“Why aren’t you healed?” she demanded.
“I did say that next time you made me bleed, I’d need you to kiss it and make it better,” he said lazily. “I happen to be bleeding quite a lot.”
She scowled down at him. “Kiss or kick? I did not make you bleed now any more than the other times you tangled with that thing. You had no problems healing yourself when you had half your face burned off.”
He gave her his shark grin. “Sit down beside me, anyhow, cupcake.”
Begrudgingly, she sat down tailor-style beside him. “The haunt was pretty nasty, huh?”
“Oh yes. That’s Imani for you.”
“All those other assholes, too,” Branwyn noted.
Severin chuckled creakily. “But it took Imani to make them dangerous to me. I’m glad you saved her.”
Alarmed at this confession of feelings, Branwyn said, “You aren’t dying, are you?”
“Nope,” he said. “Though I’ll tell you something. When you use a celestial’s true name, they don’t simply hear you. They get stronger. Just for a little while. Like a surge of adrenalin.” Branwyn’s scowl returned, and he eyed her in amusement. “I don’t need you to say my name to get that effect, cupcake. All I need you to do is touch me.”
Branwyn narrowed her eyes. “Are you lying to me?”
“Try it and see.”
She looked him up and down. Not only did he have numerous hideous burns and long gashes, but the horrible blackness of the haunt’s attack shadows lingered on his arms and legs. He had healed a little as she spoke with him. But it had been much faster before.
Sighing, she put her hand on his forehead and stroked his hair. He closed his eyes rather than gloating, which further convinced Branwyn that he was at the kaiju equivalent of death’s door. But his injuries did heal faster, and after a moment or two, the black taint faded from his extremities.
“What happened to the beast?” he asked, eventually, his eyes still closed. “I felt it vanish, but that’s all.”
“That’s… all. It vanished. I assume it’ll be back again. I’ll have to figure out how to get Rhianna out of it. Maybe Brynn can help…”
Severin opened his eyes and looked up at her without speaking. She didn’t like it, so she looked away, twisting her fingers in his hair. Then, surprised, she said, “Here comes Jen. She’s… different.”
She stood up, pulling Severin after her for an instant. “Oops,” she said, released his hair, and ran over to where the rest of the Hunt—and Cat—stood around Imani and Charlie.
Jen walked beside Brynn, with Earth Horse on her other side. Capricorn trailed behind them, smiling cheerfully.
“I should have known,” said Haliel darkly.
“She’s not just ‘Skipper’ now, Haliel!” said Capricorn.
“She’ll always be Skipper to me, you vandal.”
Jennifer had her own set of tattoos now, and the way she walked was… different. There was something almost animalistic about her. Her hair had changed color, too: it had been dull brown before, but now it glinted a metallic copper. As she got closer, the marks on her arms and neck resolved into thorny, twining roses.
Those damn roses.
“Jennifer?” AT said hesitantly. “What happened? We felt something after the bane vanished. What did you do?”
Jen held out her arms, showing the marks on her skin. “I had a bit of an argument. But don’t worry. I won.”
Brynn blurted, “She broke the ark, and then she absorbed the bane. It was amazing. I thought for a minute the bane was going to be part of the Wild Hunt in her place.”
“Oh my god,” said Branwyn, alone in her distress. “What happened to the souls inside the beast?”
Jennifer tilted her head. “Let’s find out.”
“Wait!” said Amber urgently. “If you’re about to summon that thing like Brynn calls the horses, remember about the twelve souls it has to eat?”
Jennifer gave her a little smile. “I’m a wizard, not a spell, Amber. I have slightly more control than a stone box.” The roses leapt off her skin and writhed together above her, and a moment later the enormous beast of fire and thorns landed on the ground beyond.
Once again, it was different. A wolf, or possibly a fox, and now it had it had the wings of a dragon, too. It sat down and lifted a paw as if to shake hands. Gently, Jennifer said, “Let them go.”
The beast inhaled, then exhaled flame. Four figures appeared in the flame, and three of them almost instantly faded away. One lingered as the flame vanished.
