Whispers at Moonrise (Shadow Falls #4)(116)

Holiday bolted up. "I'll hug you for me and Della. And Burnett."

The embrace lasted for several long seconds. "I love you," Holiday said. "And I expect a phone call from you this evening. And every day. Every morning and night."

Kylie nodded. "Thank you for not fighting me on this."

Holiday put a hand on each side of Kylie's face. "Don't think I don't want to."

"But you know it's the right thing?" Kylie asked, hating that she needed a little more confirmation. But damn, should doing the right thing feel so wrong?

Holiday inhaled. "I don't know if it's right. I won't stop you." She frowned. "But I will say this. If this is about what happened with Lucas-"

Kylie inhaled. "This isn't just about him." And it wasn't. He was just the proverbial straw that brought the camel to its knotty knees.

Holiday sighed. "Sometimes, when we're hurting, we make choices we wouldn't normally make."

Kylie shook her head. "Remember how my dad told me that we would work out these things together? I think by 'we' he meant chameleons."

Holiday frowned. "You don't know that's what he meant. You thought he was telling you that you were going to die. Maybe if we went to the falls you might-"

"No, this is right," Kylie said, and there was a part of her that believed it.

Holiday exhaled, her breath shaky. "Then I have to let you go, even if I don't agree."

They hugged again. Short and sweet. Kylie walked out.

The dad-blasted blue jay swooped in. More tears filled Kylie's eyes. "Go," she told the bird. "It's time to leave the nest. For both of us."

Turning, she spotted Hayden waiting by the gate. She picked up her suitcase, the same one she'd brought with her to Shadow Falls last June. She started walking and got a few feet from the gate when a sudden whisk of wind, a familiar whisk, flashed past, then stopped.

Della's arms embraced her. "Promise me you'll get your wolf ass back here soon. Promise me, damn it!"

Tears filled Kylie's eyes and she held on to Della extra tight, the way only really good friends do. "I promise," Kylie said. "I promise."

It was a promise Kylie intended to keep, too. Della, obviously another believer in short and sweet, flashed away. Kylie looked back one more time. She saw a crying Miranda with Perry running up from the path into the main clearing; she stopped and just waved. Kylie knew that Miranda had helped convince Della to come. Dear God, she was going to miss her roommates.

Then Kylie's gaze shifted to the office porch. Holiday stood there. But not alone. Burnett stood by her side. Even from this distance, she saw his disapproval, but she also saw how his arm tenderly circled Holiday's waist. A warmth filled Kylie's chest; she'd played a small part in helping that happen. And somehow she sensed that had been part of her destiny.

Suddenly she saw Derek standing to the side of the office. He met her gaze and smiled.

If she wasn't hurting so much, she would have smiled back. Right before she went to turn away, she felt another presence. Felt it, didn't see. Somewhere behind the first line of trees, a certain blue-eyed were watched. He was hurting, but so was she.

She turned toward the gate. Hayden had come closer. "You ready?" he asked.

No, her heart said, but her head said yes. She didn't know what awaited her at her grandfather's, but nothing, nothing would take the place of Shadow Falls.

"It's hard to say good-bye," Hayden said.

"I'll be back," Kylie said. "I swear I will."

And she wanted to believe that more than anything, too.