Page 10 of A Lost Light

Hasumi patted my knee and drew away. “I'm glad to see you well, Elijah. Please, don't hesitate to ask for help. Anything you need. Anything at all.” And the emphasis in their voice let me know that they, as usual, saw more than they should. If I asked them to touch me again, would they? Would they pet me every time I craved the pleasure and reassurance of their soft touch?

Maybe Dyre's concerns were warranted. Perhaps Iwasjust a tad mentally unstable. I held Andy tighter. I just couldn't seem to get enough of being touched. The witch was so… grounding. Her earth magic and her solid, unwavering love keeping me tethered when I felt as though I might float away and get lost in my thoughts and feelings, and the strangeness of this new body that was mine, but not mine at the same time.

My wing brushed Hasumi's shoulder and their aura reached out to mine, comforting and accepting. And in that moment, I was absolutely certain I had made the right decision. The onlysin would have been to pass up the opportunity to experience this unconditional love.

A wash of magic announced a visitor as he materialized in the room. “There you are,” a sultry voice drawled from the doorway. I glanced up to find Aahil leaning against the doorframe, his golden eyes taking in the way we all sat huddled on the bed. Another new vision. His colors were so warm, so like his fiery magic. Reds, browns, and golds. Shimmering like flames. I had to focus hard to attend to his snide words.

“Not to pull you away from your shiny new toy, witch, but there's a letter for you from the outside.” He glanced between us all before his sharp, glittering gold gaze landed on mine. “You can fuck your corpse later.”

Then Aahil disappeared in a shower of sparks.

Not everyone was as accepting as Andy and Hasumi.

Andy sighed, shaking her head as she sat up. “Ignore the little asshole,” she advised me. “It's what I always do when he's in a snit.”

Hasumi tilted their head, their gaze going distant for a moment before they spoke. “Everyone expresses fear differently,” they said softly. “He is jealous of our attention. But it's more than that shallow surface emotion. Aahil knows all too well what it is like to need support and attention that one feels might be a weakness.”

I nodded as I took that in. I had witnessed the jinn's heart-rending struggles with who he had been and his concept of who heshouldbe. I had seen him nearly destroy himself and everyone around him in the process of learning how to be whole again after the torment the witches had put him through. I didn't begrudge him some hard feelings if he was afraid I was going to steal away his safety net. Andy and Hasumi had kept the beautiful, wounded man alive. Of course he would feel threatened by their focus on me.

“I'm fine. Really,” I said again. It seemed to be my new mantra these days.

Andy stood and headed to the door, Hasumi and I following in her wake. “You're not,” our witch said pragmatically. “But you will be. And don't worry, there's enough of us to go around, so Aahil can just suck it up.”

Hasumi was shorter than I was, their body slighter and more willowy, but their hand found the small of my back as I left the room, and I felt bolstered by their quiet strength. Andy slowed and her fingers twined with mine as she took my hand.

I was not alone in this. I would figure it all out, for her. For them. I wasn't about to waste this second chance at life. At family.

This was where I differed from Aahil. I might not exactlyknowwhat I felt or how to sort through my emotions at the moment, but I had no compunction about accepting help, or expressing my gratitude for the blessings in my life.

“Thank you,” I said softly to the two people who looked after my wellbeing.

We came across Dyre in the hallway as he headed toward the stairs, probably summoned by the jinn or the boogeyman to attend to the letter as well. His violet eyes swept over my body, assessing, seeing things no one else could see as he checked his work.

When his gaze met mine, I nodded to him and repeated my words. I had lost much of my faith in any sort of higher power. But when I spoke, the words were both a sentiment and a prayer. “Thank you.”

His stark features softened just a bit, and he gave me a small, lopsided smile, making the eerie man seem far younger and more vulnerable, and revealing how genuinely pleased he was that I was still alive.

Then we all headed down the stairs to attend to whatever new emergency awaited us. It seemed even a little thing like resurrection couldn't stop the villains of the world from their work.

Chapter 6

Andy

Iwas coming to realize that my sister was, just maybe, a bit of a weirdo. She insisted in sending me information and communication in thinly veiled code. I highly doubted that would stop the SA or the cult shitheads from figuring out what we were up to if they ever managed to intercept her letters, but whatever.

The current letter that arrived for me via the magic mail service she was using to send me things was a pamphlet about some daft Christian religious branch. It extolled the importance of seeking guidance from the angels, and the dangers of falling for the lies of the fallen angel Satan, yadda, yadda, yadda. Clearly, she was aware we had snatched the nullifier from the angelic realm. And that a whole bunch of angels had ended up dead or incapacitated.

There was some mention of cults and false idols in the preachy ramble as well, so I had to assume she knew the witch supremacists were responsible for the carnage, not me. Maybe she was trying to verify that I did indeed have the artifact, and the cult hadn't actually run off with it.

I sighed. When we met up last time, she had stuffed a handwritten note into my pocket that used her blood in the ink, so only a blood relative could read it. It turned out to be instructions for how to reach her via our crazy mail delivery system if I ever needed to. Looked like it was time to try the spell.

Using the little notepad I kept on the kitchen counter for grocery lists, I scribbled out a note to my one crazy remaining relative. I had no patience for attempting any sort of code. I just kept things as vague as I could.

I've got it. Not the one who broke things.

Then I shook my head and added to the note. I didn't want to be involved in my sibling's stupid war and rebellion plans. But I think we all knew I was going to end up eyeball deep in the shit before this was all over. I was already involved, like it or not. I could at least use the artifacts to dosomesort of good, I supposed. But we needed a place to practice with the powerful magical relics. And I wasn't going to go amplifying and nullifying massive amounts of magic using unfamiliar devices inside the already barely stable pocket world that was our only save haven.

A vacation would be nice. Somewhere to get away from everything and just let go.

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