Page 35 of The Cruelest Undead

My parents are back from the dead, Rinnon. What do you think the problem is?

I never had parents, so I don’t understand that attachment. Shouldn’t you be happy to see them again?

Rinnon noticed Flynn went silent again.

Oh, boy.

This couldn’t be good.

He tried again.

My love…

Only, Flynn shut that down.

Leave me alone. I want to be alone. Please let me work through this. You don’t need me to start working. I’m inconsequential.

Well, that was a lie.

Flynn was the backbone, and he was the one who held them all together. They all knew that. Him hiding was problematic.

Yeah, well, it was time to call in the big guns. With a snap of his fingers, Jolie appeared beside him.

Immediately, she looked around.

“Uh, warning, please? I was talking to Flynn’s parents, trying to make them understand why their son was housing a demon God when he’d been a cop. This was really bad timing.”

“Well, maybe he was just lucky?” Rinnon offered. “Because I’m quite the accoutrement, if I do say so myself.”

Jolie just stared at him.

That said it all.

“That’s the look a wife gives her husband when she’s not happy, Little One. Maybe try being nicer to your husband. I mean, I did give you a gift…”

She was now glaring at him.

“Is that so?” she asked.

Uh, Jolie had news for The Big Scary. If he thought necromancing was a gift…he was mistaken.

Someone needed to read the room because already, out the gate, this was a clusterfuck.

“I got nothing. Flynn is the one who tells me how to answer you, and he isn’t talking. I’ll take the anger on this one, and call it a day.”

“Good call,” she said.

Rinnon pointed at himself.

“I can’t get Flynn to come out. He refuses. I don’t understand the situation. I didn’t have parents. Shouldn’t he be happy? He gets them back.”

Jolie tried to explain to Rinnon.

“He’s upset because he’s still mourning them, and it’s always been a wound on his heart. Now, he has to face that, and possibly lose them again when Jacques has to put them back.”

Rinnon listened.

It was rare his vessel was hurt or upset. It took a lot to damage Flynn, but he was definitely damaged over this. He was broken.

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