Air Bound (Sea Haven/Sisters of the Heart 3)

"Of course you wouldn't think it was bad, you're a little farmer and it probably smells good to you," Lissa said.

Blythe was silent and Airiana was very aware she was watching her carefully. Airiana sighed. "I know. I should have talked to him, but I need a little time," she admitted, the smile fading from her face.

"He said he came back early. There was an emergency of some kind at his work," Blythe reported, her shrewd chocolate eyes never leaving Airiana's face.

"I wouldn't know about that," Airiana assured. "I wouldn't, Blythe."

"He works for the government in some capacity for defense," Blythe said. "You all know he was injured a few years ago when someone tried to steal his work. They tortured his assistant, Dan Treadway, and killed him."

Airiana's stomach lurched. She pressed her hand tight against it, nodding her head. "I know. I heard the story from Inez at the grocery store."

Inez Nelson knew just about everyone and everything about them here in Sea Haven, where she owned the local grocery store.

"Airiana, if this is a matter of national security . . ." Blythe began.

"Don't. Don't say it. I don't work in that field and I haven't for a very long time. I have no idea why Damon would want to talk to me. He's never so much as acknowledged me. My mother was killed almost ten years ago. Damon was targeted much more recently. One has nothing to do with the other. And I certainly wouldn't know anything at this point that could help him. They investigated my mother's death and said all sorts of things, but no one proved anything to me."

"But you did, as a teenager, work for the Defense Department," Blythe clarified.

Airiana sighed. "You know I never talk about that."

"Well, maybe it's time you did," Blythe said. "You're safe here. You need to talk about things, Airiana. If you don't, you're going to keep having nightmares and keep thinking you're going to lose your mind."

"We were told never to discuss our work. I took an oath."

"And no one is asking you to discuss your actual projects," Blythe pointed out.

Airiana took a deep breath and let it out. Lissa looked at her expectantly. Lexi gave her a tentative smile of encouragement, but she clearly only wanted Airiana to do what made her comfortable. She was such an empath that already she looked close to tears. Airiana found herself wanting to comfort Lexi.

"When I was about seven years old, some men came to my home and asked my mother if they could do special testing on me. I was already well into high school and even studying some college-level mathematics. My mother agreed. We were struggling financially, and they told her if I qualified for their special program there would be a lot of money involved for us."

"You never talk about your father," Lissa said. "Where was he?"

Airiana shook her head. "My mother never spoke about my father. If I brought the subject up, she would start crying like her heart was broken. I don't even know his name. Marina gave me her last name."

"These men who came to visit you and your mother were from our government?" Blythe asked, determined, obviously, to keep her on track.

Airiana nodded. "It was a new program they'd developed for children like me."

"Crazy smart," Lexi said, flashing an admiring smile.

Some of the tension drained out of her. She found herself smiling back at her youngest sister. "Crazy smart is a good term for me," she agreed. "They set up little apartments there at the school. It wasn't really a school like most schools. We were in a government very secure building, and we had teachers of course, but each of us worked on our own projects. We were educated as fast or as slow as the individual could handle, but clearly the projects were why they wanted us."

"But they didn't want parents living there with you?" Lissa asked, frowning.

Airiana shook her head. "They told my mother it was best for someone like me to learn without distraction, and honestly, I loved it, especially after Mom began to drink. I could have spent all day in school and in fact, I often worked late into the night. That was encouraged, and I've always been a bit of a night owl. I missed my mother, of course, and they allowed me to go home on weekends."

"You worked for them until you were sixteen or seventeen?" Blythe asked.

"I was nearly seventeen. It was ten days before my birthday when someone murdered my mother. So really, about ten years."

Lexi suddenly sat back, her eyes enormous. "Airiana, you can't suspect that the people running the school actually had something to do with your mother's death. You don't think that, do you?"

"They lied about her, Lex. She wasn't selling my work to another government. She wasn't spying for another country or leaking information. When I was little, we discussed my work, but once she began drinking, I rarely tried to talk to her about it, and once I turned fourteen, I never did."

