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Please, don’t leave me, Gael.
It skims the ceiling.
I don’t want this life without you.
It’s gone, through the ceiling and merged with the æther.
No. No. This can’t be. This is not… My throat closes and I can’t breathe.
Chonk howls, exploding into tentacles, and Noriya’s body convulses as she calls on the old tongue… reciting the strange cumbersome language.
And the cloud of essence reappears. It stays static for a moment before drifting downward.
And my throat opens, air rushing into my lungs like a great storm, screaming past my vocal cords until the last curling tail seeps into the wound.
I burst into tears, and Noriya stops chanting, sets the bottle down, and begins healing the wound.
Moments later, she’s finished. Chonk hops down, and Noriya approaches. She kneels with me, taking my hand, and her touch sears my mortal skin, but I don’t let her drop it. I squeeze her hand in mine, eyes cast down.
“Tell me it worked,” I say, eyes downcast.
“Only time will tell, Dove. I’ve never seen anything like what just happened. Take him back, care for him, and soon you’ll have your answer.”
“How will I know if it doesn’t work?” I ask.
“You’ll know.” Noriya pulls her hand from mine, and I hear her walk off.
I don’t have to tell Bastian to get Gael or Chonk to take us back to the lair. Nor do I have to tell Bastian to put Gael in a guest room and move all my things out of my room and into another guest room.
He does so on his own, while I sit next to Gael, holding his cool hand.
Will I be able to look at him if he wakes? Or will his glowing Grace sear my eyes without a glamour?
Will he understand when I explain that everything we know is infinitely more wrong that even he imagined? Will he believe that I didn’t lose my Grace for any of the reasons we were taught.
Not touching a demon or performing Rites with them. He’ll have to, right? He knew we’re the same species.
My magic came out of abeyance when I fell for a horde of four demons.
And I lost it all when one of them broke my heart.
All our books are wrong. False.
Why?
Who would…
I stop myself from going down that trail and sink into the numbness. Only staring at Gael’s face. Waiting.
“Dove, you need to eat,” someone says from miles away. It might have been Dashel.
Moments later. “Baby, please drink something.” I let him put a glass to my mouth, and only when the cool water touches my lips do I realize they’re cracked and painful.
So I drink.
Vaguely, I’m aware of demons sitting next to me. First one, then another, and another, then the first one again. Over and over.
A warm washcloth and scented soap on my skin. Someone’s cleaning me.