“Rhianna,” Branwyn whispered, and ran to her sister. She looked just like the other ghosts, just like Imani did still. Branwyn reached for her, and her fingers passed right through.
“Well, that was odd,” said Rhianna, looking thoughtful.
“You’re a ghost,” said Branwyn wretchedly. “You’re really dead?” Suppressed panic rose up.
Rhianna tapped her lips with a finger. “I don’t quite know.”
“She’s—” began Amber behind them, and then, “Ouch!” Brynn came up and took Rhianna and Branwyn’s hands, bringing them into contact with each other. Her head was low, her hair in her face, but Branwyn didn’t need to see anything to know she was crying.
All Branwyn could think was that their mother would cry too. Everybody would cry. And Branwyn would have to say She volunteered, and it wouldn’t mean a thing, because she was Rhianna’s older sister. How could this be happening?
“That’s a neat trick, brat,” said Rhianna fondly. “But I don’t think it’s… oh yes. You should probably stand back.” As she said that, she started to sparkle.
A celestial numina spread itself over them: not Ettoriel’s, not Severin’s, but one that felt vaguely familiar to Branwyn. She glared around, looking for the angel that had led her sister to this stupid sacrifice. But save for his numina, Umbriel did not appear.
Rhianna smiled up at the sky as the sparkling became flashing, and then each sparkle became flesh and blood and bone. For a moment, Rhianna glittered like a galaxy, and then the sparkles faded away, leaving behind a nude but very much alive Rhianna.
“Hmm,” she said, inspecting her hands and arms. Then she spread her arms wide. “Witness the magic of expense reports, Branwyn!”
Branwyn stared at her sister, and then leapt upon her, gathering her into a fierce, physical hug. Brynn burrowed in between them and both elder and younger sister cried on the middle one, who looked up at the sky and said, “Thanks, boss.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Amber faintly. “How did she do that?”
“He,” said Cat helpfully. “The angel Umbriel. And very expensively, I suspect.”
“This is his body,” confided Rhianna to Branwyn, who was wiping tears from her face with one arm while hanging onto Rhianna with the other. “I mean, it’s my body now, and I do think he’s done a very good job of adjusting it for me. But he’ll have to make a new vessel for himself, so it’ll be awhile before I can get my safety charms refreshed. I’ll probably be stuck on desk work until then. Maybe I can take a vacation!” Then she blinked. “Oh, right. Excuse me.”
Rhianna extracted herself from between Branwyn and Brynn and walked over to where Imani and Charlie stood close together. “I’ve got something for you from my boss,” she informed Charlie. Rhianna put her hand over her heart, extracting something that glowed to Branwyn’s Geometry vision, and pushed it into one of Charlie’s nodes. “That’ll help when you get hungry.” She glanced back at Branwyn, her mouth twisted wryly. “No vacation for a while. Apparently the budget’s been all used up. I’ve got to be my Advisor’s hands for a while.”
She looked around. “Ooh, are those our bags? I have an emergency minidress in there! Come on, Bran-Brynn!”
Amber shook her head as Branwyn and Brynn chased their very strange sister through the remains of Tucker toward the campsite. A moment later, Severin strolled after them, pausing only long enough to give Imani a long look. Then he said, “I’ll be back, Charlie,”
and continued on after the Lennox women.
“She still has a soul,” Amber complained. “If her angel had made her a spawn or changeling or whatever they call it, I could understand what just happened. But she’s got a soul. I can see it.”
“Oh, hush, Amber,” said Yejun impatiently. “Jen, you’ve got an extra node now. That’s so… cool. Ten nodes.”
“Do I?” asked Jen, vaguely surprised. “I suppose that makes sense.” She held out her hand, and the big red bane turned into colored light and streamed back onto her skin.
“Well done,” said Cat, smiling. “And thank you.” Jen looked at him, but didn’t smile, or say a word.
“And you, man,” said Yejun. “What happened to you? For a minute you were an angel and now you’re just… you. Still not a normal human.”
“You should talk,” said AT. “He smells the same. That’s good enough for me.”
