Sunbeam Lair A husband waits outside

Hunst had a simple, soldier's way of striking at the heart of a thing; could she fault him? Of course her father's death would be the end goal, the close of their journey. He'd taken too many lives by now, ruined so many more — and perhaps hers counted among that number. Perhaps she should have felt as sure as the rest of them.

Somehow she couldn't. Easier to judge the man's equally simple wants, his clumsy probing of a potential future as if he hadn't thought before now that he would have one.

I have four, Reverie murmured, her smile more genuine now. All very different from each other - but they have good hearts. They're the reason I'm here.

Her gaze flitted away from the man, finding the gaps in Sunbeam's ceiling.

He wants them - because they're mine. Because they're Medeiros.

He won't have them. But that part, she thought, went without saying.