Katelina leaned against the front door and closed her eyes, fighting for calm. She took a deep breath to clear her mind, as if she could. She pretended the air was clean, empty. Pushing out all the anger, the fear, the rage, the confusion. It was all too much, and she just needed away from it.
With another deep breath, she focused on the room, on the mess. She started to pick up the scattered books, but thought better of it. He'd made the mess, he could clean it up. The house was chilly, so she moved to the hearth and busied herself preparing a fire. She raked through the cold ashes but stopped when she found something metal. She dug it out to find that it was the silver cross from the bundle of letters: Velnya's cross.
She sat back on her haunches and stared at it, lying black and cold
