“Maybe,” she said softly, “we’re both right.”
Feeling her eyebrows singe, Diana smiled, relieved. “I can live with that. Byleth?”
Byleth screamed.
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
“Break her contact!” Claire commanded, gathering up the possibilities as Diana released them.
They had no more than a heartbeat before Hell reached her. “How?”
An orange blur raced past before Claire could answer, slammed into Byleth’s chest and, in flash of both black-and-white light, knocked her over backward.
“She’s clear!”
AND SO AM…
Claire hit it first with all the power that had been building against Diana’s block.
NOT YOU TWO AGAIN!
Then Diana slammed the power from the block against it.
WE ARE THE HEART OF DARKNESS; YOU CANNOT PREVAIL.
“Can too.”
“Diana, don’t argue with Hell.”
Together, they backed the heart of darkness down the narrow path, denying the possibilities it represented one after the other, until finally they shoved it right back where it had come from…
THIS IS REALLY STARTING TO PISS ME OFF.
…and sealed the hole tight.
I’LL BE BACK!
AND I’LL BE BEETHOVEN.
SHUT. UP.
OW!
Dropping to her knees beside Byleth, Diana scooped Samuel’s limp body into her arms and peered anxiously into golden eyes. “Are you okay?”
He tried to focus on her face. “I, I can’t feel my tail.”
“Sorry.” She shifted her knees.
“Oh, yeah. That’s better.”
“He’s fine.” Austin laid a paw on the younger cat’s flank. “That was a brave thing you did, kid.”
“It was a dangerous thing,” Claire corrected, untangling herself from Dean’s embrace and coming to stand over them. “Who are you, and where did you come from?”
Diana sighed. “Chill, Claire. His name is Samuel, and he’s with me.”
A set of claws pressed into the sleeve of her jacket, releasing a puff of down. “I am?”
“Aren’t you?”
He rubbed his head against her face. “Yeah, I am.”
Claire opened her mouth to demand more information, but the look on Austin’s face stopped her. She smiled and shook her head. “Welcome to the family, Samuel.” When Diana glanced up, startled, the smile vanished. “You, however, are still in deep trouble.”
“I was…” About to say right, Diana glanced past Claire to Dean shaking his head warningly and said instead, “…wrong. I was wrong to defy an older Keeper in such a way, but there wasn’t time to for anything else. I’m not sorry I did it, but I am sorry we had to clash like that.” Settling Samuel against her chest, she held up a hand. “Friends?”
“I’m still mad at you.”
“I know.”
“This is bigger than taking my bra to school for show and tell.”
“It wasn’t that big a bra.”
“Diana.”
“I know.”
Claire looked down at their clasped hands, unable to remember the actual moment when their fingers had linked. “This is going to take more than an apology.”
“Then tell me what it’s going to take, oh, older, wiser, shorter Keeper.”
“Stop it.” The corners of her mouth twitching, she released her sister’s hand. “You were right and you know it, and there’s no need to be so irritating about it.” Before Diana could disagree, she dropped to her knees on Byleth’s other side. “Let’s just take care of this little problem before she wakes up and puts us through all that…indecision again. I won’t go so easy on you the next time.” But the heavily mascaraed eye pried open was pale gray and the rest of Byleth’s body was equally darkness free. “That’s strange. Samuel knocking her free of the site so unexpectedly must have dragged the rest of it out of her.”
When no one offered any better explanation, Claire sat back on her heels and spread her hands. “So. What do we do with her now?”
“Why don’t I carry her to a bed and we all spend some time thinking about it?” Dean asked, stepping forward. “You two don’t always have to have instant answers.”
“Obviously you haven’t read the handbook,” Diana snorted.
Claire ignored her with the ease of someone who’d spent seventeen years living with a cat. “That’s a good idea, Dean. I’m sure we can come up with something once we’ve all detached a little.”
“I’ll be after putting her in my old room, then.” He slid his arms under Byleth’s shoulders and knees and lifted her easily. “It’s closest.”
Rising with Byleth’s body, Claire reached out and pressed her hand against Dean’s cheek. “I’m sorry I didn’t keep my promise to banish the demon.”
He smiled. “I’m after feeling it’s not going to matter.”
“You think?”
“I do.”
“Yes!”
“Code?” Diana asked, watching her suddenly cheerful sister follow Dean and his burden up the stairs.
Austin shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”
“Uh, Austin, about Samuel.”
“What about him?” He gave her the sort of look that was usually accompanied by small feathers around the mouth.
Suddenly unsure, Diana set the orange cat on his feet and stood. She had a feeling she’d need all the advantage height could give her.
“He knows,” Samuel told her before she could decide how to answer. “He knows what I was.”
“Will you tell Claire?” Diana asked the older cat, hoping he couldn’t sense how anxious she was. “After what we went through with Byleth, if she found out what Samuel was, she wouldn’t want him around. She’d be worried it could happen again.”
“Hey, it’s none of my business how you two crazy kids got together,” Austin snickered, starting up the stairs. “And I think Claire’s going to have plenty of other things to do for the next little while.” Halfway up to the basement, he turned and glared into golden eyes following close behind, looking concerned. “If you so much as insinuate I’m too old to be doing this, I’ll notch those virgin ears of yours.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“Sorry.”
“So you should be, kid. So you should be.”
Claire was waiting for them at the foot of the basement stairs. “Dean’s just digging out a blanket. Diana…”
“I thought we worked through this?” Diana demanded, folding her arms and lifting her chin defiantly, working the “best defense is a good offense” line. “Look, I know it was your Summoning and I shouldn’t have gotten involved, but you’ve got to admit you were working from your own agenda
