Chapter Fifty • Idea • Damien
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Chaos absolutely explodes after Aemon’s irritated question.
Alarms start going off. People run through the terminal with panicked expressions.
I can only imagine how close to a gunshot or even a bomb Aemon’s materialization sounded.
For all we know, there could be shattered glass out in the corridors, too.
Aemon pinches the bridge of his nose then looks down around his feet. “Alright, I can use this,” he grumbles. “Everyone get over here. Squeeze in good and tight. I don’t want to waste any time conjuring a leg.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Roxie balks. “I think I’ll take the flight, thanks.”
“You certain about that? I see we’re missing one white-haired witch, and it’s going to be a while before I can correct memories or get you out of whichever terrorist interrogation you wind up sequestered into.”
They go pale and cringe. “Point taken.”
Oren claps his hands together. “Fuck yeah, real magic,” he says, his grin feral.
Oren takes Aemon’s hand, Wren takes his other one. Satoshi begrudgingly takes Wren’s hand when she holds it out for him and Fletcher gets pulled against Oren’s side, receiving a kiss on top of his head that makes his sparsely freckled skin flush crimson.
“You’re incredible,” Oren tells him. “You should have told me ages ago.”
I think I hear Fletcher give a half-hearted apology while the rest of us all daisy chain together.
When Roxie takes my hand, I shuffle them to the center of us, making sure that they stay well within the tight line of lipstick making up the circle, knowing they’re the most scared of this whole thing.
“In, in, in—yes. That’s good. Satoshi, would you like to use your right hand?
Then squeeze closer to the lovely lady—good—thank you.
Alright. Now, normally, I would be gentle with you all, I’m afraid I can’t extend such a courtesy at this point because—well—time is of the essence isn’t it?
Everyone take a deep breath in and hold it. Do not open your mouth for any reason.”
“Seriously,” Wren adds. “Just don’t.”
“Eyes closed,” Aemon says. I obey, eager to get the fuck out of here and come up with a plan. “You too, ginger darling. Don’t worry; it will be over before you can count to ten.”
The ground rattles and creaks before the terrible sound of destruction follows. I make the mistake of opening my eyes just in time to see the floor yawning open to swallow us all whole.
I scream as we’re buried alive.
I have no recollection of passing out, but I must have, because I come back to someone slapping my face a little too hard. I squint and blink my eyes open, only to find myself blinded by a handful of silt in my eyes.
As my tears flush it out, I cough mud out of my mouth. Way to go, Damien. Way to not follow any instructions about keeping your mouth and your eyes closed.
“He’s fine,” Bastion Boodlebop says, sounding bored.
When I finally clear my eyes enough to see, Aemon, Wren, Fletcher and Bastion are making the rounds, helping the rest of us lowly mortals recover from...
from whatever the fuck that all was. Bastion loosely supports my shoulder with a single hand while Wren and Aemon kneel in front of Roxie.
Poor Roxie looks half dead—they’re pale and sallow as they hug their knees to their chest. Oren is quite literally leaping between his feet like he’s about to spar with Mike Tyson or something. He’s babbling to Fletcher about something. Satoshi is just. Well, he just looks furious. And tired.
When I look back at Bastion, he’s looking pretty pissed off at me, too.
“What?” I ask, my hackles already rising.
“I just think it’s interesting that you’re here, but Lillith is not,” he says.
The words burn like a fucking brand. A scarlet letter seared right into the center of my chest. It’s the first time I’ve ever really felt shame in front of Bastion. The first time I’ve ever wondered if maybe it would have been better for Bastion to be Lillith’s man.
“You were supposed to protect her,” Bastion says. “Instead you go and nearly get yourself killed. If you all hadn’t been so reckless—”
“Bash!” Wren shouts, offended on my behalf, already getting to her feet. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“He’s right,” I say, sick to my stomach.
“No, he fucking isn’t. If we were going to be able to stop this, we would have fucking done it. He’s being a fucking asshole,” Wren says. “What was he supposed to do? Jump out of a window after her?”
“I would have,” Bastion says.
“You. Have. Magic. You fucking asshole.” Wren seethes.
“For all we know, that monster is devouring Lillith alive right fucking now, Wren,” Bastion seethes. “There—there had to have been something. Something. To be done.”
I let my head fall into my hands. He’s right. I should have leapt right out of the window with them. Maybe I would have died. I probably deserve it. Jesus Christ. I never anticipated feeling like such a useless piece of fucking shit when it came to finding the woman of my dreams.
I’d had such a different vision of love. I’d had no idea I was going to meet one of the most powerful witches in the world. I don’t regret my love for Lillith. But, fuck, I want to be a protector. Desperately. And when the time came, I couldn’t do a single thing.
I’d been completely useless. Again. I should have just—
Wren pulls me into a hug, surprising me out of my downward spiral. She grasps Bastion by his doublet and forces him to join the embrace, too.
It’s awkward and sloppy. Bastion is a little shorter than me and with Wren at our shoulders or lower, Bastion and I wind up touching at the temples to accommodate for the tight bend in Wren’s arms.
Bastion is so furious that he’s fucking trembling. I can feel the light tremor of it where our skulls meet. I have half the mind to tell him to wail on me a few times. But when I meet his gaze briefly, I realize he’s... crying.
Fuck.
He’s really fucking crying. He’s trying to hold it together, but his grimace squeezes past his lips and tear after tear carves a path down the planes of his cheekbones and the angle of his sharp chin. He looks, for once, like a little kid. Terrified. Terrified and heartbroken.
Of course. Why wouldn’t he be? Bastion, Lillith and Wren fucking grew up together.
It was easy to forget when I was feeling protective or even a little territorial over Lillith, but these three were more like siblings than friends.
A few of my own tears fall on my cheeks and I brace the back of Bastion’s head, pulling him closer to me.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I’m just a fucking useless mortal. I’ll... get to work on that, alright?”
Wren cups the side of Bastion’s face. “Bash, sometimes bad things happen, even when we do everything we can. Remember, she went in knowing the danger she was putting herself in. She made a choice. We did what we could to protect her.”
“So that’s it?” Bastion sobs. “We just fucking throw our hands up and say ‘oh fucking well, guess we failed.’”
“No,” Wren says. “Because I have an idea.”