Dawnlark Plains I will be there like mercy; I will find you through it all

She wept with him, and felt the wetness of his tears soak through her fur, yet she reckoned his shoulder was wetter still. What a mess they were - and she remembered Aditya, and cracked a stinging eye open, but even through the blur, she could tell he was gone. There was no one here except Sebastian, his presence, his scent, his voice, and her body shook from sobbing to the sound of laughter again.

"You definitely didn't make it easy," she said through half a laugh, and her face broke into a smile as she pressed her nose against him again and let his words sink in and soothe her weary heart. He had never stopped looking. He had never stopped trying. He had never given up. She had never been alone.

Yet her grin faltered when he spoke again, and she glanced at the ground through half a lid. Vela's warning had never left her mind, but she had let the young girl's words fall to the burner for the few moments she had spent in her friend's embrace. "I know," she whispered, and drew in tighter, despite the full knowledge she would need to leave to return to Moonspear again. And she wanted to. They were her family. But so was he. "Moonspear. I didn't tell them I'd be gone. They'll be wondering where I am."

Andalusia shifted with the knit of her brow. She didn't know how seriously to take Vela's threats against her, but she refused to see them as anything inconsequential. The girl had experienced deep hurt, as had her parents. If she left Moonspear now, what would that do to them, especially when they had been slighted before? Yet if she left Sebastian, what would that mean for them? Would this just be over? She pressed into him and sighed, "They're my family - Ostregas. They saved my life. I can't just leave them."  She slicked her ears. "I need to go back. But I don't want to leave you, either."