Page 58 of Healing Conviction
“Fuck, this is a goddamn shit show,” Draco muttered under his breath.
“I’m sorry, man. I wish I knew what to say. At least we’re unraveling it all now, right? How’re things with Jasmine? Getting any new leads from your interview?”
Draco scanned the sea of stones until he found faded black hair blowing in the wind. His heart ached at the sorrow emanating from her, even at that distance. The only reason he’d taken the call was because Snake had been persistent since they’d woken up that morning. It also gave Nora a chance to be alone. Draco had walked over to the paved road that wound through the grounds to make sure she could have that moment to herself.
“No new leads,” Draco finally replied with a sigh.
“Shit, you guys found her, didn’t you?”
“Yeah… we found her. At a fucking cemetery.”
Snake hissed on the other line. “Shit.”
“Her grandmother said she went missing for a while.Twice. I’m guessing the first time was before MF7 got involved. Her mom was apparently embarrassed that her own daughter would ‘run away’, so she’d never reported it. The second time she went missing was from that godforsaken party. When Jasmine came backthattime, she was different. Hollow. It wasn’t long after she returned that she was gone again. For good.”
“How’d it happen?”
“Suicide. About a year ago.” The memory of Nora trembling beside him as she tried not to crumple, replayed in his mind. From Nora’s smooth face and empathetic eyes, Jasmine’s grandmother wouldn’t have been able to see her brittle smile as anything other than sympathy. But he knew Nora’s pain didn’t stop there. “Nora’s torn up about it. I think she feels responsible.”
“Fuck, she can’t think that way. Let me talk to her. I’ll convince her—”
“Don’t overstep, Snake.” His voice was harsh even to his own ears. “She’s not yours.”
His friend scoffed. “Of course she’s not. I’m in love with Naomi. Nora’s practically a sister to me. But man, do you, um… do you think she’syours?”
He fixed his eyes on her, wishing he knew what to do or say. “I know she is. She just hasn’t admitted it to herself yet.” Nora’s green eyes found him, and the stifled pain hidden in them called to something deep in Draco’s chest. “Gotta go.”
Draco hung up the call in the middle of Snake’s reply and made his way through the short grass, navigating the burial plots.
When he finally got there, his little pixie wasn’t facing him anymore, her sad eyes back on the still fresh-looking grave in front of her. He sat on the sparse grass, with his knees propping up his arms and close enough to touch hers in the same position. After a few breaths, her lyrical voice began a lament.
“‘Here lies a beloved granddaughter’… That’s all she got to be.” Nora sniffed and her head rose and sank as she talked with her chin resting on her forearm. “The rest of them also have ‘mother’ or ‘wife’ or ‘teacher’ or even ‘friend’. But she only got to be this one.” Her breath shuddered from her. “Do you think she wanted to be more?”
He regarded the stone in question for a second before wrapping his arm around her back and tugging her in. “Don’t we all?”
After a moment, she shook her head and swiped at her eyes before pulling away from him. Her face cracked into a painfully wide smile. Tears marred the fake cheer in her voice.
“Sorry about all this. I don’t know what’s come over me. Off to the CTI distribution center next, right? Ready for a little Draco and Nora the Explorer action?”
“Pix, you don’t have to do that.”
She shrugged, but her tight smile began to break at the edges. “Do what? Stay on track? Get the show on the road?”
“Hide.”
“Hide?” Her eyes widened before they narrowed with emotion that was finally too much for her to pretend away. “Why in the universes and underworlds do you think I’mhiding? I’m trying to get us answers.”
“Something about Jasmine’s death is getting to you, baby. You can’t just act like you’re not affected by it. You clearly are. And that’s okay. Let yourself feel it.”
“But there’s nopointin feeling it! So what if I’m upset? I can’t do anything. We missed—” Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat. “We missed our chance to stop this from happening and that’s that. I didn’t even know the girl so I shouldn’tcarethis much anyhow. And… and if I give in to it, crying my eyes out will only bring you down and it’ll make it harder to do our jobs. So let’s get a move on, shall we?”
She began to stand up but Drake tugged her back down to his lap. He wrapped one arm around her to keep her close and used his other hand to hold her chin so she had to look in his eyes.
“You’re worried about ‘bringing me down’, Pix? How do you know if you’re ‘bringing me down’ if you don’t even know how I feel about all this?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“Ask me. Ask me how I feel.”