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don’t forgive you,” he finally said. His
voice still sounded strained and dark—completely different than the
lighthearted tone Kira was used to.
    “Can you forgive me?” Kira asked.
    “I don’t know,” he muttered. Kira hung on
the pause in his voice.
    “That’s enough for now,” Kira sighed, a
sense of light was finally returning to her voice. Her fingers
began to warm and the fuzz around her brain began to clear. Hope.
It was enough to bring some fight back into her senses.
    “Where are you?”
    “England,” she said, not giving up any other
information.
    “That’s a pretty big place,” he trailed off,
inviting her to finish his thought.
    “If I tell you where I am, where Aldrich is,
all of this will have been for nothing. So, I’m sorry again, but I
won’t tell you where I’m going. I did this to keep you safe and
that means keeping you out of the loop.”
    “Fine,” he said, the hardness returning to
his voice, “but I’m coming to England. I’ll stay with the
Protectors in London.”
    “Luke,” she said sternly. Why was he so
stubborn?
    “Once I tell the Council where you are,
they’ll send me to London anyway.”
    “Fine,” Kira said. He was annoying, but he
had a point.
    “I have to go,” he said curtly.
    “Before you do, you have to understand. This
wasn’t about choosing Tristan over you, or trying to hurt you, it
was about saving my mother and keeping you away from Aldrich’s
power. You have to understand that. You do, don’t you?”
    “Goodbye, Kira,” he sighed heavily into the
phone before clicking it off. Kira stared at the blank screen,
knowing that was the best conversation she could have hoped for,
but feeling unsatisfied with the outcome. Still, he had talked to
her and he was coming to England for her—eventually, Luke would
forgive her. He was too nice and too good not to.
    Kira stared at the water, letting that
belief sink in before glancing at Tristan. He leaned against a lamp
pole with his arm crossed, eyes focused on the horizon where the
river disappeared around a bend and the city turned to nothing but
fog. But for his piercing blue eyes and jet-black hair, he could be
a marble statue. His stance was unflinching. His mind was focused
inward and not on the streets around him.
    Her attachment to Luke clearly stung, and
Kira realized her damage control duties weren’t finished yet.
    Sidling up next to him, Kira threw her arms
around Tristan and leaned against his body.
    “Ready to have some fun?” She asked and
placed her chin on his chest to look up into his face.
    “Shouldn’t we be heading to Aldrich’s?” He
eyed her warily, unsure of the change in her mood and what really
caused it.
    “Well, I’ve never been to London and I don’t
think a few hours alone with my boyfriend will make much of a
difference. Let’s explore.” Her words were half true. Kira was
anxious to get to Aldrich and to figure out the mystery of her
mother, but she had a feeling the problem wouldn’t be solved in one
night and she needed the alone time with Tristan. Too much had
happened recently, and they needed to form a completely united
front if they were going to defeat Aldrich.
    “Where to?” Tristan asked, still slightly
rigid. His lips curved into an almost unnoticeable smirk, but Kira
was determined to get him really smiling again.
    She looked down the river and saw a huge
white dome in the distance—some sort of church for sure. It might
be interesting, but Kira continued scanning the horizon. Shifting
her gaze to the left, Kira spotted houses, a sweet waterside walk.
Gazing further, the parliament building popped up behind a stone
bridge and then a giant white Ferris wheel and—wait, Kira thought,
what? A gigantic white Ferris wheel with pods gleamed against the
afternoon sky and reflected into the water of the river. It was
twice the size of the surrounding buildings, and all Kira could
think was that was definitely where she wanted to go.
    “There,” Kira