“No, I’m not what I was,” Cat said slowly. “But the power of a celestial is tied to their name, and my name is Cat.”
“Doesn’t really matter,” said Haliel, sniffing. “You took the power. It’ll keep coming back again. Although there might be a way to make it really yours.” She smiled slowly. “Nina could probably help. I hear the girl has quite the knack for naming things.”
Cat looked at Jennifer instead of Haliel. “Before you were interrupted, you were about to tell me what you didn’t want me to do. Will you finish that?”
She studied him and then glanced down at her tattooed arms. Behind her, Capricorn bounced up and down on her toes gleefully.
When Jennifer answered, it was without any of her usual hesitance. Instead, very matter-of-factly, she said, “I didn’t want you to go away with Haliel. Perhaps that’s wrong of me, but I don’t care.”
“Then I won’t,” Cat said happily. “I’ll stay with Yejun, instead.”
Amber felt a lump rise in her throat, and blurted around it, “Oh thank God. He’d never wear clean clothes again if you left.”
“And maybe I can bring Sunset Horse carrots sometimes,” Cat added.
“This is all very sweet,” said Haliel coldly. “But I warned you that power isn’t going away. It’s probably going to show up just as you’re hanging out underpants to dry, and it’ll do something really embarrassing.” She surveyed them all, and added, “And then I’ll write it down.”
“Haliel?” said Capricorn. “Let’s go find some coffee! You can show me your book and tell me what you thought of my work!”
“Get lost, Capricorn,” growled Haliel.
“I can’t! But I can bring you coffee if you don’t want to go out! You still like cinnamon dulce lattes, right? I know where I can get that!” Capricorn stepped backward and vanished.
“Oh sweet heaven,” muttered Haliel. “I can’t deal with Coffee with Capricorn right now. All right, kids, I’m heading out. I’ll be expecting that map in the mail, Magic. And Slick…. We’ll be talking more.”
“Talking’s fine,” said Cat. Haliel gave him a nasty look, and also then vanished.
AT nudged Amber. “Told you so.”
Amber understood exactly what she meant, but couldn’t agree with her. “You can’t call that a win.”
“Depends on what you were trying to accomplish, I guess,” said AT.
Jennifer looked back at where Capricorn had been. “That’s a dangerous demon. Yes, yes, Earth Horse. But you’re a dangerous friend too, aren’t you?” She patted the horse absently on the neck.
Then she turned and knelt beside Imani and Charlie. “Hi.”
“Hi,” said Imani awkwardly. “Is it odd that I know what I am now, this whole Wild Hunt thing, but not why I’m…” She waved a still translucent hand.
Jen sat back on her heels and glanced over at Amber, her eyebrows raised. Guiltily, Amber remembered what she’d done to Jennifer, and hurried over to join her. “Uh, hi. You’re still a bodiless soul, just like I’m still a bloodsucking fiend. But you’ll probably eventually get the hang of being just like a human some of the time. But if you don’t, that’s okay, too. Isn’t it?” She ended on a note more hopeful than authoritative and slumped a little.
“I’m speaking and you’re hearing me,” said Imani. “I’ll make it work.”
Jennifer patted Amber on the shoulder and rose to her feet again.
“Jennifer?” said Amber quickly. “Uh, do you want the Horn back again?”
“I don’t think so,” said Jennifer with a little smile. “I think you’ll learn a lot carrying it.”
“Great,” said Amber glumly.
“Hey, Amber, maybe there’s a class you can take next semester,” said Yejun. “I’m sure your fancy college offers a class in everything, right?”
“Why don’t you start by helping Imani decide where she and Charlie are going to live now?” suggested Jennifer, her gaze moving to Cat.
“Yeah…” muttered Amber, but she continued watching Jennifer and Cat instead.
Softly, Jennifer said, “Laundry and carrots, huh? Anything else?”
“Yes,” said Cat steadily. Then he brushed his fingers through her hair. “Let’s talk about the details later, though.”
“Yes, please,” said Yejun. “You do that. Later. I’m getting pretty tired of oh never mind Jesus Christ,” he finished in disgust as Jen stood on her tiptoes and kissed Cat. “I hope that redhead is wearing clothes by now,” he added, and stalked away.