"Why fourteen?" Blythe asked.

"I took an oath not to discuss my work with anyone. Mom had helped at first with the project, you know, brainstorming with me when I was little, but she'd begun to drink and I was going to her less and less." She shrugged. "We had a rule, and she was the one who made the rule. When we were together, it was just us. Not the school and not my projects. She wanted me to be a girl and go to the mall and the movies and learn to have fun. She wanted to teach me how to have fun. I was very serious and she was afraid that by allowing me to go to that school I wouldn't be a normal teen."

It was the first time Airiana could really defend her mother. She had tried, but no one had listened to her. Her sisters were listening. They believed her. She could feel it, see their understanding on their faces. After her mother's death, with the help of these women in the room with her, she had learned to have fun just as her mother wanted.

"Why would they lie about her? Why would they smear her name and act as if she was capable of betraying her country when she wasn't? What was the point?"

"Perhaps they thought it would make you more loyal to them," Blythe ventured.

"It had the opposite effect," Airiana said. "I detested them. I wanted out of their program but I had no relatives, nowhere to go and no one to advocate for me."

"And you blamed yourself for your mother's death," Lissa added.

Airiana nodded, tears burning behind her eyes. "I know intellectually I'm not to blame. Debra and the rest of you did a good job convincing me, but that child, that teenager, she believes that if she'd stayed home and never went to school, never was crazy smart, her mother would still be alive."

"Your mother made the decision for you to go to that school, Airiana," Blythe said gently. "A seven-year-old could not make such a choice. You both needed the money to make ends meet, and I suspect your mother was already beginning her downward spiral into alcoholism."

"Her mind wouldn't stay quiet." Airiana found herself defending her mother. "Alcohol was her only relief."

>

"That's the child talking," Lissa said. "You know that."

Airiana nodded, a little appalled that she still blurted out a defense for her mother, even when she knew better. "I know Marina should have gotten help, but she didn't, she turned to alcohol instead. Still, if I'd gone home several times a week instead of just weekends, she might have tried harder for me. She didn't start really drinking until I was already into my teens. I didn't even ask to go home more often because the more uncomfortable it got there, the easier it was to bury myself in my work. If I'd just noticed how hard it was on Marina and was even a little bit more compassionate . . ."

"You were a child, Airiana. A teenager with a mind that was demanding more knowledge every moment of the day," Blythe said.

"Now, looking back, I never said anything to my teachers about what my mother was doing because I was afraid they would keep me from seeing her--but they must have known. Right? They wouldn't have me working on the kinds of things I was without continually vetting my mother."

"Which is why you believe there was some kind of conspiracy and your own government murdered your mother," Lissa said.

Airiana nodded, biting at her fingernail. "I know it sounds insane. Maybe I think too much. I rarely sleep that well and I told you, my mind works on problems all the time. My mother's murder never added up for me. Even if a foreign agent came in contact with her--and how would they know I was at that top secret school--wouldn't it make more sense to wait for me to come home and then grab me? I would have told them anything they wanted to know to protect her."

Lexi nodded in understanding, tears welling up. "We do anything we can to protect the people we love."

Airiana put her hand gently over Lexi's. "I'm sorry, baby. I don't mean to bring up bad memories."

"I'm upset for you, Airiana," Lexi insisted. "You're right. It doesn't make sense to murder your mother over money for your work when they could just as easily have grabbed you."

"So what happened?" Blythe said. "With your project?"

"I wasn't finished, not nearly finished. They took me back to the school and essentially I was 'locked down' for my own protection. They didn't let me see anyone other than a psychiatrist they brought in. I didn't talk to her. I stopped working, and everyone was upset and in an uproar. The psychiatrist tried to tell me throwing myself back into my work would be good for me, but I told her I couldn't think, that the trauma of finding my mother like that had done something to my mind. I just couldn't cope.