A Secret City
The cottage atmosphere drowned in mixed emotions, and many days Theo fought not to let himself get dragged into the dark.
Star sulked, though often assured them Yuri was physically well even if he couldn’t pinpoint his location. Radu painted night skies and bland washes of color, silent and brooding. Lucian trained like he knew another war waited on the horizon.
Some nights he’d drop into bed after a quick shower, too tired to do anything. Other nights he came home bloody, insisting that working his choice generals into shape would hasten his ability to leave the Dahna kingship behind. On rare occasions he vanished into the confines of his private room and cried. Theo sat outside the door, his hypersensitive hearing listening to the muffled sobs, but unwilling to invade Lucian’s space, and desperate for him to know he wasn’t alone.
They needed to find Yuri. Only he could tie them together as they were meant to be, balancing their dark and light.
At first Theo thought Star would be a boon to help them locate him, since they were two halves of one soul always pulled in one direction. But Star’s long years of being bound and weakened by shadows meant Yuri’s bond only stirred when they were close.
They all tried going into other worlds to find Yuri faster, but Radu’s power waned quickly, and he had to be rescued by Lucian as he couldn’t open a portal to return. Theo struggled to locate the place between, often finding himself in some dark plane rather than home. And Star drew the remnants of shadows like a magnet.
The last adventure out, Star had to be rescued by Michael, who appeared with a flaming sword to skewer the shadows and scattered their consciousness back to the darkness stretched between worlds to give them less bite. The reborn version of Michael hadn’t changed much either. Violet kept him in check.
Theo sought her to try to gain assistance. He had a plan. Not to find Yuri, but to ease Lucian’s depression. It wasn’t much, but he had to cling to something.
Theo showed up at her door, a pretty treehouse type of thing in the new growth of Dahna. Her wings lightened with the change, adding a ripple of glitter to the pale gray tone, like tempered glass. She opened her door with them splayed, ready to attack, but seeing him, dismissed the wings and tossed her weapon aside, waving him inside with annoyance.
“What do you need, seraph?”
He stepped through the door, shocked to find a half dozen multi-colored cats lounging around the space. Larger than the type he recalled from the human realm kept as pets, he wondered their origin, but none of them paid him any mind, their focus on her.
“Can you ask your dad a favor for me?” Theo asked. “I don’t have much to offer in return, but I need some help.”
She narrowed her gaze at him. “With?”
“I want to try to find Barney, Lucian’s fluffy friend. It returned to its world in the… well it returned to its world, and since we’re still trying to find Yuri, I thought it would maybe help Lucian.”
“It’s been months and still no sign of Yuri?”
“Traveling by foot on the mortal planet takes a long time.” And Lucian could only create one portal per trip. The minimal magic left in the human realm limited their ability to move within it. It was safer to have only Lucian and Theo travel. Theo could strengthen Lucian’s magic, while leaving Radu and Star behind in the world between created a solid anchor for Lucian or Theo to follow. “We are trying to be patient as we search…”
“Why do you think my father knows where this Barney might be?”
Had Michael hidden the bubblegum world of murder fluffies he created during his grief over losing her mom and trying to care for her? Theo suspected it came from a mix of needing to create something pretty and bright for his child, while having so much pain and rage that it fed into creating a very carnivorous world. Perhaps even what little magic he scraped together after the Nephilim rose and destroyed their world contributed to his wild creation. Theo was too afraid to ask.
“The things that ate the shadows came from a world that your father created. Did he tell you? Barney was one of those.” He hesitated to go into detail. “Lucian bonded with the creature.”
She turned to peer at the cats, their fur coats fluffy and bright unusual colors like pink, purple and blue. “These are them.”
“What?” Theo stared at the nearest one. Barney had begun to change in size, but he’d still been a big ball of fluff in the end.
“Some of the fluffy things that I found after I met Yuri… these are them, evolved. They stayed with me. The one you’re looking for didn’t stay?”
The cats had been murder fluffies?
“Star said it was a creator in its world.” Did that mean Barney couldn’t leave it? How then would he ease Lucian’s growing sadness? Theo admitted that he loved Lucian terribly, and the lower Lucian sank into his depression, the more Theo found himself drowning. They could stir moments of warmth and joy, but their group was incomplete without Yuri. Even if they all curled up together in one big bed, something was still missing, mainly their center. And they all knew what.
Tears filled his eyes at the idea of going home empty-handed. He missed Barney, too.
“Hmm. Fine. Let’s go ask my dad.”
“Really?”
“Can’t have old grumpy pants mirroring my father’s sourpuss. One of them is enough.” She opened the door. “Can you fly?”
“Of course,” Theo agreed and stepped out, willing his wings from the ether.
