“Hold it up to the sunlight.”
The sun has crested the horizon, subdued with cloud cover—but it’s enough. Reluctantly, she lifts the vial. The contents swish inside—silver and shadow, purity and something else.
I step closer. She tenses once again.
I point at the largest dark fragment drifting within. “The specks. They shouldn’t be there. Whatever that is… it isn’t right.”
“Again,” she says, her tone sharpening, “how do you know?”
There’s unease beneath it. Not fear exactly, but uncertainty.
“Because I was reborn from the lake where God’s tears reside in Heaven.” My gaze stays on the vial. “I’ve seen it in its purest form. This…” I gesture faintly. “This is similar. But it’s been tampered with.
“Where did you get it?”
Her jaw tightens. A flicker of something crosses her expression—annoyance, maybe. She’s entirely too secretive for my liking.
I tilt my head slightly. “You still don’t trust me? Was saving your life not telling enough?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But it’s implied.”
“Look, can we just get out of here and talk this through somewhere else where we’re less exposed?”
I nod once. “There’s one problem.”
She had turned away, but spins back around at my declaration. “What?”
“If we’re flying… you’ll need to let me get close enough to carry you.”
Eventually, she nods her acceptance. Yet when I step into her space, her body reacts poorly—shoulders stiff, spine straightening—every line of her pulling taut as if my touch is unwelcome.
“Calm, Little One,” I say quietly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
A breath leaves her. Some of the tension eases—but not all of it. She shakes out her hands and then nods. “Okay. I’m ready.”
I gather her into my arms. She fits there a bit too perfectly. The rightness is mildly disconcerting. Especially as she tilts her face away, taking in everything around us to avoid eye contact.
Her hold on me is careful, as if unsure how much contact she’s willing to give and allow.
It strikes me then that trust is not something she offers freely. The why of it is not a story I will press for now, though I hope to learn it in time.
Perhaps she has never placed her trust in another.
Or perhaps she has, and paid a price for it.
If I want to learn her secrets, it looks as though I will have to earn the right to hold them. And I doubt very much that what I learned so far is all there is, based on the visions I experienced when we first touched and the words that fell from her lips while unconscious.
We take to the skies once more. This time, my focus is sharper. I press harder toward my brothers’ location than before and scan once again for their mental signatures.
Together, perhaps we can make sense of what is unfolding—of the demons surfacing… and unravel the riddle that is this woman.
My back has begun to ache. The flight is taxing muscles I haven’t used in some time. I ignore the pain for as long as I can, knowing soon it will get the best of me.
“What’s that?” The priestess faces me, having shifted to get better situated in my hold. She’s no longer being carried. She’s holding me back. Her arms are linked around my neck with a grip as fierce as the one I have around her waist.
More rain has fallen, hampering our progress and visibility. The squall and wind speed are building and moving in the same direction we are.
