by Regan Claire
With Toby, I just exchanged a knowing look. It was only recently that I discovered his gruff and unfriendly nature was just the outer trappings of a deeply caring man, who would do anything necessary to protect the ones he loved, and it hit me that I took after him.
Dove entered the room just moments later, walking in with both of his parents and carrying a duffel bag over one shoulder that probably carried the things Clara would need for her spirit walking.
Pretty much the entire cavalry was here, and almost all of us had a task if the healing were to be successful.
Because he couldn’t be healed until Clara’s cord was removed, and removing the cord would allow the Death energy to infect the rest of his spirit and kill him like Arthur was killed, we had to work extremely fast. And more than just Cash was at risk because of this healing. Cash’s spirit was too low to heal itself, even if the Death mark wasn’t there. Clara would need more spirit energy to heal him — more of the golden web that had crumbled to dust. And that meant pulling the same energy from people who shared it. That was why Luke, Toby and Uncle Connor were necessary. The golden web was a trait that only the Deare and Neale families shared, to my knowledge — and one, thanks to my Ethnos heritage, that I didn’t inherit. I’d never seen what mine looked like, since you cannot see your own, but I was too other to help.
All of us who were required took our places around Cash’s bed. Clara and her mother, Heather, had rubbed ash into a circle around his bed. The shape didn’t matter so much, it was just to create a barrier that Clara’s spirit-self would not be able to pass. The longer a person’s spirit — soul — was outside of their body, the more difficult it was to go back in. The circle would keep Clara from jumping ship before Heather could shove her back in, if it came to that. Not everyone could leave their body and come back, it was an ability that Clara had received from her mother’s Native American family.
Heather took a knife from the bag, walked to her daughter, and cut a long line down her forearm. Even though I was expecting it, it was still a shocking sight. Clara then walked over the ash circle, letting her open arm drip over the line, creating a magical barrier that only she would feel. When she came back to her original position, Heather brushed two fingers on her daughter’s arm, covering them with red, then drew an “x” on Clara’s chest. Clara, meanwhile, was singing a tuneless song, while her mother just traced the ‘x’ over and over.
I watched with my True Sight, unable to look away as Clara began to softly glow, then step out of her own body as if it were merely a pair of jeans. Her body fell backwards, caught by her father, Steven, while Dove stayed out of reach so he didn’t accidently touch her and heal the wound by accident — the pain was necessary for her to remember her body, and I could almost see the tether that went from her physical arm, to her non-physical one. I didn’t know if any of the pure humans could see her, or see the blood and ash circle flare up like a Spirit Shield, except attuned only to her spirit.
Ian started his side of things and began to Gather spirit energy from my uncles and grandfather, but he did it in a way I’d never seen before. Well, I’d never seen spirit energy Gathered before, except from myself in a fight, but he plucked a strand in front of their hearts and pulled it like yarn. Once he had enough for Clara to get started with, she turned her non-body towards me and Ezra, and nodded her head that we should get ready. Her ghostly fingers snipped at the invisible cord wrapped around my cousin, cutting it like paper. Ezra and I immediately went to work.
Inky veins of Death started working their way down Cash’s body, while Ezra tried to absorb the energy before it spread too far. I had to trust that he would succeed, because I was tasked with protecting what little energy he had left with a Spirit Shield.
It was a lot harder than I’d expected. Like taking a plastic bag, submerging it into ice water, and trying to scoop only the ice into the bag. Of course, we’ll also say the water is boiling, and eating through the bag over and over, trying it’s darndest to melt the ice.
My Shield was the melted baggy, because that’s what the dark energy was doing to it; eating it away like acid. I had to constantly reinforce it — pour energy into it, while simultaneously scooping the rest of Cash’s spirit energy into it.
Clara would be able to weave the energy that Ian was collecting, but would only be able to connect it to Cash’s energy if there was enough of it to stick to.
Her words, not mine. She couldn’t even begin to weave until I’d done my job.
