A Handful of Daffodils (Forgotten Series, #7)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

A week later

Maeve babbled at me, clapping her hands as I shuffled around the small bedroom we had been given. It was in the healer Rosie's house and I appreciated the company and the space but I hadn't settled. There was a heavy ache in my chest, in my heart. I wanted to go home. I just wanted Maeve and I to go home. Maeve gave a small screech and I pushed the morose feeling down, turning and giving her a smile.

"I know, my precious girl." I moved over to the bed where I had her sitting, surrounded by pillows and she stretched her arms up, her small hands opening and closing and I picked her up. "I know. I'm not happy either." I had been told the Hunters had found nothing. Every single day it was the same question with the same answer. They were trying but they hadn't found anything yet. Every single day that answer made my heart sink a bit further in my chest and late at night, when I was sure Maeve was asleep, I cried.

I figured Doc Howard telling me it was okay meant I could and I figured if there was something worthy crying over, it was the fact Maeve was without her daddy and he was without her and that I wasn't home. I hated that I had lost my home again. I hated it so much. I hated it even more after I looked at Maeve a few days ago and realized she cut her first tooth. I had bawled into my pillow that night. I took picture and videos, every single day. Every single one, but Brochan was still missing it. He still wouldn't be able to experience looking in her mouth and seeing that little white peaking out. I had taken a video, getting her to show it off and smile but it wasn't the same.

Maeve patted my face, blowing a raspberry at me before grabbing at my ear, fussing slightly. "I know, it's food time." She was getting hungry and she was becoming clingy as well but I understood that. I was all she had right now and we had moved so many times. There had been so much that happened to her in the past nearly two months. She never should have endured it all, she should have been safe but instead she had gotten stuck with me.

"Menza-oh!" Rosie's voice cut off and I looked at her, feeling a bit guilty. She was giving me a rather stern look and I adjusted Maeve in my arms.

"I'm not as sore and she's not so big." I whispered it and she let out a huffing sigh.

"I know but that's because you aren't taxing it. I know you want to cuddle and I know you want to pick her up and carry her around but those wounds are just starting to close up. I don't want you tearing them open." Her voice held a heavy note of chastisement as she came over and took Maeve from my arms, despite my silent protests, trying to cling to the little girl. "I would not hear the end of it from that Doc Howard. He calls me enough as it is. I'll tell him it's your fault and he will chastise you instead." She gave me a look and I let out a small sigh. She bounced Maeve slightly in her arms before looking me up and down and letting out a breath.

"I know this is difficult for you, Menza." Her voice was soft and it took all I had to tell her she didn't know how difficult it was, that she had no idea what I was going through with this. I missed my home. I missed Brochan. I missed being where I could see Maeve being loved on by her daddy. I missed the smiles he would give me. I missed the way his face would light up when he saw Maeve, no matter how long he was gone she always got that look. I missed it all. She couldn't understand that, how I felt. That hole inside my chest was eating me alive and the only thing that could fix it was somewhere I couldn't name or find on a map. "If you did the ritual, perhaps you could heal a bit faster. I have seen it happen before." The words were familiar once and I closed my eyes slightly, reaching up to touch the bandages on my torso.

There was another half-breed on the territory. His name was Jeremy. He had found me the first night I had joined in at the dining hall. He had explained to me all about the ritual and how much better he felt having it done. He wasn't quite the size of most shifter males I knew but he had been strong enough in his own right. It had been strange to see someone else like me and I hated to say it but I felt nothing in particular in common with him. He had been raised by a single shifter female. She had been in a relationship with a mundane who left when he learned she was pregnant. He had a decent life, his mother loved him, his grand parents doted on him. They even gave him their blessing to go to Altia to be a priest. I felt I had nothing in common with him.