Page 49 of Monster Married
“Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to help with the magic by visualizing the building and imagining rain falling on it and extinguishing the flames.
“If this works, the Koa Esher are going to be pissed, and they might come looking, so we might have to run or hop the veils, just so you know.”
And he didn’t want Inkiri here if the Koa Esher came attacking, which was why he’d come up with that plan to split up. He didn’t want Inkiri to do stupid things while defending his mate.
For once, I liked the way he’d been thinking.
I nodded. “Yeah, okay. Can we get started?”
He raised an eyebrow and held out his hand.
“Imagine it. When you can see it, say you want rain, so I know I can get the magic started.”
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, which was a bad idea. Images came flooding into my mind. The fucking bear had torn off arms, and there’d been bone sticking out, and I’d thought how funny it was that bagu skin was blue and my skin was white, but still, bone was bone and looked the same. That fucking bear. I needed to focus.
I pushed the memory of the beastly carnage away, pushed the sight of Vergis killing the white fluffballs at the wall earlier away, and focused on the house. Someone lived there. This wasn’t Earth, with its abandoned homes that made me sad. The bagua whose house that was were still here, and they needed their home whole, not burned to cinders.
I saw the flames licking at the timber, and I imagined rain, dark clouds above spouting torrents.
“I want rain,” I said. “I want rain, I want rain.” And over, and over.
Vergis’s grip on my hand tightened ever so slightly, and heat bloomed from inside me, although it did nothing to chase away that eerie cold that had settled along my spine.
My eyes opened, and the bagua guarding us took a step back. Between Vergis and me, magic was radiating, so bright it had to hurt to look at.
Petrichor was the smell of rain bathing the earth, wetting the soil, making way for new life. That was the smell I wanted, and I focused on it.
Something rustled in my mind.
You are far away, Rory. The presence was familiar, like your shadow or your own smile seen in a mirror. You need me.
“I want rain,” I said again. Was it already raining? The magic was still bright between us. In my arms, I felt the branches wilt and turn to ash.
You have called rain to you, but you want the fire to stop. I see it in your mind. Do you want me to take the reins of those flames, tear them from the magic that created them?
“What does that mean?” I mumbled.
“Focus on the rain, princess,” Vergis said, and I saw him pull his knife out of its sheath. My branches were almost gone.
You don’t need your mage’s stored power or the flowers. I am here. Command me.
I took a deep breath. In my mind I said, Make the fire stop.
As you will, the strange-familiar presence that only I could sense said, and I knew the flames winked out just then.
I heard shouts from that direction; shocked, dismayed. The Koa Esher were angry.
“Shit.” Vergis let go of my hand.
The cold in my spine was still there, and if anything, it was getting worse. It was getting to the point where it was very nearly painful.
“Make it stop,” I mumbled, too quietly for anyone to hear, and anyway, Vergis had run back to the corner. I saw him raise his gun and fire off a few shots. The bagua with us split up, two heading to Vergis, one staying with me.
You’re far away, Rory. Do you understand what the cold inside you is?
I didn’t. No.
It’s Death coming for one or your knights. He’s not with Her yet, but will be soon. You will always know now when she is on her way to welcome one of them.
