Synnr's Hope - Kate Rudolph Page 0,61

and fast. Lena thought the girl would catch it, but she had to step off the circle to get a grip on it. The children cheered, and the boy who had tossed the ball did a victory dance before taking his spot in the center circle.

“I played it when I was a child.” Solan reached up and caught the ball when it came his way, tossing it back in one smooth motion.

At first she and Solan were nice to the kids, throwing the ball back without any tricks. But after several rounds they started to have fun with it. Solan would hold the ball for several moments and take his time, acting out different ways he could throw until the kids were all laughing and encouraging him. Lena had her own fun, pretending the kid in the circle threw so hard he knocked the wind out of her. But eventually the game was over and the kids went on their way, leaving Solan and Lena to their own devices. But before they went, they all came up and introduced themselves.

Solan was a natural at talking to them. She had never seen him around kids before, but she would be lying if she said that seeing him right then didn’t make her wonder how he would be with kids of his own. Not that they were anywhere near ready to have kids. She wasn’t even sure if he wanted any. Did she? Back on Earth it had been something she planned for one day, but that day never came. She hadn’t thought much about it since ending up on Aorsa, but now that she was with Solan she had more to consider.

There the shops were mostly clustered around one street, with a couple others dotted along the streets that shot off the main road. Lena and Solan took their time exploring, holding hands and pointing out interesting looking shops and landmarks along the way. They had all day to take in the town. That was all they would need. It was charming, but it wasn’t somewhere that would take much time to investigate. Enjoy, not investigate. They were on leave; there was no need to look for dangers lurking in every corner. But that wasn’t a skill that Lena could just turn off and on.

Her eyes snagged on a Zulir man in a black jacket and hat. He pulled the brim low and kept his eyes cast downward. He had to look up when he crossed the street and Lena got the impression of some kind of scar or birthmark on his face, but he looked away again. Sure, that was suspicious, but no one else was paying him any attention. It was probably the training facility that had her on high alert.

But she kept an image of the guy in the back of her mind. Just in case.

They found themselves in a small shop that sold home goods, and Lena took her time looking at the soaps, smelling each of them and pausing when she found one that smelled like lemon. “It’s weird how some things are just the same as back home,” she said, running her finger over the hard surface of the bar. The texture was a bit different, but the smell was the same.

“Are they?” Solan stepped up beside her and grabbed another bar from the basket, giving it a quick sniff before putting it down.

“This smells just like a fruit called a lemon. That blanket over there feels like wool. The kids outside were playing catch. If I close my eyes sometimes I forget where I am.” She did so then and breathed deep, imagining the lemon cookies that her grandmother would bring to Thanksgiving dinner. And her smile turned sad when she remembered that big family Thanksgivings were not going to happen again. “And then I remember who I left behind.”

“Who?” he asked cautiously.

She put the soap back; maybe it was better not to remember. They headed outside and continued talking. “There were my parents, and I had two younger siblings. Have. Had? It’s weird to realize that decades have passed since I was taken. A part of me wishes that I knew what happened to everyone. How did they deal with my disappearance? Then a bigger part of me likes to imagine them just like they were the last time I saw them. Is that weird? Is that wrong?” It had been months since she’d last seen her family before being taken off the