Page 143 of Rise of the Queen

Ivan walked closer to them. “Nor would I, Sergei. He saved her so she could save me. That night had to happen. You kept him alive. There’s no way he could’ve survived that crash without you shielding him. You did exactly what you were meant to do.”

Sephie glanced at Stephen. He walked closer to her and Sergei. She whispered something quietly to Sergei. He nodded his head, then Stephen touched his arm. It took a few moments, but Sergei gasped loudly, like he just jumped into freezing water and his lungs were revolting. Stephen didn’t let go. Sephie recognized that Stephen was having to work to get Sergei cleared completely, so she grabbed his other hand, giving him the needed boost. It took a few more seconds and Sergei visibly looked better.

She looked at Viktor, who basically traded places with Stephen. Sephie looked at Battista, as well as Eduard, saying, “You two have to watch and let us know if you can see anything.” They both nodded. Battista looked completely fascinated by what was happening.

Viktor touched Sergei and we all clearly saw his aura, much like Andrei could see regularly. It was dim, with plenty of holes in it. Viktor removed his hand, waited for a moment, then put his hand back on Sergei’s shoulder. We didn’t see Kostya this time, but we could see the effects of Kostya being there. Sergei’s aura lit up while all the holes were being filled in.

I glanced at Battista, asking, “Can you see that?”

“See what? He just has his hand on his shoulder,” he said.

I looked at Eduard, asking the same thing. He said, “It just looks like Viktor has his hand on Sergei’s shoulder to me.”

“That’s all you saw the whole time?” I asked. They both nodded. Once Viktor was done, I said, “We have our answer then. They didn’t see anything. I didn’t see Kostya this time, but Viktor still lights them up when he touches someone.”

Sephie turned to Battista. “You didn’t see anything other than Viktor’s hand on his shoulder?”

“I saw nothing. I’m actually disappointed I saw nothing. I would like to see something,” Battista said.

“She can show you,” Misha said. “I’ll help,” he said, offering her his hand.

“I might need both you and Bubba,” she said. She walked over to Battista, asking for his hand. She tried to push what it looked like for all of us to him. It took a few moments, as well as Andrei’s help, but we saw Battista’s eyes go wide as he finally saw what the rest of us saw.

“That is incredible,” he said.

Sephie offered to show Eduard as well, using both Andrei and Misha again. He cursed in Russian, having never seen anything like it in his life, which made her laugh.

“Well, now we know that we can fix someone discreetly. We just need to let Kostya know when he can leave his headlights on and when he has to turn them off. And Ilya’s girlfriend is going to have to learn when to keep her mouth shut,” Sephie said, grinning at Ilya.

He laughed, saying, “You haven’t even met Sasha and you’re already trying to steal his job.”

“Can you explain to me, like I’m a child, what you just did?” Battista asked.

Sephie chuckled. “Stephen helps to clear a person, so whatever heavy issue they’ve been struggling to deal with can successfully be dealt with, basically. In very general terms. Sergei, for example, has been struggling with something that happened over twenty years ago. He still carries a tremendous amount of guilt from it. Any time you carry around heavy emotions for too long, they start to cause other problems. For Sergei, it was becoming overwhelming. It was all he could think about. He was beating himself up about it, blaming himself for what happened, doubting himself because he felt like it shouldn’t have happened. Stephen helped him create a pathway to get all of that out. Viktor, on the other hand, helps to strengthen his aura.It ensures that those negative thoughts and feelings can’t get a foothold in him again. He might still feel them from time to time, but they’ll move through him like they should, rather than illegally squatting in his psyche for twenty years. What you saw was Sergei’s aura, before and after Viktor fixed him.”

“Those holes that you saw before Viktor fixed him are where demons gain access to people. Big enough hole, weak enough person, the demon can get in and start running the show,” Ivan said. He glanced at Sephie, as they both had the same idea at the same time. She grinned at him, walking back to Battista.

“Wonder Twins, unite!” she said, motioning for Andrei and Misha to come back. She grabbed Battista’s hand again, using them to push what Ivan could see to Battista. “That’s what it looks like when a demon has gained access and is starting to run the show. Her demon has been there for a while. It’s very defined. Sometimes, they’re not as clearly defined. It’s like they’re fuzzy if they’re new. Hers has been there a while.”

“This is how you knew about my business associate?” Battista asked.

“One of the ways, yes,” Sephie said. I could feel her reluctance to reveal everything to Battista.

“You were right when you said we all complement each other. We’ve figured out how to work together to confirm whether someone’s demon is running the show or not. Because we’ve done it a few times now, the demons know who Stephen is. If they haven’t gained full access to a person, he can essentially scare them off. If they have gained access, that’s when the only choice is to break their psyche,” I said.

“Ah, yes. My business associate’s family was saddened to hear of his sudden massive stroke that left him in such a state. They were quite happy to have access to his finances, however,” Battista said whimsically.

“This is what happened when the people were coughing uncontrollably? Stephen scared the demons off?” Vitaliy asked.

“Yeah. I’m not worried about the hospital administrator, but the next step would be to have Viktor fix the mayor. We did buy him some time with what we did tonight, but he’s still vulnerable,” I said.

“What about the DA?” Battista asked.

“He was fine. Nothing hanging on him. If there was a demon there, it was the most talented one we’ve come across yet. No one picked up on anything,” Ivan said.

“That’s also not to say that it won’t be an issue in the future. They were fine tonight, but that could always change. Depending on their own decisions,” Sephie said.

“What did you find out from the switch-hitting representative?” I asked Battista.

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