Main Story First |Main Story Previous| Index | Main Story Next

Side Story Previous | Side Story Next

When her father had said it would hurt, he hadn’t been kidding. Karen lay in the fetal position with her head covered by both her pillow and the duvet to cut out any hint of light. The only good thing about it was that the physical pain was distracting her from her returned memories. She’d have to face them soon enough, of course, but for now there was just the headache.

A gentle hand touched her shoulder with no accompanying mental touch. Karen started and pulled the pillow further over her head.

“Go away!” she mumbled.

“I brought you some paracetamol and codeine, Kaz,” her mother said.

Karen hesitated, then emerged from beneath the duvet cautiously. The dim light seeping through the curtains stabbed at her eyes in a most alien way and she had to squint to see properly.

“Thanks, mum.” She took the glass of fizzing water from her mother’s hand and downed it quickly to avoid tasting it. “I can’t believe how much light hurts right now. I’m bloody photokinetic; it shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Migraines don’t respect affinity, dear. Matt’s gone to find one of his wild healers who he trusts to come and help with the pain.” She sat down on the side of the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Like someone ran over my brain with a steamroller.” She squinted at her mother again. “How are you? You seem better than the other times.”

“I am. Ripping the block out wholesale was a lot easier than chipping away at it. I have a hellish headache as well, but I’m used to those. I’ll go and nap and it’ll go back to being a dull ache, but I wanted to check you were okay first.”

“I’ll live.” Karen frowned to herself. The painkillers had started to work and her released memories were starting to integrate. “But are you okay, I mean with what you found out…”

Her mother took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling. “I’m glad your father told me before I blew the cap. The shock would have-” She broke off with a shudder. “He’s going to make sure Nephele’s protected in case it goes after her, but I think it already would have if it was going to.”

“Yeah,” Karen said. “I think I’d better nap as well before I start crying.” She swallowed at the growing lump in her throat. “Kyle’s dead and Sean and… and…” She did start crying then and her mother wrapped her arms around her and rocked her like a baby. Even when her weeping stopped she still clung to her mother until sleep overcame her.

A/N: This will be the last side story for a while as I need to work on some other projects. Main story updates will continue on Mondays and Fridays

Side Story Previous | Side Story Next

Main Story First |Main Story Previous| Index | Main Story Next