HAVEN ✓

Thirty

Stupid violet eyes! Stealing my thunder! I was going to be the best hide-and-seek player in the history of Herald. Now I'll have to find a new hiding place!

Laughing violet eyes. Can't escape from this tickle monster! I know all of your weaknesses and tickle spots!

Angry violet eyes. Hehe, sucker! Shouldn't have left your afternoon snack where I could reach it. Lesson learned: eat it or it won't be there when you want it later!

Weeping violet eyes. An arm wraps around me as we bury the little bird who fell from the tree in the backyard.

Happy violet eyes. I am so proud you were Placed where you wanted most. You will be the best huntsman there is. The bravest ranger of the forest.

Wide, scared violet eyes. Eyes just like mine. They beg me to run.

◊ ◊ ◊

My feet move faster than my brain does, taking me across the room before I can finish a thought.

I nearly knock him off his feet as I launch myself into his arms. But as he's always done, my brother catches me.

"Rhett," I whisper past the lump lodged in my throat.

His arms wrap so tightly around me, I don't know one breath from the next. Rhett lifts me off my feet with the enormity of his embrace, and my heart swells with joy. "Soph, I missed you so much," he manages, and the words release the sob imprisoned within me.

Could I be dreaming? Have I actually been reunited with my big brother? He squeezes me and rubs my back as I cry into his shirt, wishing so ardently for this to be real.

After a moment, he pulls back and brushes my tears away like I wished he could have after he left.

A realization which jars me, interrupting the intense palpitations in my chest.

I meet his shimmering blue-violet eyes, a mirror of my own. "Rhett, where did you go? They... they took you," I hiccup. The Outlanders kidnapped him just like they did Markee, yet he stands here before me, strong and healthy. Unharmed and wearing his hair longer than when I last saw him. I am more confused than I have ever been. "You're here... Why?"

Instead of answering, he hugs me again, and worry taints the brief joy I felt. "Look at you, all grown up. You'll have the answers you seek, but why don't you rest first. Get some food." He smooths a hand over my hair, giving me a small grin. "And I'm sure you have tons of other questions." A chuckle. "You always have."

The thought of a hot meal is tempting, so I nod, conceding to do as Rhett says after he promises to go with me. Now that I've got him back, I don't want him to leave my side. But before we go, there is one thing I need to know of my brother—one thought that has been nagging my brain for the last two years.

"Why didn't you come back?"

Pain flashes, quick as lightning, across Rhett's features. Something haunts him, and it lives right there behind his eyes. Then, just as soon as it came, the spectre vanishes. A sigh leaves his lips.

"We'll talk on the way to Mess Hall." He looks over my shoulder to the others in the room. "Good to see you again, Luke. Thank you."

At the mention of Luke's name, I turn to see his intense green gaze shift from Rhett to me. His arms are folded across his broad chest, and the severe line of his mouth is the polar opposite of the joy I'm feeling.

He's still mad at me.

My chest aches, but I don't have time to ponder Luke's reaction for long because Rhett takes my hand and leads me out of the laboratory and out of the research building. The fact that they know one another surprises me, but seeing my brother here in the flesh eclipses everything else.

As we walk along the sidewalk, I am unable to stop the waterfall of words from my mouth. "Rhett, are you okay? We thought you had been killed." I realize my question is about two years late, and start again. "Are they keeping you here? Forcing you to stay? Is that why you never came back? Or... or did Herald not let you back in?" Terror grips my chest at the thought that I would be prohibited from going back as well.

Rhett shakes his head. "I can leave of my own free will," he premises. "But tell me—from what you've seen, would you go back?" My steps slow to a halt, and Rhett stops with me. "Would you abandon them when you know you can help?"

I swallow. What is he saying? "But... but they took you! From your home, from Mom and Dad and me."

"They did," he says softly. "I tried to write, but I'm sure you know by now what the Council thinks about the Outlands. I couldn't go back, but it was my choice to stay." He levels me with a look so serious, so determined, that I really stop and think about his words.

This is not the kind of reunion I had ever expected. Why would Rhett choose anything other than to return home? He had a great opportunity ahead of him when he was Placed. Then, I think about how Herald had taught us to fear the Outlands, and how we were conditioned to think of Outlanders as less than human. If Rhett chose to stay here and help the Outlanders, especially after they uprooted him from his home and forever altered his life, then there has to be a reason. Would I stay in the Outlands if I had the choice to return home? But then a bigger question: would I go back to Herald after learning of all the lies the Council tells?

Realizing I don't know the answers to such tough questions just yet, I decide to let it go for now. There are too many missing pieces to the puzzle, and I want to know everything.

"It seems that I was brought here for a reason," I tell Rhett, resuming our walk. "After we get some food and rest, will you tell me why you stayed?"

"I will. I'll tell you anything you want to know."

Good, I think. It's just one step closer to finding out what all this has to do with me. I ponder what my life has come to and sigh.

"You owe me a smoothie for having me think you were dead," I tell my brother, elbowing him in the ribs.

Rhett grins, ruffling my hair. "There's the sis I know."