Second Chance for the Barren Luna (Talia and Jason) novel Chapter 434

Talia’s POV

Nolan and Della stood with me as we waited to say goodbye to Arya and Henry. We watched from the yard while they packed up the vehicles. Walden didn’t come. He sent a message an hour earlier saying he wasn’t feeling well, so we left him alone. He was happy for Arya, but it still hurt to watch her leave. Anyone could see he’d started to think of Arya as a daughter.

“Walden wanted to be here,” I told Arya. “You know that.”

“I know. How is he recovering?” Arya asked.

“He’s not 100% yet, but he is getting there,” I replied.

“Tell him not to overdo it. He trained his warriors well. They’ll be able to maintain until he fully recovers,” Arya said.

“Listen to me before you go. Doomfur won't welcome you with open arms. Some of them will still be loyal to your brother, and the rest will be waiting to see whether you’re anything like him,” I warned. “It’s going to be hard, and it’s going to stay hard for a while. So support each other. Both of you, every day, even on the days when you’d rather not.”

“We will,” Henry promised.

“And if something comes up that you can’t handle on your own, you contact me. I don’t care what hour it is or how small it seems. Don’t sit on a problem out of pride.”

“What counts as too big to handle?” Henry asked.

“If you’re asking yourself whether it counts, it counts.”

“I’ll link you the moment anything goes wrong,” Arya swore. “I promise.”

I nodded to Della then, and she stepped forward with the box.

Arya looked at the box, confused at first. She opened it, and her whole face changed.

“How…how did you find this?” Arya asked as she lifted the dagger out and turned it over.

“We found it in Geoffrey’s cell. We saw that your name was engraved in it and figured it was important,” I explained.

“He made this for me. I wasn’t sure if I actually wanted it,” Arya said, her fingers tightening around the hilt for a moment. She looked down at the blade, tracing her name with her thumb. “It reminds me of everything that went wrong between us and all the things I wish had ended differently. Part of me wants to throw it away, but another part wants to remember the brother he was before everything changed.”

“Geoffrey made that for you, and just because you had to use it doesn’t mean you should throw it away,” I suggested. “You don’t have to make a decision on it now, but I think it would be a waste to throw away the last gift your brother gave you.”

After a long moment, Arya put the dagger back in the box and took it from me. “Thank you,” she managed to say at last.

More warriors exited the pack house to load the vehicles.

“What is all this?” Henry questioned.

“Herbs, weapons, food, blankets. From the reports, Doomfur was lacking in resources,” Nolan answered. “There’s a full escort going with you. They’ll make sure you’re over the border before returning.”

“That’s more than we asked for,” Henry said.

“I couldn’t let the new leaders of Doomfur come home empty-handed,” I said.

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