I sure as hell felt bankrupt right about now. StaringatKrystan, I tried to gaugeher reaction.Catching my even gaze, she lifted her chin in defiance as if to silently tell me to fuck off.What didn’t make sense to me still was how many times I’d proven to her that I wastrustworthy,and she still looked the other way.
Phillip chuckled, adjusting his turtleneck. “Apologies, I’ve gone off on a tangent. It is a subject I rather love delving into.Butregardingbelief, it is similar but different.Insteadof an exchange of interactions, one mustfind enough evidenceto build thenew neural pathways until the old ones become too weak to fire anymore.”
Nodding, I acted like I understood but he’d lost me.
“Sothemillion-dollarquestion iswhat does Sophie believe?”Gregoryasked.
“Sophie is younger,more malleable,” Phillip said. “Her belief must have been altered by what happened when she met with you, Calan, and Emma.But honestly, this is all conjecture.Her interaction with the supernatural could very well have changed her in ways we’ve yet to see in other civilian children.Perhaps the gateopeningbetween dimensionscould have also affected ourplane energetically in someway.”
A blur caught the corner of my eye before Sophie flew onto the couch, her arms wrapping around me. “I missed you.”
Pulling out an arm to wrap it around her, I smiled at her. “Hey kiddo.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I sawKrystanblanche.
That’s right, I would make a great dad. I babysat your ass for years.
Idigestedmy own thought. Iwouldbe a great dad. I could read bedtime stories, eat tacos, and hang out with a tiny human. Granted I knew there wasa lotmore to it than that, butI’d winged a hell of a lotthelast couple years. I'd figure it out.
“Noah said I was beingannoying,and I got bored,” she huffed, attempting to push her hair back from her face again but that was hard with Merlin clutched in her hand.
I reached up and pushed her hair back from her face for her. “Soph, can you help us with something?”
She shrugged and played with her bunny’s ears.
“Why can you kill the monsters?”I asked.
“What do you mean?” She made Merlin hop across my legs and back to hers.
“Noah can’tdo it, why can you? Do you know why you can fight them?”
A tiny pink tongue stuck out between her lips as she either thought about my question or was concocting a story about Merlin as she played with him.
“The magic man could fight the bad things,” she said. “And he touched Merlin which made Merlin magic too.”
Lord knew I didn’t want to chance screwing up her perfect little kid logic, but I had to ask.“When you were in the alley last night with the bad monster, did you feel sad at all?”
The room went still as everyonewaitedfor her answer.
“Merlin doesn’t get scared. When I hold his hand, I don’t get scared either.As long asI can hold his hand, we can fight anything.Can I have that?” She pointed at the untouched hot chocolateI’d set onthe coffeetable in front of me.
“Sure,” I said, handing it to her.It had cooled off enough that I wasn’t worried.Shehanded overMerlinto meso she could hold the big mug with two hands.Carefully she blew across the top though there wasn’t any steam anymore.
One of theagents stepped in the room, tall, dark skin and with a face as serious as a heart attack.“Master Agent?”
Phillip stood. “Yes?”
“We have a status update on the roving dark entity.”Themanstopped when his eyes fell on Sophie.
“Hey kiddo,” I said. “Why don’t you take this back into the theater room and give that movie another shot. It’s really good.”
She nodded, a chocolate mustache staining her upper lip now. “Merlin wants to stay with you.” Then she slid off the couch and walked back, holding her cup as carefully as if it were made of glass.I was honored to be entrusted the magic bunny that slayed demons.
Once she was gone, theagent resumed his report. “A breaking news update has announcedan entire gang hascollectivelycommittedsuicide. The MO matches with our dark entity.”He walked over and handed Phillip the report.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Krysta muttered.
Phillip reviewed the papers and started summing upout loud.“Last night, there was a shooting betweenrivalgangsthe Bloods and the Crips.”
