Redhawk Caldera You're nothing but a pack of smokes and a bag of tricks.

It was Reyes' shouting more than Bronco's command that made Sorana stop, but it was eventually the latter that made her turn around, after taking several beats to process what was said. There was already a quiet growl in her throat when she leveled a molten glare upon the Blackthorn, and a brief flash of teeth that communicated how she felt about being told what to do by him.

She didn't answer to Bronco.

She shoved aside the desire to tell him off with more than just body language, choosing instead to pay closer attention to the visitor. He didn't look like what Sorana imagined her father was supposed to look like. By now, she had forgotten most of his features. All that remained was an idealized version cooked up by her imagination, and this guy didn't fit the bill. Something must have clicked, though, because she felt her stomach flip over when she asked, daddy?

Without awaiting confirmation, she turned to Bronco to tell him to, go away, because the last thing she wanted was his intrusion during an intensely private and intimate reunion, and then she closed the distance between herself and Reyes and hesitantly pressed her head to his neck. She didn't remember his face or features, but she could not forget his smell; the minute it enveloped her, tears leaked down her cheeks. All the anger and confusion she had felt about his disappearance melted away, leaving only relief.

For half a second, it felt like the cracked surface of Sorana's psyche could mend. She felt elation.

Then she felt her father's weight crumpling into her as he sagged. She pulled back, confused, in time to see the way his eyes rolled back. He fell to the ground in the same manner a dead hare did when dropped. Daddy? she asked, nosing his face. His breathing sounded all wrong. Daddy, what's wrong?

There was no response. Daddy! she cried when his last breath slipped out of him. She collapsed over top of him, searching for signs of injury or some indication of what was happening. Daddy, no, stop! This isn't funny! Get up! She pricked her ears, listening for breath, finding none.

The cracked surface of her psyche

suddenly

shattered.

Daddy! sobbed Sorana, turning and drawing back her forepaws like a fox about to pounce a mouse in the snow. She slammed them into her father's stone-still side in a full-bodied shove. DADDY! She drove her paws into his side again and again and again, a teenager beating her fists futilely against a wall. All the agony she had endured in her life built into a keening to rival the worst winter squall. GET! UP!

But Reyes did not move. He would never move again, and Sorana would never get her daddy back. He had returned only long enough to give her a taste of happiness before that, too, burned away.

Crazed with shock and grief, Sorana rounded on Bronco. Her voice tore out of her in a horrible shriek: WHAT DID YOU DO?!