by Auryn Hadley
"Come in!"
Well, ok then. I twisted the knob and opened the door a crack. "Sam?"
"Hey," he said. "Come on in. I'm decent."
I opened the door a little more and poked my head inside. "You feeling ok?"
"Good as new," he assured me. "Had a hardcore nap, but I'm trying to find anything on Muses working with aether. Come see."
Ok, that was an offer I couldn't refuse. Without even thinking about it, I stepped the rest of the way in and paused. Not only was Sam sitting there on his bed, bare-chested, wearing only a thin pair of pajama pants, but I couldn't miss the painting of fire hanging right above him. The one I'd given him. Then there was the thing he was looking at, which wasn't exactly a laptop. Oh, it looked enough like one to pass a casual glance. But the three-dimensional projection gave it away as demon tech.
"So does that thing need to recharge?"
He shook his head. "Not on Earth. There's enough free aether that the conductor never drains. Back home, it's only good for about a day."
"Cool. And Muses working aether?"
He pushed his hand through his fancy new hair, revealing the black lowlights I'd added at his insistence. "Merlin was a master of it, but he had chants and symbols to channel his intentions. There are a few others, but they cast it, Sia. They didn't weave or smith."
"And that's a big deal?" I asked.
He rocked his hand from side to side. "It's unique, but they all seem to be unique. You also seem to have a whole different set of rules than outworlders. The theme is always that a Muse can inspire. Doesn't matter if that's inspire people to fight back, invent marvelous things, or start an artistic revolution. Muses are the catalyst, not the weapon." He paused, wrinkling his forehead like he was thinking. "They're the crack in the dam that starts the flood. That's why they're so powerful, because once the population is in motion, it's unstoppable and a new era is upon us."
"But –"
He smiled before I could even form a real sentence. "But not you," he agreed. "From what we can tell, you have no influence over the masses. Your childhood stories make it sound almost the opposite. Yet you have complete control of aether. I'm trying to see if there's a reason why."
"Maybe I'm just not human?" They'd compared me to a demon often enough, maybe that had something to do with it?
He just shook his head. "Twenty-four years old? Trust me, you're human. A fairy or satyr at your age would still be a child, similar to a ten-year-old human." Then he ran his eyes over me. "Not all grown up. Trust me, you're human."
"But what if one of my ancestors was a demon?"
He shrugged. "Offspring always take the lifespan of the mortal parent. It's not a half and half thing. Not exactly."
"Oh." But that gave me the chance to ask what I'd come up here to find out. "So, you've had a few kids, right?"
"Yeah." His tone was flat. "Why?"
"Well, Luke said Demons didn't necessarily worry about their children being theirs, and that, um..." With a groan, I gave in. "And it was the best segue I could think of. See, Bel wants me to like him. When I tried to explain I'm Nick's girlfriend he didn't get it, and Luke told me it's because that concept is foreign to demonic culture."
The frozen expression on his face began to thaw. "And you want to know if our immoral habits are really true, huh?"
I let out a sound that said he was just missing the mark. "Mostly, I don't want to hurt Bel's feelings, but I definitely don't want to screw up things between Nick and me."
"Mm." Sam patted the bed beside him, encouraging me to come sit. "I'll talk to the big lug, but you gotta understand, he's not going to expect you to jump into his bed. He just wants you to show more affection. Hug him, hang out with him, and treat him the same way you would me."
"Sam, I don't just go randomly hugging guys!"
He chuckled. "Maybe you should try? Pretty sure none of us would mind."
"Yeah, but -"
"Nick," he said, cutting me off, "won't care. If that's what was about to come out of your mouth, then just stop. Don't refuse to do something because of what some guy might think, Sia. Just don't. Figure it out for yourself but stop worrying about fitting in with us. After a few million years of screwing things up, we're still friends. Not just working together, but actually friends. I think we've been around long enough to talk before anyone overreacts."
A little sigh managed to slip out of my mouth. "The truth is I suck at dating. Getting a boyfriend is easy enough. It's keeping them around that's the problem." I chuckled and glanced down, hoping he wouldn't care that I was telling him this. "It's like after we start sleeping together, the new is all worn off and they move on, you know? I guess I'm just a little scared that if Nick gets jealous because I do something stupid, I'll be left to fend off the angels on my own."
"Hey." He reached over and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Not gonna happen. You're already slipping into the corridor on your own. You can do some pretty kick-ass stuff with your little Muse skills, and while I may not be able to teach you how to manipulate the force of life, I swear I will be right there if any angel tries to put his hands on you. Nick or no Nick, ok?"
"But I'd kinda rather there's a Nick. Sam, I really do like him."
