Bab 163: Chapter 163: Femke

I'd been in Hong Kong already, but this was different. Official. I clenched my gray hands together, feeling the scales rise to prominence on the surface as I collected my power and expected the worst. Stepped out of the veil with my three loved ones around me.

Waited for the fireworks as the tall, slim blonde with the ice blue eyes looked up from her desk with shock and stared.

And stared.

No explosion. Just a slow, quiet pain, a dull descent from surprise to joy to grief to anger. But none of it had weight aside from the initial joy. As though Femke lived behind a wall of something that wouldn't allow her to fully embrace what she felt.

I prodded for the source but found nothing of magical origin even as she straightened, her back rigid, hands tight at her sides.

"Sydlynn Hayle," she said. "Welcome back."

It could have been worse. She could have ordered me arrested or something. Still, it hurt, the coldness. And though I wished I was stronger than that, I answered in kind.