The Reckoning by M.K. Easley

Author:M.K. Easley [Easley, M.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-02T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Solstice dawned clear and cool. A thunderstorm had rolled in overnight, breaking the humidity just as Tristan had predicted. The whole family got up before sunrise, getting into their SUV and traveling a short distance to a small clearing on the river. They followed Sol in a special yoga routine as the sun rose, giving thanks for all they had received since the summer solstice, letting go of anything that would bring negativity into the new year with them, and celebrating the rebirth of the sun. This was something the family had done for years now, this day as sacred to them as Christmas or Easter was to the non-secular crowd, and Tristan closed her eyes, inhaling and exhaling, feeling a weight lift from her soul.

The months leading up to the winter solstice had been turbulent, to say the least, but in a matter of days things had started to turn around. It wasn’t just her budding relationship with Beckett -- he was a bonus, maybe the nicest bonus she’d ever been the recipient of -- it was that her attack at the direction of Emmeline Strandquest had changed her. Tristan was sure the intention had been to break her, and through those first numb hours after Beckett had scared the girls away, Tristan had thought maybe Emmeline had succeeded. As she’d emerged from the shock, however, she’d found that what the attack had done instead was liberate her. It had knocked down the last secret wall of insecurity she’d had, the one concerned with how her classmates saw her and privately had her taking their jabs and insults personally. In being humiliated, Tristan had lost it all, but she’d unexpectedly risen from the ashes.

Evander’s words about her letting the popular crowd have power over her, giving her a hand in how her high school experience had panned out, had finally stopped hurting and started sinking in, as had Tyler’s to Olivia about how the real beginning came once high school was over. Tristan knew she wouldn’t have believed it any sooner than the moment she’d started -- it was nearly impossible to be in such a uniquely isolating environment day after day and not be affected by the idea that everything that happened within the school’s walls, and everything that happened on the branches that shot out from those walls, was the be all, end all -- but as the new year approached, her graduation year, she’d finally seen the light.

As Tristan moved into the Warrior I yoga pose, she vowed to herself that the path forward would be the only path she walked now. No more turning back in fear, stepping on and off the path, distracted by what ifs -- she’d known since she was a child that the community life was not going to be the life for her, and she was going to start allowing herself to feel secure in that knowledge. She’d focus on maintaining her grade point average, focus on volunteerism, wait

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