Chapter Ten

Sarah watched Kierlan go, her mouth dropped open, a warm, hot, unbearably familiar feeling prickling the corners of her eyes. She licked her dry lips, not trusting herself to say anything in response to his goodbye. Her entire body was trembling now as she fought putting her bandaged hands to her mouth to hold back the sobs.

He had just... left.

Sarah let her head drop and took a few uncertain steps backwards, feeling as though her feet were heavy and leaden, sinking into a chair, her knees shaking too badly to remain standing any longer.

She was startled when a dark haired girl with a flustered expression on her face peeked into the room, looking at Sarah quizzically. The stranger half smiled and shrugged, her shoulders rising and falling in a simple movement. "I don't suppose you could tell me where Thierry Descouedres' office is, could you? I got directions to it from upstairs, but I think I'm lost."

Sarah looked up in surprise, wiping away a few stray tears and smiling weakly. She shook her head in response. "Oh, yeah, I can show you how to get there if you want."

The girl was visibly relieved, her blue eyes brightening slightly. "Thanks, that would be great."

Sarah got to her feet, mentally ordering her legs to hold up, and led the stranger out into the hallway, noticing for the first time that she carried an overnight bag. "Are you visiting?" she asked softly, trying her best to be polite, but, even to her own ears, her voice sounded unused and uncertain.

"Me? Oh... yeah," the girl said. "Just for a few days though, I go to school out east."

Sarah studied her for a moment, noticing that the girl's eyes were as blue as the night sky and her hair was wavy and thick, falling a little past her shoulders and pulled back at the sides with silver clips. She couldn't help but notice that the girl was obviously human. "You're a member of Circle Daybreak?"

The girl laughed softly. "An honorary member anyway."

Sarah puzzled this over for a moment, walking silently, following the sloping white hallway in the direction she knew led to Thierry's office. Then she looked back up at the girl. "Is your soulmate here?"

The girl nodded once, slowly. "Yeah, that's why I'm going to see Thierry, he's helping me arrange for this visit to be a surprise."

"So you know about soulmates?"

"A little." The girl shrugged.

Sarah shook her head hard, sticking her hands into her Jean pockets, drawing in a breath for courage. "Well can you give me some advice on what to do when your soulmate's a complete jerk?"

The girl's mouth dropped open slightly as though she was startled, then she started laughing, her shoulders shaking gently. "When your soulmate's a..." She bit down on her lip, stifling another round of laughter.

Sarah frowned, freezing in midstep, a sinking feeling starting somewhere deep in the pit of her stomach. "What's so funny?"

Trying not to smile, the girl said, "It's just funny that you asked me of all people. If you want my expert opinion, I suggest kicking them in the shins."

Sarah looked slightly startled herself, then shrugged. "Seeing how he left today I don't think that's going to be an option."

"Who's your soulmate?"

Sarah hesitated. There was no use in explaining her confusion over having two soulmates to this stranger so she opted for the easy answer. "Kierlan Harman."

The girl's eyes widened fractionally. "Kierlan huh? Last I heard he didn't even have a soulmate. Congratulations," she said dryly. "By the way, I'm Mary-Lynnette."

It was Sarah's turn to look surprised. "*You're* Mary-Lynnette? Ash Redfern's soulmate?"

Mary-Lynnette nodded, laughing nervously. "Why am I worried that you know that?"

"Oh no, don't be," Sarah said quickly. "He was..." She trailed off, trying to find a word to describe Ash. Charming? Probably not what Mary-Lynnette wanted to hear. Nice? Maybe, but not entirely. Moody? Most definitely, but another one of those inappropriate responses.

"Civil," Sarah finished lamely.

Mary-Lynnette burst out laughing again. "Civil?" She tried to swallow her helpless laughter. "Thanks for trying though. Anyway, he can be nice when he feels like it, don't let him get to you."

Sarah opened her mouth to say that Ash really had been, in actuality, helpful when she realized that they were standing in front of Thierry's office. "Well, I guess this is your stop." She paused, uncertain and awkward.

Mary-Lynnette smiled, closing a hand around the doorknob. "It was nice meeting you..."

"Sarah," Sarah supplied.

Mary-Lynnette looked at her startled. "Sarah," she repeated softly, her blue eyes a little distant as though she were trying to make sense of something. Then she shook her head. "I"m sure we'll bump into each other later. I can give you more tips on dealing with incompatible soulmates."

The smile Mary-Lynnette shot Sarah was contagious and Sarah soon found herself grinning back. "Sure that sounds great. Um... Mary-Lynnette..."

"Mare."

"All right, Mare. You won't... mention what we talked about to anyone, will you?" Sarah said hesitantly.

"Of course not," Mary-Lynnette said with a laugh. "Your secret's safe with me." She twisted the knob in her hand and disappeared into the office.

Sarah nodded, watching the dark haired girl go, feeling better than she had in a long time.


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It wasn't until she left Mary-Lynnette at Thierry's office that Sarah realized that she had no idea of what she was going to do with herself. She supposed that she could try to find Blade, but Sarah wasn't entirely sure that she felt like seeing him right now.

Especially not right now. Sarah smiled wryly and without humor.

