Whispers of Until.. Part 1 - Shadows of Summer
Kai said, his voice completely steady now, the absolute neutrality of his tone hiding the vast, grey ruin that had finally taken over his chest.
Ria didn't smile, but her shoulders dropped by a fraction of an inch—the small, physical recognition that the long wait was finally over, that the sand had run through the glass, and that they were finally moving back into the line of the current. She knelt beside the leather trunk, her fingers locking the brass buckles with two sharp, metallic snaps that echoed through the dark kitchen like the sound of a latch dropping into a groove.
Ria’s diary entry from that final midnight hour was written on the very last page of the ledger, the ink thick and