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Ashava came and sat by her mother, snuggling in as Jill draped an arm across her shoulders and pulled her close.
“So . . . what did Zack do?” Jill asked as if unsure she wanted to know.
Ashava spoke up first. “He needed to go dormant, and Szerain agreed to host him,” she said with quiet reverence. “He couldn’t survive in isolation.”
Szerain climbed to his feet with Turek’s help. “He’s in stasis, under my protection. It’s similar to how I preserved Elinor’s essence by attaching it to Kara. Also, his presence gives the wound Xharbek ripped in my essence the resources to heal. This way, we both have a chance.”
Though Jill didn’t look at all happy about the situation, she seemed resigned to it. “All right. What happens now?”
“He’ll conserve energy and regenerate,” I said with as much confidence as I could stuff into my voice. “When the conditions are right, he’ll be able to separate from Szerain.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What conditions?”
Ashava looked up at her. “When the demahnk reach out for him to rejoin them.”
Jill’s expression took on a fierce edge as she hugged Ashava close. “Then I guess we’d we better light a fire under their asses.”
Ashava giggled and squeezed her mother’s waist.
I’d picked up on other possible outcomes during Zack’s sparkly essence transfer to Szerain, but I kept them to myself. I had no idea how much Ashava knew, plus Jill was already on overload. Though I had yet to fully process the “understanding,” I now grasped what Zack meant when he’d said it was better to have wholeness from two shattered halves. Zack’s chances were slim, while Szerain’s were good. Zack was willing to sacrifice himself for Szerain to be whole if it came down to that.
Jill didn’t need to know the odds. Not at the moment, at least. Besides, we’d beaten crappy odds too many times to let them get in the w
ay now. All we needed was a chance, and we certainly had that.
“Kara.” Bryce approached, phone in hand. “Text from the house. Both of the pods have changed from black to opalescent.”
“Right,” I said. “Because we haven’t had enough weirdness yet.”
“Well, you keep raising the max-weirdness bar,” he said with a chuckle.
“It’s a gift,” I said. “All right. We’ve destroyed enough for one day. Go ahead and tell the crew at Jill’s house they can return to the compound. We’ll wrap up here and join them in time for afternoon coffee.”
He cocked an eyebrow at me. “You mean afternoon tea?”
“Please. If I ever ask for tea, you’ll know I’m being impersonated by a syraza.”
Chapter 48
With Xharbek defeated, the valve-rift secured, and various entities rescued, it didn’t take long to wrap things up. Szerain carried out much-needed lordly healing on Sonny, and Idris volunteered to remain with the squads at ground zero to help with general mop-up as well as survey the area for any missed rifts or dangerous aberrations. When I suggested we delay the debrief until morning, not a single soul argued.
That settled, we bundled our people, demons, and lords into our vehicles. Szerain chauffeured Jill, Ashava, Turek, and me in the APC while Bryce followed with Elinor and Sonny in Jill’s truck.
Szerain and I spent the drive in companionable silence, each of us needing time to process everything. Jill and Ashava cuddled in the seats behind us, their quiet conversation a soothing background noise.
As we pulled up to the house, Giovanni bounded down the front steps. Before the truck even stopped moving, Elinor leaped out and into his arms. An enthusiastic greeting ensued, which Giovanni broke off right before it got R-rated, then he swept Elinor up in his arms and carried her inside.
Fortunately, everyone else seemed content to let the vehicles come to complete stops before unloading.
Turek bounded off toward his favorite sprinkler. Szerain swung Ashava down from the APC then gave Jill a hand. Bryce busied himself with helping Sonny out of the truck, and tried not to be obvious about his quick glances toward Jill and Ashava.
“Uncle Bryce!” Ashava dashed up to him. “Uncle Sonny told me lots and lots about you, and he was right! You were soooooo amazing at the rift.”
Bryce startled but recovered quickly and smiled down at her. “You can’t trust a single thing Sonny says. He’s kooky in the head.” He twirled one finger at his temple.
Ashava giggled. “He said you were funny and nice, too!” She turned her blue eyes on me. “Auntie Kara? Is it okay if Mom and I cook dinner?”
I heaved a dramatic sigh. “Gee, I dunno. Everyone really loves my cooking, especially my macaroni and ketchup casserole.”
