Ashlynn's arms closed around her sister the way the sea closed around a drowning sailor, pulling her in and holding her fast against the current that had been dragging them both toward the dark for nine long months.
"You're safe now," Ashlynn whispered into Jocelynn's hair, feeling the violent trembling that wracked her sister's body as Jocelynn pressed her face against Ashlynn's shoulder and wept. "I'm here. No one is going to hurt you."
As soon as she said 'no one is going to hurt you,' Ashlynn felt a spasm in her chest, as if something had constricted around her heart. Part of her, a dark, violent part of her that strained against the cage she'd trapped it in, wanted to break her promise. To throw her sister to the ground for betraying her and to denounce her for everything she'd suffered because of her sister's selfishness.
