“Are you listening to yourself?” Tears well in my eyes. “If they’re dangerous, how do you expect me to leave you in their clutches and carry on as if nothing happened?”
“You forget a little trick, sis.” She grins, rubbing her nose with her index finger like she used to do when we were children. “I’ve been studying them for years. I can handle them.”
“Reina…” My voice breaks. “I just can’t watch you slip through my fingers again. I can’t.”
“I won’t slip away.” She rubs her hand on my arm in a soothing gesture. “We’re one, after all. You’ll feel me even if we’re apart. Do you remember those days with Mom?”
I snort. How could I not remember? When we were twelve, Reina and I met for the first time. Even though we had people after us and we had to sleep at different hotels and hostels every night, those months were the happiest times of my life.
I had a mother and a sister.
Then they were both taken away from me.
We were separated for nine years. For most of those nine years, I thought Reina was dead. I searched for her all around and even made deals with a lot of ‘criminals’.
Finally, I scored the right people and she came in contact. The day I received an invitation from her to come to this place was probably the happiest day of my life.
Just when I was starting to give up, she showed me a sign.
She came back for me like she’d promised back then.
I’m older, you know, she’d scolded. I’ll be the one who finds you.
She kept her promise.
She’s here.
But not for long.
“Mom was smart,” Reina continues, “but she wasn’t that smart, Rai. It’s useless to run away in a pack. They would’ve always found us. Diversion, remember?”
“What if I don’t want to? What if I want to run away with you?”
Her face falls. “Then it’ll be like Mom all over again.”
“I hate this.”
“I do too.” She ruffles my hair. “But I’m coming back. You won’t get rid of me.”
“Promise?”
“Promise, Rai.”
* * *
Present
I’m pushed back to the now with a crippling force.
I gasp for air as if I’ve been drowning underwater.
Rai.
Oh my God. My name is not Reina—it’s Rai.
Reina was the other one, the one who told me she’d come back, the one who stopped me from going with her.
I jump to my wobbly feet and walk to the spot where both of us stood that night. She hugged me, and we made a promise.