“Do you think… you could talk him into speaking with me?”
I gulped immediately at her request, loud enough that she heard it, too. “I mean, I can try. I don’t know how well it will go, but I can give it a go.”
She brought her gaze to the whiteboard, where she had circled LIFE repeatedly during her lesson. “I want to clear the air with him, now that I know for certain I have moved on. I want him to know he can move on, too, and have an afterlife full of love instead of pain. I want to see him meet someone that makes him as happy as Erasmus makes me… but I also want him to know that I still love him, and he will always have a special place in my heart.” She held a hand there as she humbly spoke.
I jumped off the desk and flattened my shirt out. “Mind if we skip practice today so I can go talk to him? I’ll have Alice come find your Shadows when he’s ready, so you can join us in the Shadow Realm. Speaking somewhere familiar to him may lessen the blow.”
“I agree.” She combed a lock of hair behind my ear. “You’re doing me a huge favor here, Nick. I hope you understand how much it means to me.”
“I know, you big softy.”
“How dare you! I am not soft!” she screeched. Her high pitch made me laugh hysterically on my way out of the room, while she set to work throwing pencils at the back of my head.
“Why exactly are you dragging me along with you?” Odysseus snorted as we crossed campus to the Death Elemental arena.
I was gripping his arm so tight I expected it to fall off, but he luckily let me do this, since he knew it was settling my nerves slightly. “He’s less likely to kill me if my future husband is there! It will remind him that I need to live to see the next sunrise!” I squeaked as I gnawed on my bottom lip, enough to make it bleed.
Odysseus tsked and smoothed his thumb over the cut to heal it. “Love, you’re being dramatic. Stark is a four-thousand-year-old ex-God; he’s more mature than you think.”
“You barely know him!” I pouted out. “He’s a douchebag who is going to ring my neck for even entertaining this!”
“Have some faith in him, would you? He loves you more than anyone in the world, so I doubt he’s going to be mad.”
“You think that…!” I shrieked ominously as I placed my trembling hand to the portal, “but you have no clue what that man is capable of!”
“Ah heh.” Odysseus rolled his eyes heavily and pulled me down the walkway leading to the main gates of the Realm, which opened to the beautiful town all Shadow Walkers resided in. He spun in a circle to take in the sights of the opulent city, which was slowing down for the afternoon after a long day of training. Most Shadow Walkers in my own’s neighborhood belonged to my Elite Elemental trainees, so I recognized quite a few of them. They gave us grand waves and smiles as we passed, but I was too frazzled to respond.
Stark’s house was empty, per usual, as he hated being home alone, so I banged on Claude’s door obnoxiously. Claude wrenched the door open with an eye twitching. “Who taught you how to knock on a door?”
“Hi Claudy-poo,” I teased, which made Odysseus snort beside me and Claude’s eye twitch harder. “I was looking for your lovely little brother.”
“How should I know where he is? Why do you want him, anyway.”
“Seraphine wants to talk to him…” I said through clenched teeth.
Claude immediately paled, even more than he already was, that is. His black eyes swirled with worry as he called for Alice, who appeared with oven mitts on and her hair in a big bun. “Hello, my sweet honey bunnies. What can we do for you?” she chimed.
“Er, Nick needs to talk to Stark, like, now. Do you know where he’s at?”
“I think May was giving him piano lessons today, so probably at May’s house.”
“Piano lessons?” I scoffed.
Claude shrugged. “I dunno what that dude does in his spare time. I told him he should spend it getting a girlfriend, but what do I know.”
“Why are you looking for him?” Alice asked as she handed Odysseus a muffin she had just baked. He bit into it before his eyes popped open in surprise, and he went to work attacking it to her pleasure.
“Seraphine… kind of wants to bury the hatchet with him, and she asked me to help?” I peeped into my shirt collar.
Alice nearly dropped her tray of muffins. Claude caught the tray before they collapsed, though his wife was seconds behindthe muffins. “Oh boy, how the heck are you going to make this happen, Nicodemus?”
“I’m gonna make him do the talking,” I blurted as I jabbed Odysseus.
He smacked the back of my head. “I don’t think so, slick.”
“You’re an abusive, miserable, bitch who wants nothing more than my misery!” I wailed, but my insults didn’t scratch him.
“Whatever you say,” he said with his mouth full.
