Primal Heat 05 - Darkness Reborn

heeded it. That's how it works, Ana."
    Ana met her gaze. "Or maybe you don't want to admit you failed to listen to the truth that you knew what Mason was like in your gut, that you ignored evidence that cost your daughter her life."
    Sarah gasped, shocked by Ana's words. Grace grimaced, and Lily sucked in her breath. "Ana, don't push Sarah like that—"
    "No." Ana spun toward her, her eyes blazing with challenge. "I love Elijah more than words can express, and if Sarah is the one responsible for giving him the hope that had brought him out of that awful spiral, then as God is my witness, I'm not going to let her screw it up by being afraid to face things."
    Anger fired up inside Sarah. "I know I made a mistake," she shot back. "I live with that every minute of my life, the truth that I made the wrong choice and it wound up killing my daughter. Don't ever accuse me of not facing that—"
    "I'm not," Ana said. "I can see the guilt in your eyes, and I feel your suffering. But what you're not facing is the fact that there were signs all along that you refused to see because you wanted the fairytale of the man loving you. You wanted to be loved, and I know that because I wanted it, too. We all do!"
    Grace set her hand on Ana's arm. "Ana, I don't think this is the time—"
    "It is the time," Ana snapped. "Because Sarah is about to go in there and has to make the right choice about who Kane really is. She has to have the courage to see with her heart and not to have her perception distorted by her fears, her desires or her needs." She faced Sarah. "Lily told us what you're going to be facing in there, Sarah. You're the anchor for this whole team, and if you can't find the truth in your heart and see it, then none of the men will be able to either." She shook her head, gripping Sarah's hand fiercely. "We all have so much to lose if the Order goes down," she said. "Not just the protection of innocents at large and the very foundation of what they represent, but the man I love with every fiber of my being is going into those woods to help you, Sarah, and to end the creation of all these rogue Calydons, and you're it, Sarah. You're the glue holding all of them together."
    Sarah stared at her, the responsibility of what she was facing welling up like a great weight. "I don't have any heart left," she finally said, her voice raw with the agony of so much loss. "It died so long ago." It had died that night with Abigail.
    "Find it," Ana said fiercely. " Find it. Open your heart so widely that if it breaks, it will rip you to shreds, because if you don't, the man I love will die, and that is just not acceptable to me." Tears gleamed in her eyes. "Don't be a brave warrior, Sarah. Be a woman, with all the emotions and vulnerability and tears that make us the rock that keeps our men alive." Then, she spun away, striding across the rubble toward the men.
    Elijah looked up, and he held out his arm as she approached. Ana instantly slid into his embrace, tucking herself against him. Sarah saw Elijah's body visibly shudder and then relax as he wrapped his arms around Ana and rested his chin on her head. Neither of them tried to hide their need for each other, and their vulnerability was evident to anyone watching. But no one seemed to mind the badass warrior needing his woman so badly. The battle discussion didn't break stride, and none of the men even seemed to notice Ana's arrival. She had simply become part of Elijah, and they all accepted that.
    Sarah hugged herself as she watched Ana and Elijah together, an aching sense of loneliness welling up inside her. "I don't know how to be like that anymore," she whispered, unable to keep the tears out of her voice.
    "I know." Grace wrapped her arm around Sarah's shoulder and squeezed. "I had no idea how to be all soft and vulnerable. I'd been on my own fighting for far too long."
    "Me, too." Lily moved in close to Sarah's other shoulder. "And I had reasons not to trust Gideon. Personal, deep reasons that were very real and very true."
    Sarah looked over at Lily. "Really? What were they?"
    Lily smiled gently. "No," she said. "That is Gideon's past, and it is no longer who he is, so it doesn't matter anymore. Even though I had no reason to believe that he was a different man than he'd once been, I did believe in him, and that's why we were able to defeat the sheva destiny that the male will go rogue and destroy everything they both care about, until they both die." She hugged Sarah. "Who he once