Ka'Cit's Haven (Riv’s Sanctuary #3)

“I have to go.” He looked away from her. “Now.”

Hurt filled her and it filled her deep, hitting right against the base of her heart.

“Yea,” she tried to smile but it was hard, resulting in a smile that was hardly even there. “I guess you have…other jobs. I don’t want to cause you to be late for those too.”

She saw, rather than heard, the sigh that left his body.

He still wasn’t looking at her as he got back into the hover car.

Fuck.

What was happening right now and why was it so hard?

Tears were filling her eyes for some reason and she was having a real hard time holding them back.

“This was…fun.”

Ka’Cit grunted. “It was but…you’re better off here. This is your world.” He sighed. “You are better off here.”

The fact he’d said she was better off there, twice, was something she noted and she opened her mouth to say something, but no words came.

“This is…”

“Where it ends. Where everything goes back to the way it was.”

There was such heartache in his voice, she wondered if she was hearing her own words being spoken.

A big fat raindrop fell from the sky and landed smack in her face, masking the first tear that slid down her cheek.

Nia wiped it away and looked up.

The dark cloud had spread and the wind had picked up, whipping the fabric of her coat.

Another fat drop hit her squarely on the forehead.

“Go in,” Ka’Cit said.

His gaze was still averted and it made something wring in her heart.

“Ka’Cit?” she whispered.

“You will get wet,” he continued.

Maybe she was an idiot.

She’d thought there’d been something there, something more than…she didn’t even know…

But…this was it.

This was it. The end.

Turning, she swallowed hard and steeled herself as she began walking back toward the group of aliens and humans waiting for her.

That’s when she heard him call her name.

“Nee-ya…”

Nia’s heart thumped in her chest, hope rising within her like an ocean wave. Glancing behind her, her gaze fell on him and the ocean wave crashed.