Morningside Cuesta ouska

"yes. i know." her shoulders tensed with the lurching need to shout at them, to chase them away from this place they never had wanted to be. "i told druid she could leave with fiona. i can handle glaukos. but she won't. she wants him gone and us" struggling starving hating winnowing gasping "she wants us to do this without him."
alone.
etienne's offer of help almost made her convulse with anger. and reminding her of ezra and gideon almost forced heda to look at their potential father, standing silent and austere. instead she only bloomed with pain to know she was away from them far too early for far too long, out of a necessity she hadn't caused.
she wanted the help, she wanted it badly. but she refused to rely on anyone who wouldn't stand up to protect the bypass, and she certainly wasn't going to ask it of etienne. or anselm, for that matter. "i'll live. if you're coming, druid needs you. her elbow is messed up, her mouth is cut to pieces." quietly; "he knocked out some of her teeth." saying it aloud made her feel like a terrible sister. saying it aloud made her want to scream at druid to leave, because if all four of them believed glaukos might come back, who knows what he could do then.
he was an animal of schedule and routine. he knew enough not to hurt both sisters; who would nurse his pups? heda felt this saved her from the punishments he'd doled to the others; why did druid stay, trapped in a den and debilitated?
the minutes were slipping by. all she wanted was to rest, to bathe the cold mud off herself and curl among the puppies for a few hours. their eyes were opening, and she was going to miss more moments.
moments she didn't even think druid cared about, not the way heda did. her sister needed attentive care and no demands on her tormented body; she needed to be out of noctisardor, heda decided, the same way she herself had needed to leave sweetharbor.