Kira met us at the gate.
This was not her usual location — Kira's domain was the east kitchen and the assessment room and the compound's internal spaces. She was at the gate because the bond had told her what was coming, the bloodline attunement registering Lena's presence in the second vehicle the way it had been registering significant arrivals since before Kira came out of the tree line.
She looked at Lena when the vehicle stopped.
The quick assessment — not clinical, the bloodline reading. Taking the measure of what was there.
"Four years," she said.
Lena stared at her. "How—"
"The suppression has a specific signature at this duration," Kira said. "I can feel it in the bond quality." She held Lena's gaze with the direct warmth that was specifically Kira. "You're not dangerous. Yo
