Page 125 of Sidhe
Walter felt Sasha’s shoulders tense under his touch whenNathan’sshoulders twitched, trembling hands moving slowly toget under Nathan and push him up enough for him to look out with wearygreeneyes at the people staring in at him from the doorway. His mouth quivered as he tried to smile.
“H-Hey. Knew you…wouldn’t let me down,” he said with a voice that shook almost too much to be understood, but they heard him, heard him andknewit was Nathan.
They still waited, just to be certain, coaxing Nathan to come to them. Jim quickly used the chalk they’d left on the cellar floor to fill in the rune that had previously been broken, leaving only the main seal, the door, open. If Nathan could still walk out then there was no doubt he was free.
Nathan laughed shakily as he got to his feet, barely able to move but he managed. He spoke as he moved slowly for the door. “I’m n-no…fool. Had it all worked out…right from the start. See…I didn’t just say ‘come and take me’ to that bastard. We made a deal. He could only have me…so long as Jim and Sasha chose him willingly. Idiot.” Nathan laughed again. “He thought he couldn’t lose. But I knew better. Just like Dave said. Malak can’t touch me,” he stumbled out of the metal room into Jim and Sasha’s collective arms, “long as I choose you guys.”
Everything became a tangle of limbs—Jim’s, Nathan’s, Sasha’s. Soon there were Alex’s too. Walter didn’t feel right getting in the midst of that, Puck holding back understandably as well, but it was something else to see, to see this family reunited that Walter counted himself so lucky to be even a meager part of.
“I can’t believe you, Nathan,” Sasha said, though there was no real reprimand in his tone. “You risked the fate of the world on us? What if we hadn’t been strong enough? What if we had really chosen him?”
Nathan grinned wearily. “Never a doubt in my mind. Just had to…buy us a little time, ya know. Now, he can come on back all he wants. We’ll be ready. The fae and all the…seals, theGatehouse is wide open to them now. I was just evening the odds a bit, that’s all.”
“You crazy idiot,” Alex laughed despite how she shook her head at Nathan with some of that reprimand Sasha had failed at, “what if someone had ended up hurt?”
“Nah.” Nathan blinked hard a few times, looking sturdier with Jim and Sasha on either side of him. “That was always part of the deal, way back on day one. Malak wouldn’t have dared. Admit it,” he smirked, “I’m an evil genius.”
Almost everyone laughed at that, Puck included, who looked rather impressed.
Only Sasha refrained, a small blissful smile on his face that grew as he took hold of Nathan’s chin. “I can do without the evil part,” he said, pulling Nathan to him for a brief and gentle kiss.
When they pulled apart, Walter watched the brothers reenact their lifelong ritual—their hands formed into pistols, each cocking back a silent BANG.
Nathan had managed the impossible. Now they had the chance to start over, start fresh, with all the backup they’d been waiting for. It filled Walter with a renewed sense of faith in all that was Nathan Grier.
If only the mirth could have lasted.
It was foolish, really. Walter should not have forgotten the remaining member of their group. None of them should have forgotten him. But they had.
Standing stonily still at the base of the stairs, they had forgottenSolrin, who stood gaping, his hand trembling where it gripped the banister.
“You have betrayed us,” Solrin said deploringly to Nathan. He started to back his way up the stairs. “How could you taste all that he has to offer and choose willingly to go on without his gifts? You were a being beyond measure.”
“Sol.” Nathan stepped away from the others, forcing himself to move on his own. “You don’t really feel that way. You know this is right. If you thought otherwise, why didn’t you try to stop them?” Nathan indicated Jim and Sasha who had somehow orchestrated a plan that suited Nathan’s own, freeing them all despite the odds.
Solrin shook his head, another step slowly ascended. “I believed in your power, that they would be made to pay for their transgression. I don’t…” He stumbled on his words, hesitant and unsure; Walter could see it in the lone jade eye. “I know this is wrong. Your power. You told me that you had never felt truly whole until the moment you became one with Malak, that you understood, finally, all you could accomplish.”
The steady progression Nathan had been making toward Solrin ceased. Something flickered in Nathan’s expression, telling Walter that Solrin was not entirely wrong. “Temptation’s a tricky thing, pal,” Nathan said in a soft, careful voice. “The promises gotta be a little true, or we’d never want them. Jim and Sasha were able to trick me, because a part of them really were on Malak’s side.”
The darkness that filled Jim and Sasha’s eyes proved how true that was. But Walter did not see it as something to condemn, but a truer testament to their strengths that they had the ability to refuse even when their temptations were greatest.
Nathan was the same, having tasted something that tempted him still, but the part of him that was stronger knew it had been wrong.
“Solrin,” Nathan tried again, a few more cautious steps taken, “you don’t have to be against us. I want you to be a part of this, but on this side, on the right side. I had Malak as…a part of me, and I can still step back and say no. You can’t believe his lies, please.”
“Enough!” Solrin cried out, more than halfway up the stairs, his muscles taut. “I know the truth. I know…you’re wrong. You have to be wrong.” He started moving faster, half turned around as he climbed the stairs.
“Sol, wait! Stop!”
Solrin turned fully and bolted up the stairs, deaf to Nathan’s pleas. Nathan rushed up after him. Everyone else gave similar chase, the whole thing feeling like awful déjà vu after chasing Puck down there.
Walter stuttered to an awkward stop behind the others when they finally reached the bar area where Nathan now stood, the main doors swung wide but with no sign of Solrin. They had been right behind him. He couldn’t have just vanished.
It was a tangible feeling, an ill sense of darkness on the approach, before Walter actually saw anything. Everyone had stopped on the far side of the bar, save Nathan who was up at the doors. Between them a ripple of smoke began to form that by the time Nathan turned back to everyone had taken the shape ofMalak. The true Malak—male, blond hair, trim suit.
Walter trembled where he stood. Then he was no longer standing but thrown back into the wall along with everyone else, held firm, painfully tight and immobile by Malak’s power. Only Nathan remained standing. He looked at them all, startled, guilt-ridden, like he was looking at a reflection in Malak and this was all his fault.
The sun had been shining outside, not the fake sunny skies from the way Nathan had shielded them, but the real sun, Walter was certain. With the appearance of Malak, however, the darkness returned, throwing everything into shadow.