“I think there’s enough to get started with, Della. Don’t worry about chasing it down anymore, just keep it safe,” Clara said, though in her astral form she spoke directly into my mind, her mouth remained eerily unmoving.
We’d already discussed that I should focus Cash’s Spirit energy over his center, right next to his heart. Now that I only had one task, rather than two, I was able to pay a little more attention to what Clara was doing, at least for the moment. Clara took the golden string that Ian had pulled, tied it to the small golden ball that was all of Cash’s energy that hadn’t been eaten by Death, and started braiding it anew. She sang an unfathomable song while she braided, words so foreign that I couldn’t begin to understand them. The light of her own spirit self pulsated with the song that only the Ethnos in the room could hear, then the golden energy she was holding began to do the same.
As she weaved, Cash’s aura covered more of his body, and my Shield had to increase with it. Still, the insidious ink leached the Shield, desperate to destroy that which the Shield protected. It was taking so much energy to maintain that I had to start Gathering more energy in order to keep the stream constant. I looked next to me at Ezra to see how he was faring, since the goal was for him to pull every ounce of Death from Cash’s aura before I released the ever increasing Shield, and the onslaught didn’t seem to be decreasing.
I could see the new energy flooding the platinum flames of his aura, bringing a wave of darkness that seemed just as bright, even though that wasn’t logical. He was struggling, and I wondered if Kaylus could sense the mark on Cash was being threatened, and was somehow making it more difficult for his son to unmake his father’s work.
We were standing close to each other, though not close enough for our aura’s to touch and meld together, and I wanted so badly to tell him that I was here, that he was strong enough, that I knew he would succeed in this — but I didn’t want to take his much needed concentration. So, I slowly grabbed his hand and squeezed.
Not in a gesture of solidarity, like I’d meant to. I’d squeezed because the entire world opened to me. I’d been Gathering to refill the Shield around Cash’s spirit, and my Well was suddenly full. Fuller than full, but I could manage the power even though just the previous day too much power had caused me to kind of explode and take a twelve hour nap.
Since I was still looking at him, I saw Ezra’s eyes widen as he watched Cash’s prone form. Turning my head forward again, I knew my face held the same expression of surprise. The dark stain covering Cash was leaving rather quickly now. So quickly, in fact, that the black tendrils were visibly leaving him and entering Ezra.
Clara looked at the two of us — hand-in-hand and in shock over completing something so quickly that had been proving so difficult only moments before — and smiled. It was the first time I saw her face move since she left her body, and she literally beamed with it, then continued weaving Cash’s aura.
“I — I think I’ve gotten all of it, now.” Ezra’s voice was quiet, though I knew that everyone in the room heard him. Now that he wasn’t Gathering Death, my own Gathering seemed to slow down to it’s typical rate, and the over-abundant energy that had been collected melted away like butter. It was just as well, since the Shielding no longer required such reinforcements now that nothing was trying to eat it.
Not that I let it down. I trusted Ezra had done his job — I could see that Ezra had done his job, but I didn’t like the idea of letting Cash go unprotected right then.
We all stayed in our positions
, those of us able to see Clara watching her, and those who could not were watching Cash. The second hand on the white-faced clock hanging on the wall boomed in the silence, and the incense that Heather would periodically renew made me sleepy.
Dove brought chairs for Luke, Toby, and Connor, as their energy was still being pulled by Ian to feed into Cash, then rested his hands calmly on each of their shoulders, using his healing ability to make them more comfortable and ease the aches from being in the same position for so long. Ellis started pacing, her head constantly turned in the direction of her son regardless of which way she walked. Heather started making a paste that would help my family members once the draining was complete; like giving someone orange juice after they’ve given blood, she said.
Ezra and I stayed where we were, hands still clasped. I couldn’t sit, and I couldn’t let go of his hand, so he stood with me. All I was capable of doing was watching the golden web steadily grow, and of clutching Ezra’s hand so tightly that my own fingers were numb.
