Banishing the Dark

33

Silver eyes squinted in front of my face. I shifted down from my transmutated state, and within a blink, the silver turned to green. Lon. No horns, no fiery halo. Just the man.

The dagger was gone; I’d dropped it before I transported back. But any doubts about what I’d just done dissipated when I caught a glimpse of my hands; they were roughly fisting Lon’s shirt, one of them staining the cotton with blood.

“Is she . . . ?”

I pulled back and spotted the fallen body next to us. The relief I’d just been feeling melted into a slow, humming sadness. Not regret, though. It was just my mind getting accustomed to the sudden weight of this burden: I had killed my own mother. Never mind that I didn’t have a choice. Just because she felt nothing for me didn’t mean I was an emotionless machine. I was sad that I had to do it, sad that she was truly, irretrievably gone, and sad that I couldn’t save her—not from herself or from me.

But like most things, it would pass. And I’d grieved for her too many times already.

What mattered now were the ones I’d saved by doing this, and they surrounded me.

“Cady?” Jupe said, eyes big and wary. “Are you in there?”

“Yes, I’m here.” I grabbed him and fell against Lon’s chest, embracing both of them. Happy tears streamed down my cheeks as Lon kissed the top of my head over and over, nearly squeezing the breath out of me. Even Foxglove tried to get in on the action, standing on hind legs to paw at Jupe.

“Get down, you dumb dog,” Jupe said cheerfully. “You just ruined a happy moment, congratulations.”

“Are you okay?” Lon asked, eyes glassy with emotion—which, knowing now exactly how strong that emotion could be, was probably barely contained.

“I’m fine.” My hand slid to my stomach, as if I could tell something. “Everything feels okay. Priya?” I asked, pushing away to search for him.

“He couldn’t hold on,” Jupe explained. “He said he’d find a healer in the Æthyr. And he’s pretty torn up about what happened, thinks he failed you and all that junk. So you should probably be nice to him next time you summon him. He’s got some self-worth issues.”

“Thank God you don’t have that problem,” Lon mumbled, and I wanted to hug them both all over again. But the crunch of gravel behind Jupe made me remember we weren’t alone.

I peered around his mass of curls and spotted the girl. She was pretty, now that I could see her better. And she held herself as if she was slightly uncomfortable but would die before she admitted it. I liked her immediately.

“Hi,” I said.

She held up a tentative hand. “Hi.”

“Thanks for the heads-up earlier.”

“No problem.”

A slow grin lifted Jupe’s cheeks, and his eyes went a little squinky. “This is Leticia Vega.”

“Nice to meet you, Leticia.” I gripped Lon’s hand like he might dry up and blow away. “I’d apologize that you caught us on a bad night, but this is pretty much the everyday circus sideshow for this family.” Dead body. Pig’s blood summoning circle behind us in the shed. A great first impression.

“Her sister gets naked in front of the entire lodge every week, and her grandmother’s a racist,” Jupe volunteered happily. “She’s used to weirdness.”

“Well, then,” I said, giving her a sympathetic smile to ease her through Jupe’s gift of oversharing. “I think we’ll get along just fine.”