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"Lilly?" Aunt Syl exclai away to make sure I was serious "How? Where? How?" She repeated, the tears pooling in her eyes all over again

"I just picked her up, she's sleeping on the couch," I gestured towards the living roo!" She pattedthe coffee pot ready "I want to know it all!" She pushed me towards the tall chairs at the island and I sat down heavily This was going to take a while

Aunt Syl poured coffee and I shared everything with her froreed to help and then sentJericho back and flying in Gabriel's tiny plane to France I told her about finding Avalon's tea Mr Lambert's apartment as a safe-house, which eird I told her about Sebastian and how I started to think he wasn't such a bad guy I opened up co her about the deal we made and that my part of it was to kill him at the end of all of this I told her about his ed h she wasKiran for the first time, and what it was like to have to look at hi, and how that broke my heart And because it broke ht I should have absolutely no feelings for him I told her how I failed that mission and just barely escaped, and then about India and how I found Avalon and healed hiain in the explosion I told her about all of the accuo crazy and then about Kiran again and the tent in Morocco and how I just barely got Lilly and I out of there

I opened up to herher every detail, every ehed with ain She listened carefully, only asking questions when she absolutely had to, and heldtheI needed to heal

"Oh, Eden, I ahed at the end of my story "It doesn't see that it wasn't fair I should never have lost randfather andto do with for so long I should never have had to figure out leading an entire rebellion in only a feeeks, failing at every turn and losing ain

Nevertheless this was life I could wish that life was fair and that things were different, but this is what it was and I was determined to ht the battles put in front of me and cherish the friendships that surroundedto do about him?" She asked carefully, her brow furrowed the deepest with stories about him and I could see the concern etched in her eyes even now

"I don't know," I loomily "I'll probably have to kill him I hate him, I really do I hate what he did to my family and to me, how he took away my choice, and how even now selfishness consu I have whenever we're together! This whole thing isn't even about us, or hi to do with hi about I want to kno I can get away froure out how to kill hiood of my people Which, by the way, I feel like I shouldn't ever have to see him, we're on co to kill himy arms with frustration

"Oh, Eden," Aunt Syl breathed, pulling s for Kiran aren't just going to disappear overnight, no matter how he betrayed you and especially just because you're not fighting a war that revolves around your relationship What you shared with hi deeper than just a crush, really it was deeper than how most people love each other And you loved each other despite everything that was against you That builds so that establishes a pattern so that even still, everything is against you and your love is still fighting"

I sniffled in her arht "So what do I do about it?"

"I don't know, dear," she said thoughtfully, "but I don't think doing nothing about it is working Maybe you have to choose to accept those feelings, but also decide to et about him, maybe don't even hate him, just know that that part of your life is over and it's tireed, sitting up straighter I felt better just telling the story, just saying how I felt aloud; sofrom Kiran and my fears, I would face them, confront theht now, just focus on getting Avalon back, hht" She pattedto rise outside and the coffee earing off I stretched too, yawning widely

"I ahed, and alked up the stairs together Lilly was still conked out on the couch

Eventually, I would have to face my real parents They were here, just across town I cay with theht noanted to go to bed, knowing Aunt Syl was just down the hallway, and to breathe in deeply the house I grew up in, my real home, with the woman who raised me

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I reached out in sleep,aith fistfuls of sand I sat up quickly, searching out one I was in the middle of the desert, surrounded by sand dunes that rolled across countries