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I glance across the room. Tara’s sitting by the window, knees pulled to her chest, the light catching her newly darkened eyes. She looks calm, but unsure of what to do next. I’m feeling much the same. She looks brighter after feeding last night.

Raya and Hunter sit side by side. She keeps brushing her thumb against his knuckles, deep in thought. He hasn’t said much since the battle, but that’s Hunter. A man of few words.

Cora’s leaning against the fireplace, arms crossed, jaw tense as if she has something she wants to say, but doesn’t. I haven’t had much of a chance to talk to her one on one, but I imagine she has a lot of mixed feelings about their biological mother’s appearance. She is distrusting at the best of times and probably doesn’t know what to think. Kian’s beside her, his face completely unreadable except for the way he watches Cora when she isn’t looking. Which is always. Raya gently disentangles her hand from Hunter’s and stands. She walks toward Tara and stops a few feet away, chewing her lip.

‘Hi,’ she says softly after a moment passes.

Tara blinks up at her. ‘Hi.’

Raya gives a faint, almost shy smile. ‘I feel like we haven’t properly said that yet. Without someone trying to kill us.’

A flicker of reluctant amusement crosses Tara’s face. ‘Yeah. Timing’s been bad.’

‘That’s one way to put it.’

Cora shakes her head. ‘God, this is weird.’

Tara’s shoulders stiffen slightly. Cora’s eyes dart to hers and her jaw tightens. She exhales, the sound weighted and heavy.

‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ she mutters. ‘I just—’ She gestures between the three of them. ‘We didn’t even know you existed and the bomb was dropped on us out of nowhere.’

Tara lowers her legs from the chair, feet touching the floor.

‘You can say it’s weird,’ she says quietly. ‘It is.’

Raya steps a little closer. ‘We don’t think you are, just the situation and how it all came to light.’

Tara’s gaze flicks between them. ‘You barely know me, I understand you might have all sorts of thoughts about me. Everything in my life has changed. I don’t know what to even think of myself.’

Cora huffs a quiet, humourless laugh. ‘We’ve not long been vampires ourselves. We’re still figuring out things, too.’

‘That’s true,’ Raya says. ‘Most days we’re improvising.’

Tara offers them a small smile. I’ve told her bits and pieces about the girls’ stories, but there’s a lot for her to catch up on.

‘Finding out about you has changed something. It feels like something has clicked into place.’

Cora walks forward, slower than usual, as if approaching something fragile.

‘I’m sorry,’ she says abruptly.

Tara looks genuinely baffled. ‘For what?’

‘For you being alone. For them raising you and making you feel like an outsider. For us getting to have each other while you had …’ She trails off, looking outraged once more over everything we learnt recently about Tara’s upbringing and what she went through.

Raya nods. ‘We had each other. It’s not fair you were all alone.’

Tara stands slowly from the window seat, as if unsure where to put herself.

‘You didn’t choose that,’ she says. ‘None of us did.’

‘Doesn’t mean we don’t wish it had been different,’ Raya replies.

Cora’s voice drops. ‘When you were fighting yesterday … when they were using you …’ She shakes her head. ‘I hated them for it. You’re one of us and they treated you like a pawn.’

Tara averts her eyes, attempting to mask her emotions. Raya reaches out then, tentatively, giving Tara every chance to pull away. When Tara doesn’t, she takes her hand.

‘You don’t have to earn anything here,’ Raya says. ‘You can feel how you feel, when you feel it. No expectations or judgement.’