Paradise

There was nothing, and then there was something. A scuff on the path, a rustle of branches. She turned toward it, but it took a moment for her to decipher the pair of figures that stood before her, crammed together in the narrow pathway.

Promise. Her daughter. Her grown daughter. She'd been with her for every moment and yet Hymn was struck with the painful feeling that she had missed much of the girl's youth. Nothing about Promise's upbringing had gone the way that Hymn had hoped. She'd been abandoned by her father and now by her mother, too, in a way.

Only Annubis had stayed.

He stood at Promise's side. His silvery coat was not golden but it might as well have been a beacon for as hard as it was to look at him. And yet like a lighthouse in a stormy night, it was hard to look away from. Every part of her yearned to go to him, to wrap her tired body around his and let go of the iron grip she had on her emotions.

And yet, she refrained. She felt dirty, standing before him. Broken. Faulty. She hadn't even been able to do the one thing she'd thought she was good at, and now he knew it too.

Her dark rimmed ears ticked back, only to be coaxed forward again by Promise's cajoling voice. "Momma," she said, forcing Hymn's eyes back up. "Dad's here."

Hymn's charcoal lips opened, but closed, the words she didn't know how to say still unspoken.