"No," she said adamantly. "Acheron, tell him I can't do it."
"I'm pretty sure he heard you."
Sin shook his head as his anger continued to build. "I want to go home, Ash. It's the least you can do."
Ash was torn between loyalty to a friend and to the daughter he didn't really know. But in the end, he knew the best thing to do would be to get Sin away from Katra for a while. They both needed to calm down.
But first, Ash wanted to remind Sin what he was about to walk away from. "You told me you were willing to do anything to save her. That her life was the only thing in the world that mattered to you."
"That was before I knew she was the one who'd betrayed me. That is the one thing I'm incapable of forgiving."
Pride goeth before the fall...
"Send him home," Kat whispered.
Confused by her request, Ash looked at her. "Are you sure?"
She nodded. "I don't want him here."
Well, that settled it. If she wanted him gone...
Before Ash approached Katra he flashed Sin back to his penthouse. "You're not fully fed."
"I'll live."
"Yeah, but the longer you go without feeding, the more amoral you'll become. In time, you'll be like a gallu... only worse."
She looked up at him with those eyes that were both innocent and all-knowing. "Is that why you tolerate Artemis?"
He nodded. There was no need to hide that fact from Katra when it was so obvious.
But his relationship with her mother wasn't the one that was important right now. "Sin loves you, Katra. You should have seen the look on his face when he brought you here. He was terrified of losing you."
She wiped at the tear on her face. "That really doesn't make me feel any better, since I'm the one who ruined it."
Ash pulled her against him so that he could hold her and soothe some of the pain she felt over this. "You know the incredible thing about hearts is their unbelievable capacity for forgiveness. You'd be amazed what people will overlook when they love someone."
She wrapped her arms around his waist and tucked her head under his chin. "Do you forgive Nick for sleeping with Simi?"
Ash ignored the razor-sharp pain that one question evoked. He still didn't like it, but he'd put the matter behind him. "I have."
"But he hasn't forgiven you."
No. He wasn't sure if Nick would ever get over the death of his mother. But honestly, Ash would rather Nick blame him than try to live with the guilt of his own part in her death. God help the man if Nick ever took that responsibility on his own shoulders. It would kill him.
"I can't control Nick's feelings."
She swallowed before she spoke again. Her voice was scarcely more than a whisper. "And what about Mom? Have you forgiven her for what she's done to you?"
Ash drew his breath in sharply at that one. That question hit him in an extremely raw spot. "That's a little more complicated, Katra. We're not talking one single mistake to forgive. Every time I think we're past one betrayal, I learn of another she's committed... like hiding you from me."
She pulled back to look up at him. "But you do love her, don't you?"
Ash didn't answer. He couldn't.
"Dad?"
He offered her a smile he didn't feel. "I can't answer a question I don't know the answer to. You can't hate to the extreme I do without having loved someone first. When all that hatred is shoved aside, is there any love left? I honestly don't know."