SAGE (under edit)

Chapter Twenty Eight - This is Not Goodbye

Where there had been tension in the air before, now there was something else. The silence that had settled was one of shock, of confusion and disbelief but, underlying it, was a sudden, overwhelming understanding. The type where it felt as if the floor had fallen out from underneath you and you were there, suspended in the realisation, right before you fell.

And it was all because of the goodbye they had witnessed between Raidan and Sage. Even Chase was feeling it, Leon knew; they were all feeling the same thing, and that was the guilt of pulling Sage and Raidan apart.

What Leon had experienced upon seeing Sage and Raidan asleep on the hospital bed, curled around each other, was cemented in everyone else now.

'Do you think...' It was Sydney who decided to speak first. 'Do you think the Renark will still put Sage up for trial?'

'She has an obligation to,' Trey replied.

'That doesn't mean she will,' said Rhun pointedly. 'The Renark has the final say, on any criminal matter regarding a Soldier.'

'Sage isn't a criminal,' Sydney reminded him.

'That's not what I meant.'

'I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that the Lady Renark had travelled all this way,' said Theo on a yawn, which Sydney caught and began to yawn herself. It was a reminder that everyone had been up all night, with perhaps the occasional dozing.

But Leon had his own suspicion as to why the Renark had come to Green Coast, and he knew it wasn't just to speak with Sage personally. There was someone else she had probably spoken to before finding Sage – Lelah.

'I think the more curious matter here is the Shadow Soldiers themselves,' said Raven, approaching the subject that no one else was brave enough to. 'Their fondness for Sage is...'

'Surprising,' Trey offered.

'And Raidan?' said Rhun in disbelief. 'How has he managed to make Sage forgive him?'

Leon remembered when Sage had told him, before she left Lion Crest, that Raidan apparently didn't kill Dean. He hadn't quite believed her then, a part of him even suspecting Raidan had only manipulated her, but he believed it now. After witnessing the two together, he believed that Raidan hadn't killed Dean and whoever did – and the reasons behind it – had somehow created a connection between them too strong for anyone to break.

'The way they look-ked at each other...' Leah murmured, almost as if she was in awe.

Leon looked back to the door that separated them from the Renark and Sage, about a half-hour having passed since the two disappeared behind it. He hoped, for Sage's sake, that whatever the outcome of the conversation was it was in Sage's favour.

Even if it meant he might lose her.

Guessing it would be a long conversation, Leon was about to fetch himself a drink when he thought he heard a muffled thump from inside the room.

Trey, who was nearest to the door, reacted to the sound as well and turned to face it. 'Was that—?'

Then they all heard a crash, and the sound of shattering glass. Trey withdrew one of his daggers and went for the door, but it opened before he could open it himself.

'Lady Renark,' he said sharply, just as Leon saw the blood on Lilith's hand. Over her shoulder, Leon saw the window of the hospital room had been broken. Glass littered the floor, and a few dashes of blood painted the windowsill.

'What happened?' Rhun demanded. 'Was it the Shadow Soldiers again?'

Lilith drew in a long, weary breath. 'No, it was Sage.' She looked up, meeting everyone's gaze. 'Sage Lycrart has chosen to join the Shadow Soldiers. She attacked me, and then fled.'

'No...' Sydney whispered, cupping her mouth in disbelief.

'Sage wouldn't do that,' said Theo incredulously.

'She did,' said the Renark resolutely, but the look she cast to Leon told him everything he needed to know. As he closed his eyes, the Renark said, 'Sage Lycrart has officially defected from Lion Crest.'

*****

Sage ran with the past at her back, and Kyra thrumming through her veins. She had thought she was kidding herself when she fled Green Coast, intent on reaching the overhang outside Lion Crest City to meet Raidan, but determination had made her attempt the trek anyway.

And her Kyra had helped her do it.

She didn't feel at all as if she had just recovered from almost dying; instead, she felt rejuvenated. Whatever weakness and fragility she had had upon waking up this morning was gone and her body felt full of energy, even light.

But that didn't stop the heaviness in her heart.

Sage and the Renark had come to an agreement, an agreement that would remain solely between the two of the and lead her friends to believe that she was a criminal, and not just for her defection – but for the attempted murder of the Lion Crest Renark.

Yet Sage had no regrets. Even the thought of what would happen now, once the official warrant was placed on her head and spread across Zone, didn't worry Sage. She had told Chase that there were things they had to do which no one else may agree with, and she stood by that.

This was what she had to do. She had to be with Raidan, she had to track down Bryce, and she had to put an end to RedEarth.

Sage was only a few hours behind Raidan and the other Shadow Soldiers, so as night turned to day she allowed herself to slow to a walk for only a small amount of night, and stopped to rest for even less. By dusk the next day, Sage had reached the overhang.

The horizon came into view as she hiked up the land to the tip of the overhang, a strip of night cresting it. Lion Crest City was bathed by the setting sky, which was awash with lashes yellow, purple and pink and layered with burning clouds.

But no one was at the overhang.

Sage tried to stop her heart from sinking as she walked to the very edge of the cliff. Was she too late? Had Raidan already come here, waited, and then walked away? She felt that same emptiness she had felt at the hospital fill her again, and her heart began to sink into its depths as she closed her eyes against the view of Lion Crest City below.

'Given that you are now a criminal, perhaps you shouldn't be this close to the city.'

Sage's eyes widened, a familiar fluttering in her chest pulling her heart back up from where it had sunk. She turned around to see Raidan standing a few paces behind her.

The corner of his mouth curled with just the hint of a smirk and he said, 'Is this where we say goodbye again?' 

'This,' she said with a sudden incredulous laugh, 'is absolutely not goodbye.'

And then she was moving toward him, and Raidan had his arms around her as she crashed into him with abandon. Her lips found his and no other words were needed as she kissed him, reminding herself of him as if years had passed since they last saw each other.

It wasn't until Sage felt a drop of water on her cheek that she pulled away, puzzled. She looked up, realising more clouds had formed to fill the sky, and several more drops of water fell against her skin.

'It's raining,' she said in disbelief. 'It's actually raining!'

Sage closed her eyes, tilting her head back to meet the rain as it began to fall in a light pitter-patter against her face. How fitting, she thought. It had rained the night Lion Crest lost Dean, and now it rained for her departure as well.

She opened her eyes to see that Raidan had been watching her, more intent on her face than the rain falling around them. She smiled at him as he brushed his thumb across her cheek, and she remembered Leon's words before she had left Lion Crest.

He had told her that every action had a consequence, and Sage was okay with that because she knew now, was absolutely sure, that whatever consequences she would face in the future... Well, they would all be worth it.