She wandered down into the Sanctuary, all the way to the bottom floor that, although it was furnished just like a regular house, she couldn't help but feel claustrophobic in. The fact of the matter was that they really were miles underground, surrounded on all sides by rocky walls.

Sarah went into the kitchen, opening the large, white refridgerator, peeking inside. Her stomach was growling uncomfortably as it dawned on her that she hadn't eaten anything of substance in the past day or two.

"Not that I'm in the mood to eat anything anyway," she said, under her breath, doing her best not to glare at the contents of the refridgerator.

Finally settling on a container of strawberry yogurt, Sarah sat at that kitchen table to eat after retrieving a spoon with the curclicue insigna "CD" on its handle. She was concentrating on the chunks of strawberries so hard that she didn't hear the footsteps behind her or notice Mary-Lynnette taking a seat across from her.

"Hey? Sarah?" Mary-Lynnette waved a hand in front of her face to get the other girl's attention, slightly worried about the blank, expressionless look on Sarah's face. "The meeting with Thierry didn't take all that long and..."

She stopped when Sarah looked up in surprise. Coughing, Sarah said, "Sorry, I didn't hear you come in." She glanced down again, at the yogurt container, seeing that she hadn't even managed to get one spoonful into her mouth. "I was busy... *not* eating..."

Mary-Lynnette couldn't help but smile at that. "You look upset. Kierlan?"

Sarah made a sound like the closest thing to a ladylike snort that she could achieve and looked up again. "Soulmates in general."

"You were in the mansion when all the fighting was going on, weren't you?" Mary-Lynnette was staring at Sarah's bandaged hands with keen eyes, her eyebrows raised questioningly, changing the subject abruptly.

Sarah looked to her own bandages, eyes darkening. "Yeah... I was." She sighed, heavily, once, before glancing back to Mary-Lynnette's concerned expression.

"Thierry told me," Mary-Lynnette explained with a shrug of her shoulders. "I gathered some bits and pieces of what happened from him. And with what happened with Kierlan. I asked Thierry about you and him and... he told me." She paused. "Not to be nosy, I was just wondering. You seemed like a kindred soul back there in the hallway, is all, what with your soulmate situation."

Laughing almost self-consciously, Mary-Lynnette added, "Would you listen to me? Kindred soul?" She shook her head, still chuckling to herself.

"Did Thierry tell you why Kierlan left?" Sarah said abruptly, not intending for her voice to sound as sharp as it did.

Mary-Lynnette stopped laughing, her expression sobering. "Blade?" she said soflty. "Not that Thierry told me... but I had heard about you and Blade from Ash. That's why I thought it was so odd that you said Kierlan, of all people, was your soulmate."

"Even if Blade *wasn't* my soulmate, it would be odd that Kierlan of all people was soulmate anyway," Sarah muttered with a frown, pushing her yogurt container away and tracing the wood lines in the table with the "CD" end of her spoon. "I guess that doesn't make sense huh? I think I have two soulmates."

Mary-Lynnette's eyebrows went up even further. "Two?"

"Two."

A long silence stretched between them, humming with unspoken questions.

"Is that possible?" Mary-Lynnette finally said.

"Must be." Sarah tilted her head downward so that her blonde hair fell over her face. She couldn't help but feel miserable. Blade was the fourth Wild Power, Kierlan had taken off, the three of them had almost died, and Annabelle was...

Sarah winced, guilt overcoming her. In her own selfish moping she had forgotten that Annabelle was missing. Thierry had told her that he couldn't say whether Annabelle was simply missing or...

She swallowed, realizing that it *was* possible to feel sicker than she already did.

"This is all just one big nightmare," Sarah said softly, wishing, for a moment, that it was possible to hide behind the silky curtain of her hair indefinitely.

Mary-Lynnette's hand reached across the table, taking Sarah's and squeezing once. "I bet," was all she said, but it was enough for Sarah.

"It's nice to have another human around... a real human... not one who goes out to hunt Nightworlders or one that's practically married to Thierry," Sarah said hesitantly.

Mary-Lynnette nodded. "And it's nice to have another *real* human that I can talk about the Nightworld to... other than Mark." She paused, then added, "My brother." Mary-Lynnette waited another moment before glancing to her watch. "I've got to get going if I want to "surprise" Ash," she said, making little quote marks with her fingers. "But we'll have to make a point of talking again while I'm here... ok?"

Sarah nodded once, feeling a pang. She couldn't just go find Kierlan to surprise him. And nothing with Blade could really qualify as a "surprise" anymore. The sickness in the pit of her stomach somehow got sharper and more twisting as though someone were turning a knife in her gut.

Her feelings must have shown up on her face because Mary-Lynnette asked if she was sure she was all right with a concerned expression in her eyes.

"Fine, really," Sarah said with a determined nod of her head. "I should get going too, find Blade or... something."

The word hung in the air between them and Mary-Lynnette stood, chewing on her lip while studying Sarah. "Ok... but if you need anything, anything at all, just someone to talk to, whatever, come find me. I'm staying on the fourth floor... room 436."

Sarah thanked her and watched the dark haired girl hurry off before picking up her yogurt container and throwing it into the trash. She rubbed her forehead tiredly and left the kitchen herself.

Yeah, she could go find Blade. Sure.

And then she would pretend that everything was fine when the entire world was crumbling all around her.