First Watch: A Watcher Bay Adventure by Auburn Seal

what her marriage had looked like five years ago. And she couldn’t put his betrayal out of her mind. “Nothing. There is nothing you can do. You agreed to leave us again without the decency of consulting me.”
    He stepped toward her, and she took a step back, allowing him to get no closer to her. She knew she would melt if he touched her. But she wanted to be mad right now. She wasn’t ready to gloss over this. “Don’t touch me, Gunnar. I meant what I said last night.”
    He held up his hands in surrender. “Okay. I won’t touch you, but listen to me. Just hear me out? Let me fix this. I screwed up. I know it. There must be something I can do to make this right?”
    She rolled her eyes. “Oh, now you want to talk? I don’t think so. The time for talking is passed. You should have thought of these sorts of details before you signed up again and sentenced our family to more lonely years without you.”
    She continued her tirade. “If we are here when you return from whatever this next mission is, it will only be because of Enric. But honestly, he barely knows you anyway. There is no real reason to wait for you. Not now. You’ve taken our hope. There is nothing you can do to give back our life together.”
    She took a deep breath, not liking where her words were taking them. Is this what she wanted? She was hurting and angry, but was she prepared to leave him?
    Levra took a shallow, shaky breath and plunged into deeper water.
    “If you want to fix it, then you need to stay here. With us. I can’t think of another way. I can’t go on this way, married to a ghost.”
    “You know the rules, Lev. I can’t get out of it.”
    And then she made up her mind, convinced she really had no options.
    “Goodbye, Gunnar. You don’t need to spend your two weeks’ leave with us. We’ve been fine for five years. I think we can manage without you. I’m going to Dwyr for the day and taking Enric. I don’t want you to be here when we get back. He doesn’t need to see you. It will break his heart so much more when you leave again. I don’t even know why you bothered coming back.”
    “That’s not fair, Levra. What can I do? There has to be something? Please.”
    “There is nothing. When you say goodbye this time, it will be for the last time.”
    She turned to leave, and he reached out and grabbed her arm. “Wait. What if we don’t have to say goodbye?”
    She stopped, her mouth open. “But you already committed. How can you get out of it now? You said you couldn’t.” Still, she dared to hope. “Do you really think you can get out of it?”
    He shook his head, and her hopes crash-landed again. “I can’t. But what if you and Enric can come with me? This mission is on-planet. There’s a chance I can get a green light on bringing the family. When I agreed to lead the mission, I pushed strongly for permission for my family to come along. Both of you.”
    They stared at each other for a few moments, wordlessly communicating grief, anger, hope, and reticence across the canyon of silence stretching between them. Then Levra nodded abruptly but refused to smile.
    “You find out where it is and get approval for us to go with you, and I’ll think about it. But I’m not working in uncertainties here anymore, Gunnar. You find out. Today. Either we go with you, or you leave forever. I’m through waiting on you. I can’t put us through this again. I won’t.”
    She resisted the urge to run into his arms. She missed him so much but stormed out of the room and left him standing there. She felt the smallest glimmer of hope and tried not to vomit as she made her way to wake up Enric.
    Today, she needed to take care of Mera and Alena. She’d get the list of their abilities and submit it to the Bureau of Ddaeran Affairs for the villagers so the Founding Families would leave them alone. For the moment, she was grateful she had a task to focus on.
    Taking on all of the Founders in defense of the Ddaerans seemed light years