Page 124 of Sidhe
The façade Jim and Sasha had been wearing so flawlessly began to fall away, their eyes still amber and red, but their bodies trembling, their expressions pale and sick with what they had done. Not with locking up Nathan, but with all they had done to fool him long enough to pull this off.
Walter was so surprised, soproud, that he nearly fell forward onto his knees in grateful prayer.
“Jim! Sasha!” Nathan yelled and pounded on the door again. “Let me outnow! I showed you the truth, gave you power, everything you wanted!” His voice was a raging howl, not like Nathan at all.
“We would never choose you, you god damn son of a bitch,” Sasha spat. He shook much harder than Jim, and Walter thought he understood how difficult this must be for them, likewithdrawals, going against the very being infusing them with something that empowered them, that theyliked, but that they refused to let be enough to make them turn their backs on what they truly believed in.
Nathan’s pounding came to a sudden stop, his voice low and warning as it pierced through the metal door, no longer yelling but still a threat, only his red on black eyes visible through the small cut-out rectangle into the room. “You were playing me? Gave yourselves over in the hopes it wouldn’t be enough to sway you?” He barked a laugh. “Go on then, tell me it isn’t enough. Tell me you don’t feel more alive than you ever have—powerful andfree.”
“Shut up.” Sasha trembled harder, his voice quaking as indecision and doubt flickered through both his and Jim’s eyes.
“We did what we had to,” Jim said, almost like an apology to Nathan but also to remind himself why he was doing this: because it wasrightand had to be done.
Walter saw Alex inch closer to the closed door, prompting him to move closer too. The look on her face was such relief, but worry as well, worry that Jim and Sasha would falter when they had come so far.
Nathan also saw Alex approach, recognition dawning in the red on black eyes that glared out at all of them.
“So she was part of the act too,” Nathan said bitterly. “A whole crew of liars and betrayers. No wonder you seemed to cave so easily, Al. You believe so blindly in Jim, I thought that had finally worked out in my favor.”
“Shutup, Nathan,” Sasha said again, looking barely in control. “You’re going to stay in there until…until we figure this out. We know good people will end up hurt no matter what you say. Even Puck—”
“Puck is aliar,” Nathan countered. “It’s one of the things he’s known for. I’m trying to make the world better. Killing evil iswhat we do, what we’ve done for a lot longer than I’ve had this power. You’re actually siding with him, set this up with Puck to catch me instead? You know this metal box won’t hold me for long. Just let me out. Let me out now…and I’ll be lenient. I’ll forgive you without repercussion. All I want is to be with you,” he focused on Sasha the most, who was clearly closest to faltering, “to make a better world for us that we can live in together.”
Puck stepped up next to Walter on those words. “Nice try, pal. But you can’t con a con-man. Nathan’s in there, sure, but you’re more Malak than anything. You’re less and lessNathanevery time I see you.”
“It’s true,” Walter said, finally having the confidence to tell Jim and Sasha the truth, even in their changed state. “I see him as he really is. It’s not Nathan. Not enough for him to be making the decisions on his own. You can’t trust him. Please. You are doing the right thing.”
A bang on the door made Walter and several of the others jump. “You know I’m me!” Nathan yelled above Walter’s encouraging words. “The things I’ve shown you, given to you. Jim, I laid it all out, the better world we can make and finally live our own lives in. And baby,” his eyes darted to Sasha, fondness and mischief dancing in them, “you can’t tell me you didn’t feel all of me earlier, when we—”
“Stop!” Sasha actually covered his ears, tears stinging his red eyes. “Just stop. When Jim finally told me the truth, when he told me he was able to fight you despite the power and influence, it didn’t make me feel better. I knew the only way we could fight you was if Jim and I worked together, but I couldn’t…stand the thought of letting you do that to me. I didn’t think I was strong enough, as strong as Jim. I thought I’d fall to you. And I…did at first. I relished every bit of how you made me feel, Nathan. But I can’t let you win. Iwon’t. You’re not the Nathan I love,” hefinished, both hands clenched tight at his sides with blackened fingers proving his lack of control.
Walter moved to Sasha so he could place a caring, supportive hand on his back. The incubus jumped somewhat, looking behind him with wide, alarmed eyes. Walter didn’t have any supernatural way of comforting Sasha, or any of them, not as he was now, but he hoped his presence reminded them of the Spirit Guide he’d been.
“I understand,” Walter said, “that you couldn’t risk telling me what you were planning, because it would have given Nathan more chance of figuring it out. But you made it this far, youarestrong enough, both of you.” He looked to Jim as well. “Nathan knew that, he knew you would be strong enough to fight this. Don’t let him down now.”
Alex moved closer to Jim, taking his hand tightly in her own, smiling like she had all the faith in the world in him, which Walter knew was true. “We don’t choose you,” Alex said to Nathan through the small window.
“We’llneverchoose you,” Sasha added firmly.
Then Jim, standing taller than the rest, finished confidently, “We chooseNathan.”
Never before had Walter been so instantly frozen with fear, the way Nathan looked then, even though all Walter could see was his eyes, was darkness at its most potent and cruel. The wrath of Hell so many of them had feared would rain down on them looked suddenly imminent, making Walter terrified that Nathan would escape and lay waste to everything, his anger fueled so strongly that his eyes burned with fire more than the mere color of red.
The further shock, which had Walter clutching Sasha’s shirt for support, came when almost instantly after Nathan surged with dark fae power and fury, he started screaming. It was anger,yes, but something else, something unmistakablyNathancalling out within the furious cries.
A louder sound soon overtook the screams: the sound of an unwanted entity being viciouslyexpelled.
Jim threw the metal door open despite Sasha’s warning cry and all of their unified gasps. But it was not a mistake. Nathan had fallen to his knees in front of the door, a few feet away from it, his head thrown back as what looked like multi-colored smoke and lightning poured out of his mouth with terrible speed.
As more and more of the smoke left Nathan, Jim and Sasha stumbled, nearly going limp right where they stood. Sasha almost brought Walter straight down to the floor, Walter trying his damnedest to keep the incubus upright, holding onto the larger body tightly. Somehow, Sasha managed to remain standing; Jim too, with aid from Alex.
Walter felt a thrill of hope rush through him when Sasha’s brightblueeyes looked at him in gratitude. Glancing over at Jim, Walter saw that Jim’s eyes were also normal, the infused power banished from them as Malak was banished from Nathan.
“Wait.” Sasha grabbed after Jim, stopping him from going to Nathan after he had fallen forward with a dull thud onto the cold floor. “We don’t know if it’s a trick. How can we be sure it isn’t a trick? Why would Malak leave him?”
Jim and Sasha’s return to normal was not enough proof when the matter was so dire. So they waited outside the room, Jim calling out, “Nathan! Nathan, are you alright!?”
For a moment nothing happened, Nathan’s body too still,deathlystill. He was no longer wearing Malak’s suit or its near likeness in dark jeans and black and red shirts. He was instead once again in the very clothing he had been wearing the day this all started.
