Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) - By Paula Flumerfelt Page 0,56

the pair for a quarter hour, screeching at them that she was going to murder them.

Painful.

Avian sat on the stairs, her face hidden in her hands. He kneeled in

front of her, trying to get her to talk to him. She finally looked up and revealed a black eye. Her father had hit her.

Peaceful.

Her birthday had come and he had taken her for a picnic. Tesla was rolling around with Nikola in the grass, playing. Both Shadowriders were huge, truly armored monsters for once and much taller than either he or Avian. Goslings had climbed a bank and come to sit by them, not two feet from their blanket. Avian had been fascinated.

Tears pricked his eyes as he remembered her smiles, the way they ranged from excited to sarcastic to playful. She was the one constant he’d had in his life. Always there.

Avian had been lying on her bed, sick. Mathieu bounded in with an armful of flowers and kissed her forehead before she pulled him down to snuggle with him. She was petting his hair and he put his head on her chest, where he heard her steady heartbeat. “Oh my gosh, you do have a heart!” “Shh! Don’t tell anyone.” She had said with a smile.

No matter what they did, they did it together.

The night had been cold, but she’d convinced him to climb onto the roof, and now they were lying there, staring at the stars. She pointed to various constellations, smiling as he named them for her.

The goals of one became the goals of both. Accomplishments were shared.

It was a day of triumph. Avian signed the bottom of her goal charter,

finally finishing her declaration. Pride welled up in his throat and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, “Congratulations.”He said before ruffling her hair.

A solid kick to his bed jarred him from his stupor of the past.

“Okay, this is enough of your crap.” It was Solomon. “You’ve been mopping around here for almost two weeks. We’re having Avian’s service tonight, with or without you. We already buried her, and have been waiting for you before we had a ceremony, but it seems you are too weak to pull yourself together. We aren’t waiting any longer. Come if you want.” With that, the blond man kicked the bed again. Solomon’s heavy boot landing with a solid thud before leaving, slamming the door behind him.

Mathieu lay there for a long while, staring at himself in the reflective wall. His eyes were a dull purple and his hair had an unkempt appearance. Two weeks… He closed his eyes. Avian…

There were a lot of things that she had said to over the years, but one thing in particular was ringing in his mind: “If something is within your ability to do it, it becomes your duty to accomplish it, otherwise, you’re worthless”. She had meant it in the sense of civic duty; however, he felt that the statement applied to this situation, too. He had sworn that he would protect her; he had failed at that, but he could at least be the one to put her memory to rest.

Nodding to the Avian in his mind, the only piece that he had left of her, he sat up and pressed his feet into the floor hard. The cold stone was reassuring to him as he left the safety and security of the nest he had built for himself. He looked along the hall and found it empty.

Swallowing hard, he went down the passage and up the stairs. The glass walls allowed him to look around without having to go far, spotting Kiev in a few rooms away. Luckily, she saw him the same moment that he saw her, so all he had to do was wait for her.

She weaved through a few sliding glass doors before she was standing in front of him, a kind smile on her face. “You’re up. Let’s get you into a shower, okay? We can talk after.” Kiev took his hand, patting it in a compassionate way. Then, she led him through the maze of immobile glass walls and sliding glass doors. The room she led him to hidden behind frosted glass, for privacy he assumed. The blonde woman pushed the door open and ushered him in.

Looking in the mirror, Mathieu finally got a clear look at what sort of state he was in; it wasn’t good. A brush was set on the counter, so he picked it up and dragged it through the tangles of