Amber sighed and looked back at Imani. “Our work isn’t usually this exciting,” she said.
“I don’t mind exciting,” said Imani.
“I kind of do,” said Charlie. “Mom, if you can’t touch stuff, you can’t make dinner. Are we going to have to live with Severin?”
“Severin doesn’t live anywhere, kiddo,” said Imani sweetly. “He’s got nothing but a dirty bed and a big closet in a locked room. I’ve seen it. Disgusting.”
“Ew,” said Charlie. “Really? So what are we going to do?”
“Don’t worry,” said Amber. “Your family’s a lot bigger now. And those two lovebirds cook really, really well.”
Branwyn was the last person Severin delivered home, after some complications regarding Imani and Charlie’s disposition. At first, they’d been set to move into Jennifer’s big farmhouse, but as soon as they got there and looked around, Imani and Charlie had both become nervous.
“I don’t want to live in the middle of nowhere again, Mom,” said Charlie. “I want to go to a school where nobody’s going to stare at me.”
“It’s not that bad here,” said AT, and she might have convinced them if Severin had given her a chance. But he hadn’t.
“Plenty of opportunities to visit,” he’d said, and yanked them away again, only to step through a window targeted on Branwyn’s family home.
“You’ve got a focus here, too?” she said, outraged.
“It’s useful,” he said. “So, your mom’s been bored and lonely lately. You think she’d put them up?”
“Where are we?” demanded Charlie.
“Pasadena, near LA.” said Branwyn absently, and Imani nodded in approval. Branwyn shoved aside her annoyance at Severin monitoring her family home and considered his question. “She’d love it, although she might need some time to get used to Imani.”
The introduction had been a little complicated, but as soon as Holly understood that Charlie and the flickering spirit beside her needed a safe place to stay while recovering from trauma, all of Holly’s nurturing instincts kicked in.
“I’ll make my way from here,” said Rhianna brightly, as Severin held out a hand to her. “I’m never going to get used to that space of yours. You know, Branwyn’s place isn’t that far. Unless you’re going somewhere else?” she added innocently.
Before Branwyn could respond, Severin gave Rhianna a shark smile and yanked Branwyn away.
They lingered a moment in the velvet darkness. She held her breath, wondering if once again she’d have to explain to him why she couldn’t do what she really wanted to do.
But he only pressed his thumb against her lips, gave her that grin, and pulled her into her studio.
“Well then,” she said, briskly. “I guess that’s that.” She thought for a moment. “Are we still going to have to fight over Rhianna’s punishment in a month or so?”
“Nah,” he said. “She died five times already. I think that’s enough. I bet Candy’ll be impressed, too. Max certainly will be.”
Branwyn shuddered. “You like giving me nightmares, don’t you?”
“I prefer your dreams.” He gave her a darkly hungry look, and her mouth burned where he’d touched her. “However,” he added, and then stopped.
He never took his eyes off her, but his expression changed to one she’d learned to recognize as wants to say something but doesn’t know how.
She gazed back at him, patiently, in case this time he figured it out.
Finally, he said, “I know you’re eager to… explore the possibilities, but… don’t be in a hurry to ditch Shatiel’s charm.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Don’t you hate being my dog?”
He shrugged and said, “Not as much as you hate being my leash.”
“Tell me the real reason,” she demanded.
His eyes glittered as he looked down at her. Then he exhaled and looked over her head. “Shatiel said some things when he first told me about what he’d done. I didn’t pay much attention at the time. I’d… like to now. It’ll be easier with a regulator.”
“I’m not going to manage you,” she warned. “I’m not going to call you. You’re ‘Sev’ forever now.”
“Keep telling yourself that, cupcake,” he replied, with his smallest smile. Then, without another word, he stepped backward and away.
The End
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Fury Convergence! I hope you enjoyed it. I also hope you’ll consider writing a review on Amazon. Every one single one helps.
More Senyaza Series stories lie ahead. Turn the page to find out how to hear about those as they’re released.
Fury Convergence Page 40
