Page 113 of Sidhe
He backed away like lightning, like his life depended on it, nearly tripping over his feet to get away from Nathan.
“Walter,” Nathan said, a hiss like when he had first said ‘Jim’ upstairs, “there you are.”
Jim could only stare as Nathan moved swiftly past everyone to reach his Spirit Guide.
“Why so scared, huh? I’m not gonna hurt you,” Nathan said, so unlike Nathan, so clearly something else that Jim reached over and grabbed Sasha’s arm for support again, still holding Alex’s hand in his other. “No, I wouldn’t hurt you, Walt. But ya see, the thing is…I don’t need a Spirit Guide anymore.”
“Nathan…” Walter gasped as if weeping, though there were no tears on his face. He stood frozen after his initially frantic backing away. “What have you done to yourself?”
With Nathan having moved further into the bar, Shiarra joined the others, all of them keeping their distance from Solrin.
“Were you trying to get away from me?” Nathan circled Walter. “Where would you go? To warn Oberon and Gwen and the others like I’m something that needs to be stopped? Coz that’s a shame, Walt; that would make you as bad as all those others I sent away. Not much else I can do then…is there?” He stopped his circling in front of Walter.
It wounded Jim how mournful, how apologetic Walter looked, not pitying, his eyes filled only with regret of all the things he hadn’t done to prevent this. If Jim ever doubted that Walter was part of the family, he knew now. Which was why he called out, hands tearing from contact with Sasha and Alex the moment Nathan touched Walter’s forehead with the butt of his palm and the Spirit Guide started screaming.
Chapter 40
Jim
Lightsobrightandblinding it was almost painful to look at began to shine from Walter’s eyes and mouth—an inner light; a glimpse of Walter’s true form as it was burned out of his newly physical body merely by Nathan’s touch. The light grew and grew until Walter’s screams finally started to fade, the light fading too, and then Nathan pulled his hand away, a lifeless body left to fall limply to the floor at his feet.
Jim wanted to tackle Nathan then, pin him to the ground, demand that he beNathanand not this thing that was just some awful parody. He wanted his brother back. He wanted there to be some way for them to fix this, but every possibility that came to him was too easily shot down. Attacking would do nothing. Dissenting would mean nothing. But how could he just stand by as witness?
The others were feeling just as he was, Jim could feel it as everyone began to move slowly forward, meaning to surround Nathan maybe, to act in some way, even if it was fruitless. Itwasfruitless. Jim knew too well, and he looked panicked around him to tell everyone to stop, stay still, juststop, but Nathan’s voice sounded first.
“I would think very carefully about what you are planning to do,” he said with an eerie chill to his tone.
Everyone froze. Then Solrin moved forward, close to Nathan’s side, casting a warning glare at the others, daring them to make any kind of move that wasn’t veneration.
Nathan returned his gaze to the body on the floor. “What do you think I did to him, huh? Do you think I killed him? Of course I didn’t. I said I wouldn’t hurt him. I just don’t need a Spirit Guide anymore.”
“What does that mean?” Jim asked slowly.
It was almost on cue that the body Jim had feared was empty gave a sudden jerk, a gasp, and Walter started coughing, eyes fluttering with consciousness.
“See,” Nathan said, “he’s fine. Don’t be so melodramatic. I’m not the bad guy.”
Jim’s attention went to Walter, who seemed to be struggling to wake up and figure out what had happened. Then Jim looked to Nathan, who turned out to them all, daring to look and evenfeellike Nathan when Jim knew it wasn’t that simple, knew there was too muchotherin Nathan for anything else to matter.
“As a Spirit Guide, Walter would have tried to interfere. So I took his power away from him. That’s all. No one got hurt,” he said as explanation.
“Interfere with what?” Alex asked, her expression and tone hard as ever.
Nathan turned to her with a smile that Jim thought was meant to be reassuring but just looked ominous. “I can’t just sit on this power and do nothing, Al.”
“What are you planning to do?” Shiarra demanded.
“What I’mplanningis to go on like before,” Nathan said. “Like we’ve been doing the past several months, trying to help people. I can rid the world of every damn monster out there in one fell swoop. I can make it so no one has to dedicate their lives to this crap or lose family the way we did ever again. I can do that. I can save the world just like everyone thought I would. I can dobetter.” He moved about the bar as he spoke, and for a brief, morbid moment Jim almost started laughing.
He couldn’t help thinking that Nathanwouldbe laughing right now and would have been unable to keep his mouth shut if the circumstances were different and the man talking was someone else, because, after all, Nathan had to be a villain if he was going to start monologuing.
“Defeating Malak, what would that have gotten us?” Nathan said. “If I hadn’t done what I did, every single person in this place would be dead by now.”
“And it doesn’t bother you to have the thing responsible inside you?” Sasha snapped, his expression hard like Alex’s—harder. “Inside you…changing you into something you’re not. I know this isn’t you, Nathan. You can’t actually want to make a crusade out of this. You know it can’t lead to anything good.”
Jim wished he could read emotions the way Sasha could, wished he could read more than just that pulse of darkness and some faint sense of Nathan coming from his brother. Because with the way Nathan looked at Sasha after the incubus spoke, vivid signs of love anddisappointmentflashing over his face, Jim knew there was enough of Nathan in there that he honestly wanted them all to understand. He didn’t want to be alone in this.
And that was just too unfair.
