. “She hasn’t acquired any new skills since she turned fifty. Twenty years with no extra skills has her wondering if she’ll never get stronger.”
Tanila snorted and shook her head. “She’s stronger than all of us except you were before entering the tower. Even now, the equipment and gear she has is beyond what most could dream of. Sure, it’s not as good as what we got because we were part of your group, but her entire team was equipped way more than anyone else I can think of.”
“I know, but it’s more than that,” Max said. “She’s in that shadow. Even if she doesn’t want to admit it, she’s just like you were. Trying to live her own life, always held back by who her parents are.”
Tanila winced slightly, the memory of her father and mother and the horrible things they had done. So many humans had died at the hands of her family, and Max was right about her not wanting to be part of that shadow.
“So what about Rakonath? Has he spoken to you since this morning?”
Max shook his head. “I haven’t reached out either. I will tomorrow. I know he is fine, but I need a moment to come to grips with what I’ve done to him.” Her husband paused and met her gaze. “I owe you an apology as well. I didn’t lead as I should, nor did I protect your heart as I promised.”
“You can’t take all the blame.”
“I can’t take it all, but I can take most of it. My job is to protect and watch over both of you. As much as this world means, you are my first love, and she is my second. Somewhere close comes Rakonath.”
“And Sog?” she asked, winking at him.
“Oh, easily after Fowl,” Max said with a chuckle. “The truth is, I think I’ve learned even more today than I had in a while. Family is more important than anything else. I forgot just how large my family is. I guess I’ll need to do the same as Miranna and go apologize to the others.”
“We both do,” Tanila said. Memories came flooding back of times when she had not been grateful for the help offered or given by her friends. Each of them said they understood, but that didn’t mean she was given a pass to act like that. “When did we take our friends for granted?”
“A long time ago,” Max replied. He took a deep breath and let it out, repeating the action twice more before smiling. “It’s funny… Sog has had a greater impact on me than I ever thought possible. And here you were worried about having a demon in our world.”
Tanila rolled her eyes and scowled playfully at him. “I believe you’re wrong, dear husband. I said I was worried about Sog corrupting our dragon. Who knew Cordellia would be the real villain in all that?”
Both of them sat there, laughing and smiling, finally able to see the light of a new day about to rise.