Refuge by Karen Lynch Page A

dad
and Madeline met in college, according to Nate, and they’d dated
for several years before they married. They were married for two
years before they had me, and she left when I was two. In all those
years with Madeline, didn’t my dad realize she was not aging at
all? How did Madeline hide her strength and control her Mori
without him ever suspecting she was not human? Or had he known what
she was all along? I bit my lip and looked away from the photo.
There was no sense pondering over questions that would never be
answered.
    Another picture got my attention, a painting
of the same blond girl from the portrait in Tristan’s office. “Is
that your sister?” I asked him, and he turned and followed my gaze
to the painting in question. “Nikolas once mentioned his friend,
Elena, who died a long time ago, and he said she was Madeline’s
aunt.”
    He laid a plate of salmon and rice in front
of me and took his seat again. “Elena was my younger sister, much
younger. I was almost two hundred years old and quite surprised
when my parents told me they were having another baby. It is not
unusual for Mohiri siblings to have many years between them, but my
parents love to travel and they are not what you would call the
most affectionate people. They were already here exploring America
by then, and I decided to come here to be with them when the child
was born. Elena was the most captivating little baby, and of course
I adored her immediately and spoiled her excessively. When she was
five, my parents decided they wanted to continue their travels, and
it didn’t take much convincing to get them to leave Elena with
me.”
    “A warrior raising a little girl?”
    He cut into his salmon. “My sister, Beatrice,
would have taken Elena, but she was in South America at the time. I
lived in a family compound in Virginia back then, and it was more
of a community than this one. There were other children for Elena
to play with and women to go to when I needed advice. It was a lot
more suitable for a child than travelling the world, and Elena had
a very happy childhood there.”
    “Nikolas told me very little about her,” I
said softly. “But it sounded like he cared about her a lot.”
    Tristan nodded. “I am not surprised he
mentioned her. Nikolas came to our compound when Elena was nine,
and he spoiled her like the rest of us did. She was like a little
sister to him, and he took her death very hard. He blamed himself
even though I and everyone else told him it was not his fault. My
sister was beautiful and used to people doting on her. She was
precocious and charming, but she was also willful, and I blame
myself for that. She never should have left the compound alone, and
she died because of it.”
    “Why did Nikolas blame himself?”
    “As I said, Nikolas loved Elena like a
sister, but Elena, she adored him and she constantly tried to get
his attention. By the time she was sixteen, most of the boys in the
compound believed themselves in love with her, but she only had
eyes for Nikolas. He knew how she felt and he always deflected her
attentions gently, but she was determined to have him and nothing
would dissuade her. Her schemes to get him alone grew more creative
every day until even I began to tease him about us one day being
brothers if he was not careful. If only I had known the lengths she
would go to be with him, I might have intervened before her games
got out of control. I might have saved her.”
    “What happened?”
    “Elena knew how protective Nikolas was of
her. She concocted a plan to sneak away from the compound, and she
had her friend Miriam go to Nikolas and tell him Elena had run
away. Miriam confessed later that they were hoping the thought of
losing Elena would make Nikolas realize his true feelings for her.
But Miriam could not get to Nikolas because he was giving a report
before the Counsel at the time. By the time she found him, four
hours had passed and she was in a panic because it was nearly