The Healing of a Heart
POV: Alexandra
I couldn’t believe that my uncle was in Terre because, as far as I knew, he had never been there. I had wondered what could have made him want to come to Terre and why he would leave without saying anything to anyone. We stepped through the portal and found ourselves once again in Terre’s Blackwood. A car had been sitting by the portal to take us back to the manor. I was surprised to see a car instead of a carriage. Blake cleared his throat, “We thought that a car would be more expedient. You did express that finding him was a matter of life or death. Did you not?” I looked at him, “Yes, I did so let’s get going. I don’t think we should stop at the manor though. We should go straight to my uncle.” We climbed into the car and he agreed that it would be best to go to him right away. We drove the hour it took to get to Denver, we drove into a part of the city that was a bit seedy. I told the driver to stay with the car because I wasn’t sure we would see it ever again if we left it alone. Blake approached an area off to the side of the building where a man with black hair was standing. He approached him, “Has he moved at all?” The man shook his head, “Not even to get food.” I was confused so I asked, “You haven’t approached him yet?” Blake sighed, “I didn’t think it was a good idea. He may know me but I didn’t want to risk letting him know that we are here. He probably would have run off before you got here. I thought it was best that you would be the lone person to approach him. He would likely only speak with his family anyhow.”
I walked towards the building and asked over my shoulder, “Which room?” Blake said, “102.” I nodded and walked to where the door said 102 and knocked. There was a long silence before Talon answered the door. He sighed at me and propped the door open to let me in. I came into the room and sat at the small table set up by his bed. He sat across from me and he wore a frown on his face to indicate that he was not pleased he was found. I sighed, “Just what do you think you are doing?” He looked at his hands that were folded on the table, “I want to be honest with you, Xan, but I don’t want to upset you either.” I crossed my arms across my chest, “I’m already upset Uncle Talon. I want to know why without sugar-coating it.” He looked up at me, “I came here to die.” I jumped up from my chair, “Why?!” He bit his lip and tears came rolling down his face, “I remembered every awful thing I did. I came within a few inches of ending your life, Xan. Nothing I can ever do will atone for that.” I clenched my jaw, “So you thought running away from home and letting yourself freeze to death would have been better atonement?” He hesitantly nodded and I walked up to him and slapped him. He put his hand to his face and looked up to see me crying, “Nothing would have helped us to get over the grief of losing you again! Do you understand?! Do you understand that I need you, we need you around?! You can’t just come into my life and make it more wonderful and then decide to leave it. Vanessa is beside herself with worry for you. Would you want to send her into a depression?”
I placed my hands over my face and sobbed. I stood there for a short time sobbing into my hands when I felt his arms wrap around me. He kissed the top of my head, “I’m sorry, Xan. I guess I didn’t know you felt that way about me. You made me realize that I was being selfish but I need to find a way to atone for the sins against you and the others. What can I do?” I wiped my tears and looked up at him, “You can atone for your sins against me, Uncle Talon, by living. You cannot do this to me again.” He sighed, “You drive a hard bargain, young one. What happens when the others that I sinned against want my death?” I placed my arms around him and squeezed, “They will have to answer to me. They cannot have your life and I will ask His Majesty to give me this restitution. If I have to, I will make sure it is in writing.” He laughed, “I believe you would too.” He sighed and looked down at me, “I will give you my life, young one, but it is up to you what I do with it.” I patted his face, “First, I want you to go home and apologize to Vanessa. I think we can keep this incident from reaching my mother’s ears.” He laughed, “I prefer not to have her come back from wherever she went and kick my ass.” I nodded once, “So now we need to check you out of here and get back to Vellum.” I pulled out some money that I thought would cover the rate and handed it to Talon, “Here, I would go take care of it for you but I don’t think it would be a good idea. People here hate me. I’m like some sort of repellent for humans.”
He nodded then took the money from me and we walked out of the room. I waited for him outside of the front office while he paid for the room he was occupying. He came out carrying papers a short time later and we walked off towards where Blake was waiting for us. Blake looked relieved to see that he was with me and unharmed. Talon looked at Blake, “Is that you, Your Highness?” He smiled then nodded, “It is Talon. I was helping Alexandra to find you with my tracker. You got sloppy.” Talon laughed, “I did but it was a good thing. Perhaps I subconsciously wanted to be found.” We all climbed into the car and I silently thanked the Gods that I was able to find him before it was too late. One crisis in the form of my uncle was averted. Now he would have to go apologize to Vanessa. I looked over at Talon who was sitting next to me in the car, “You should get her flowers, might soften the blow that you went off to die.” Blake chuckled, “Sure, it will. I have known Vanessa all my life, that won’t soften a blow like that. You’d have to kiss her feet and amongst other things.” I nudge his shoulder, “I think I know how women think more than you do, Blake. I think flowers will show her that you are going to work towards earning some semblance of trust again.” Talon smiled at me lovingly, “You’re right. I have known Vanessa a very long time and I believe the flowers would help. I don’t want to get them here though, I think in that one town that Blackwood is in on the Terre side would be fine.” I shifted in my seat uncomfortably, knowing that I should help my uncle shop for her. I remembered the snide looks from the townspeople and the sarcastic remarks. I felt a hand on my mine that gave me a gentle squeeze. I looked up to find Blake was trying to comfort me, “You’ll be fine Alexandra, I won’t let anyone hurt you again.” I relaxed a little because I remembered that I was amongst people who loved me.
After an hour, we pulled into town and asked the driver to take us to Memories Flower and Gift Shop. When the car parked outside of the store, I drew in a deep breath and hoped silently that I wouldn’t run into any of my old classmates. The men in my party both stepped out before me and Blake held his hand out to me, “My lady, I am here for you.” The women who were walking down the sidewalk were checking Blake out. I really didn’t blame them, he was handsome and had great manners. I had been dazzled by him back when I thought he was Burnett. I put my hand in his and when I stepped out of the car, those same women started to whisper about how I was a hussy. Blake shot them a glare, “I can see the women in this town are uncouth. No wonder you went away from here, darling.” Talon was also glaring at them but he said nothing. All he did was stare at them icily until they felt so uncomfortable that they walked faster. I laughed, “Down boys, I think we’ve thoroughly embarrassed and scared them.” Talon shot me a smile, “I don’t think I scared them enough. I was fixing to pull out my pocket blade.” I gasped and grabbed his shoulder, “That won’t be necessary. I’m sure you’d find yourself in prison and it would be hard to get you out without some sort of human identification.” He smirked, “Well, let’s go shopping then.”
We entered the store and the owner, Maribel, was talking with an old lady about how she was doing a wedding this weekend. When she saw me, she got a scowl on her face, “Oh look, that Batiste girl is back in town. Thought we got rid of that lot.” I glared at her, “I’m sorry but who was it that put money into this town so that you could have this flower shop? I seem to recall one Darren Batiste investing in several businesses in town that were struggling.” Her mouth hung open and she whispered how I never had the audacity to talk back before. Blake put his arm around me and smiled, “You seem to be more confident now, darling.” I looked up at him, “That’s because I have good friends who love me.” He nodded and we walked further into the store. I helped Talon pick out a bouquet of white stargazer lilies which I knew Vanessa loved. I also encouraged him to purchase a beautiful rose gold necklace with amethyst stone inlaid in it. Technically, I purchased those things with the money my parents gave me to live on if I needed to come back to Terre but Vanessa didn’t need to know that. As we were being rung up by Maribel, I heard a person clear their throat behind us. I turned to find Sally Plinker standing behind me and my stomach churned.
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