I kept walking despite the acute pain that kept lancing through my chest. Equal parts of rage, hurt, and betrayal warred with each other for dominance. I tamped down on all of it and forced myself to be numb.
Inside me, the dark magic smothered the blue hedge magic that was making the trees around me shake like they were being thrown around by a tornado. I stood there in the middle of the field with my eyes closed, trying to contain my reaction. It was difficult but old habits began to stretch their muscles. My eyes snapped open to a landscape of stars. I’d inadvertently slipped into the Ley dimension again. My aura pulsated. The perimeter of my light expanded. It ate up the other colours close by. Dread quelled some of my turmoil.
Until of course I heard the flap of wings above me. Kai landed soundlessly, his aura a duller green than I had ever seen. He took tentative steps towards me. I forced the Ley dimension to dissipate. In the real world, his expression was guarded.
Calm. Serenity. Detachment “Blue,” he said, “I’m sorry –”
Nope. In a feat fuelled entirely by rage, I stepped up and hammered my foot into his groin. There went playing it cool. Hopefully it took his ability to procreate with it. My human strength was pitiful against a Nephilim, but a surprise attack was a surprise attack. It was totally worth the crack of pain that radiated up my leg to see his eyes widen. He stumbled like a fallen soldier. His angel blade appeared. Kai stabbed it into the ground, using it as a crutch. He took a laboured breath. The way he kept blinking soothed some of my anger.
What I wouldn’t give to capture the moment and play it back over and over again. Unfortunately, his ability to heal would make this a short victory. I turned around and was prepared to hightail it out of there.
“Wait,” he gasped.
I kept walking. I could hear him limping along with me. “Today is the anniversary of her father’s death.”
My legs stopped moving. Sympathy tried to tear down the walls I was building around my heart. Then the implications of what he was saying sank in. Both their fathers died in the same battle. I turned back around. He was leaning over slightly but that was the extent of his injury.
“So it’s the anniversary of the massacre of your entire family and instead of telling me about it or spending the time with Jacqueline and Cassie, you’re out here playing handsies with Chanelle?”
His expression clouded over. “Screw you, Kai. You don’t get a free pass for the rest of your life because of one tragedy. I’m sorry for what happened. If you want to wallow in self-pity, then by all means do it. But don’t you dare use it as an excuse.”
I started to walk off. “Blue –”
“Don’t follow me!” I screamed.
For once, he actually listened. Will wonders never cease. I walked around aimlessly. The bell rang. The kids in the junior campus streamed out of their classrooms. Most of them would be hanging out now that school was over for the day. If I didn’t get to my training session soon, Giselle would lose it. What else was new?
I found Cassie in the library. She sat there with a book open staring out the window in the quiet reading section. When she saw me, her face brightened. I indicated for her to follow me outside.
“Hey!” she wrapped her arms around my waist. “What’s wrong?”
Maybe I wasn’t as suave at hiding my emotions as I thought I was. “This is exactly the position I found Kai and Chanelle in about fifteen minutes ago.”
She squeezed harder. When she let go there was a flash of something evasive in her eyes. “It sucks, doesn’t it?” she said. She looked up to the sky. “Today’s a bad day for him.”
“Did you plan to see him?”
She shook her head. “We usually try and leave him alone.” I couldn’t quite interpret what I had seen in her eyes until this very moment. I thought of her sitting there in the library staring off into space. It occurred to me that today was a bad day for her too.
“So,” I said. “Any chance you want to come along while I bury a hexed cat’s heart?”
“Excuse me?”
“Andrei was involved.”
“Oh.” She didn’t ask any more questions. We agreed that the place I had chosen prior to my slight meltdown was ideal. I bit my tongue and tried to avoid looking at the spot in question.
I dug a ten-inch hole that was twice as deep as it was wide. “Ready?” I asked her.
“Not really.”
That made two of us. I pulled the cat’s heart out of the backpack. The paper was soaked in magical blood. It beat in my hand. My stomach roiled. I dropped it into the hole. Cassie gave a squeal and backed up a little.
“That’s disgusting.” She made dry retching sounds. I tried to breathe through my mouth. I called to Morning Star. The demon blade appeared in my hand.
Just before I was about to stab it through the heart, Cassie stopped me. “Umm, maybe you should practice pronouncing the word of light again.”
It was prudent advice. “Maybe you should do this instead,” I told her.
“No way. I’m not going anywhere near that thing. Can’t you hear it beating? That’s so super creepy.”
I practiced the word of light until Cassie said it would be okay. My hand was shaking when I gripped Morning Star’s handle. I took