Minutes, or hours, later, Clara’s ghostly form looked up. The web was complete, and she looked a little lost without the task. The light that she currently seemed to be made of was not as bright as it had been, and the tether that tied her to her body seemed thin.
Lena must have noticed the same thing, and walked over to Clara’s still body and raked her knife over the wound again, deepening it significantly and completely ignoring the cries of outrage from everyone else in the room.
Clara’s non-physical self disappeared, and her body bolted upright very suddenly, with a gasp audible to the entire room.
“Ouch!” Clara said, grasping the worsened arm and peering at it. Dove was there instantly, touching near the injury and knitting the skin back together.
“What the hell was that?” he asked, basically snarling at Lena.
“Chill, Dove. She did right. I stayed too long, needed to be brought back fast.”
I saw Heather and Steven exchanged worried looks, then look at Lena and nod their head in thanks. I wanted to hear more about what could have happened, and how Lena knew how to fix it, but that could wait for another day.
“Did we do it?” I’d rushed to her side as soon as she was back in her body, not realizing I’d dragged Ezra along until I was face to face with Dove — and he was face to face with me, holding hands with another person with such need and trust that I’d forgotten about it. I pulled my hand out of Ezra’s with difficulty, sending my own energy to the area to wake it back up before the infernal sleep-tingles came, and tried not to look guilty. After all, there wasn’t anything to actually feel guilty about..
“I’ll go grab you some food, Clara,” was all Dove said once he was finished healing his sister’s arm, before walking out of the room in a huff.
“Don’t worry about him. He’ll see it soon,” Clara said softly while she watched her brother rush out.
The sympathy I’d been feeling for Dove just a moment earlier vanished. There were bigger fish to fry than hurt feelings, and I refused to worry about him while Cash was still not awake.
“Did it work?” Ellis asked, pushing her way to my side by Clara.
“Yes. Yeah, we did it, Ellis. But it was really bad. His aura is in place, but I don’t know how long it’ll take for him to wake up.”
“He will wake up though, right?” Connor asked, stumbling his way over, exhausted from giving so much energy for his son. Toby and Luke, in the same poor state, stayed seated.
Clara avoided his gaze. “I don’t know. It was so bad. He might have retreated so far inside himself that he wouldn’t know how to come out of it.”
“What can we do?” my Uncle Connor asked again, holding his wife next to him.
“Nothing. This is Cash’s battle, now.” Clara’s eyes flicked over to Cash.
I think we all realized at the same time that she was still sitting on the floor, so we gave her enough space to stand back up. She wavered on her feet a bit before being steadied by her own parents.
Steven looked at Uncle Connor. “We need to get Clara home. Let us know if you need anything. I’ll come by again in the morning.”
“Your family has done more than enough, old friend.”
“Thank you Clara. Go and get some rest, now,” Ellis looked close to tears with gratitude, even though we weren’t quite out of the water, yet.
We watched as they left, then I made myself busy walking around the room and collecting all the things they had brought to put back into their bag. I was grateful for something to do rather than worry about Cash some more. The ash and blood scattered on the floor would be next.
Chapter Eight
Journal,
I’m over at Connor and Ellis’ right now babysitting the Cashanator so they can go have a date night. Being an aunt is the best. All the fun and none of the mess. And my nephew is certainly a mess. I adore him. He’s just now really starting to talk and the things he says are the best. Today he asked where my baby was. I laughed and told him I didn’t have one, so he climbed in my lap and told me that he could be my baby. It was adorable. Being around him keeps me so busy, I don’t have time to think about last weekend.
He’s taking a nap right now and I’m tempted to curl up beside him and take one too. But I should probably clean all the jam off the TV set before my brother comes home. He wouldn’t understand the art behind toast painting, and I’m still not sure how that turned into toast-tossing. Cash is already using his abilities. It will be fun to watch him grow up and see the type of person he’ll be one day. I’m sure he’ll always be a handful, though. I wish Ellis hadn’t had so much trouble with her pregnancy. It makes me sad to know she can’t have another child, especially knowing how much she wanted a big family. I think Cash would make an excellent brother. Plus, I’m afraid he’s getting a little spoiled being an only child. That’s okay, though.
