Chapter 63

Kara.

Kara looking weak.

Kara with blood running down her legs and dirty mats in her once-beautiful silky hair.

Kara shoeless and limping.

Kara, not looking at all like she did last night.

Did I imagine it?

I am right behind Jenna, running down the driveway, gravel spraying out behind us. Jenna stops a few feet from her, and I stop right behind Jenna.

"Kara?" Jenna whispers.

I can't breathe. I can't even move my feet. At the estate I prayed this day would never come. The air between us feels like glass that's ready to shatter, like one wrong step and we'll all be thrown back to the world that spun us out of control so long ago.

But then the air changes. It doesn't shatter or spin. It reaches out like it has fingers. It holds on to us. I watch an energy grow between the two of them--the connection the two of them had that I was never a part of. I watch the tears forming in Kara's eyes and the ones streaming down Jenna's face. I watch as Kara hobbles forward and Jenna races to embrace her. "Kara. My God. I can't believe it's you."

And then the soft whimpering of Kara. "Jenna."

They hold each other like they will never let go, and I stand there, stunned, wondering if I've been wrong all along, or if I'm lapsing into a dream where I'm imagining the world the way I want it to be. The anger that has simmered in Kara ever since we woke is gone. Were her threats only that--the empty rants of a trapped, angry girl? Has freedom changed her? Jenna said it would all work out. I wanted reality to flip. Has it?

"Help me, Locke," Jenna says. "Help me carry her to the house."

I step forward and scoop Kara into my arms. She falls limply against my chest, like she has been running for the past week instead of being here all along.