RAVENNA
Two days later.
The house had been too quiet, ever since we got back from the hospital. It felt as if the walls too were holding their breath. Riven hadn’t really said a word, except when she told me the boy said he knew what she really was.
She walked beside me now, her little hand wrapped tightly around two of my fingers. Her head was down, with her eyes fixed on the ground. I knew she was afraid, not just of the strangers we were going to meet, but of disappointing me.
We reached a house, a polished brown gate with bronze lion heads embedded at the center towered in front of us. I stared at it for a long time, my throat dry. Elias had helped me bake cookies last night for this apology, while I packed a bouquet of fresh lilies, white and soft pink, but all that freshness felt
