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“You have time for that, Aisling.”A beat passed.“May I hold you? I don’t wish to cross any boundaries. But as you cannot see me in this form, it is the easiest way for me to reassure you that I am here for you. I am yours, should you need anything.”
“Is that what this pact is?” I asked. “How long are you with me?” I could use help while I restarted. Even if it was from some ethereal being. And maybe Willa, too, if I could find her after today.
“You said ‘for life’ when you made the pact.”
I gulped. Had I? I… yes, I guess I had said that. “Right. Then I suppose you may as well have permission to hold me.” If Mrak was to be with me for life, and if I was to recover from all that had happened to me, I might as well start that process now.
Besides, I could really just use a hug right now.
“As you wish.”I felt Mrak’s ethereal hands slide up both arms before pulling me in. It was strange, this feeling. I couldn’tseeMrak’s form, but I watched myself in a mirror as he pulled me and Ifelthis chest, his arms. His chin come to rest atop my head. His embrace had all the feeling in the world of hugging an actual person, and yet… the mirror only reflected back at me an awkward image of me holding air.
My brow furrowed and tears welled in my eyes again. Maybe I was fated to live only half a life, from existing just to feed vampires to be held only be someone or something that wasn’t really here. Maybe—
No. I refused to believe that. I had a whole future to shape, and I’d forge it into whatever I damned well pleased just as easily as I had spent years forging weapons for Lazarus.
Mrak whispered near my ear as his embrace tightened.“There, there, Aisling. I will take care of you, I promise.”
I smiled as my future began to knit itself together in front of me. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, the thoughts of a desperate and exhausted woman who’d spent too long as a blood slave in a vampire’s empire. But a new path was forging itself before me.
“You already have taken care of me, Mrak,” I whispered back to him. “You saved me. And with this magic, I will take what was done to me and make something new.”
With fire magic, I’d be able to forge quicker and more efficiently. With these skills Lazarus had taught me, I’d find work and money. So many people wished for weapons to defend themselves against supernaturals these days.
I’d use these skills to start a new life, and to create beauty out of damage and pain.
And Mrak would be there with me every step of the way.