I’ve thought about being a surrogate for them, but I don’t think I’m cut out for it. Connor and Ellis seem really content with Cash. If they start pining for a second, maybe I’ll put a little more thought into it. Or maybe I’ll settle down one day and give Cash a baby cousin to play with. I don’t know, I can’t really imagine myself being a mother.
*****
I’d barely collected the last of the Balints’ things and placed them by the door when Dove came back to the room holding a bag of Subway he’d gotten from the cafeteria.
“Your mom and dad just left to take Clara home,” I told him since I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“I know, they called,” he was peering past me and further into the room, scowling, and I didn’t need to turn around to see he was looking at Ezra. “I was just coming in to grab our stuff and see if you guys needed anything.”
“You aren’t staying?” I felt disappointment and relief, and I wasn’t sure which showed in my voice, since his eyes jerked back to mine, glinting their signature copper in the hospital light.
I crossed my arms in front of me, unsettled by the eye contact.
“I don’t think so. I’ll give you guys some time and bring back some breakfast in the morning. Maybe Cash will be awake by then.” He turned to leave, not even bothering to say goodbye to Ellis and Connor, who were sitting next to Cash and talking to him — probably trying to draw him out of where he’d gone inside himself.
I found myself walking out after him, holding a hand up to Ezra to keep him from following and appreciating the fact that he listened. It had occurred to me that all the Dunamis on the island should be made aware of what was happening, and all of the possible implications.
“Dove, wait.”
“What is it, Della?” He looked tired. Tired of being around me, and that hurt because we’d been friends. I hoped we were still friends.
“Tell your parents that I’d like to speak with them soon. There’s a situation… you should be there too, of course. And Clara. But it’s something really important.”
“Is it why you came here with a room full of Clades, and o
ne who has the exact same power that infected Cash? A type of power that I’ve never even heard of before? How can you even trust them?” His voice was uncharacteristically hard.
“Don’t be a prick, Dove. Yes, it’s why I came here with them. And Ezra saved Cash in there, if you didn’t notice, something neither of us could have done. But it’s a lot more than that, so if you’d unwad your panties for a minute, you’d know —”
Dove chuckled, hushing me immediately because it was not what I expected of him at that moment. “Unwad my panties?” he asked, then stopped smiling and brushed a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, you’re right. I know you better than to assume the worst. You wouldn’t bring people here that were a risk, not with Cash. I’ll forgive your falling in love with another guy a week after shooting me down, if you can forgive me for acting like a douche-nozzle about it.”
I opened my mouth, words of denial thick on my tongue. “It’s not like that — I’m not —”
“Not yet maybe, but it’s heading that way — and what’s worse, is that you’re going to let it.” He looked sad then, because I had refused us that “someday” possibility. Giving up Dove meant giving up on a lifelong dream for normalcy. I had changed — had become aware of who I really was — and broken things off, knowing with my whole heart that our time together was temporary.
And it didn’t feel that way with Ezra. Ezra felt like forever; he felt like the other half I never knew I was missing.
If it wasn’t love-love yet, I could at least admit that it was heading that way. And that I would let it, and hold onto it, and fight against anything that threatened it.
Something which I’d been unwilling to do for Dove.
“I’ll give them the message. And Della, I’ll try to be happy for you, okay?” This time when he turned to leave, I let him.
When I walked back into the room, Ezra was talking quietly to Toby, Luke, and Connor, the former two sitting down and looking weak. I worried for a minute, then realized that if a fight was going to break out between them all, it would have already done so. Ian was sitting on the couch lining one wall, resting his eyes it looked like, and Lena had returned to her stance by the door. I walked up to Cash’s bed and took a seat next to Ellis.