He gave me a side hug. "I know you do, but I also know that he's really into you, too. Look, Nick's not going to freak out. He's just not like that. In all honesty, he's more likely to let you walk all over him because he'd rather forgive you than lose you. This paranoia about you 'cheating' on him is all in your head, not his. In all the years he's been watching you, I can't remember him ever being upset because you were happy. Not even when he showed up here and found you were dating some dick."
"Uh..."
Sam smiled slyly. "Aaron. Granted, Nick checked him out pretty good, which is how we figured out that Delta Phi had some green-eyed hooligans running the show over there, but yeah. He was honestly ok with just being a friend and seeing you happy. It's pretty much his thing when it comes to women he cares about – and that isn't a very long list, Sia."
"Wait. Angels were joining Delta Phi?"
Sam waved that away. "Yeah. We're pretty sure angels were using the frat guys to hunt down some perfect redhead, among other things. The guys just didn't realize that they weren't looking for a girl with massive boobs, but one with massive multiverse skills. After they mind-fucked those kids to run into your car, we started putting the pieces together. And we may have made the decision not to tell you about it for a bit because we still aren't quite sure what their end goal is. Anyway, that has nothing to do with Nick. My point is that you're fine with him. He's not worried, so you shouldn't be."
"Ok." I had to pause to let some of that sink in, then decided to just not worry about it for a minute and stay on track. "Sam, I'm living with nothing but good-looking demons, and the line between dating and not is kinda a thin one that I sure don't want to cross."
He slowly looked up at me with those pretty plum-colored eyes. "Good-looking, huh?" Then he smiled. "Seriously, though, we've screwed up your life in so many ways, and we all feel bad about it. The last thing we want to do is stress you out about your relationship. You do you, Sia. Let us worry about who is getting pissed, who is up to something nefarious, and how we're going to get you back home so you can become a badass. Right now, that's all Nick wants – to get you safe."
Again, I said, "Ok." Then I took a deep breath. "So, you want to fill me in on the stuff that pre-Muse Sia should've been told."
The tip of his tongue jutted out between his teeth, but it didn't stop the smile. "Nope, because I'm pretty sure that would piss you off, and you're supposed to be focused on learning. How about we go back to how I'm good-looking?"
I gasped and shoved him hard enough to flop back on the bed. "Sam!"
He just folded his arms behind his head. "And here I thought you weren't the kind of girl to roll around in bed with another man."
Yep. That was my cue to leave, because this demon looked a little too
good like that, and I didn't dare forget that he was the master of seduction. Sometimes, retreat really was the wisest choice.
Chapter 35
For the next few days, I barely saw Nick. Sam, on the other hand, became my constant companion. Bel had him working with me on defensive moves, and I was finally showing improvement. I could actually slip between the corridor and Earth when and where I wanted. That was pretty much it, but I was calling it a win. Thankfully, I did a lot better with the aetherweaving lessons where Sam let me try to mind-fuck him over and over. Most times, it worked. Sometimes, he figured out how to block me and I had to come up with something new.
In only a few weeks, the guys said I'd become one hell of a force to be reckoned with. I figured that was a compliment. I mean, who doesn't want to be the super-special badass paranormal heroine? I was definitely enjoying this. From Luke's sexy blue eyes to Sam's magenta and black punk hair, these skills clearly had a few tangible benefits. Then there were the other things, like learning how to manipulate the systems. I couldn't create money out of thin air – nor cyberspace. There wasn't any aether to manipulate. What I could do was call my bank and speak to an aether-filled human.
That was how Luke worked his miracles. The trick was in the voice, to be soft and soothing, almost hypnotic. Once I had them drawn in, even over great distances, I could alter their inner aether enough to make things start happening. It was almost like I could hear the resonance and just had to change it a little. After I did that, I could convince people to do almost anything I wanted. I practiced by getting myself a wonderful black credit card – which wasn't black – and VIP access to my favorite museum in New York. Not that I could use either while under house arrest, but Luke said I'd earned an A for that lesson.
Then, five days after Nick had locked himself away in the gold room, he casually trotted down the stairs to join us at lunch. All conversation paused as the four of us looked up at him in shock. Without saying a word, he marched to the end of the table and leaned on it. Only then did the smile touch his lips.
"I got it."
That was it. He didn't say what he had or how he'd done it, but we all knew. Somehow, Nick had finally figured out what it would take to keep the veils from pointing at me. If he was right, then this meant I'd no longer be restricted to the confines of his house. I could finally be free – without needing to worry about angels showing up to steal me away.
"How?" Luke asked, keeping it just as simple.
Nick's smile grew a little more. "The veils point to her because she's a magnet. She's drawing aether in faster than it can balance out. Like water going down a drain, the suction causes a funnel from the void, so all we have to do is block her pull on the world around her."
I was nodding enthusiastically, thrilled to hear it was something so simple. Right up until I looked at the guys on either side of me, that is. Bel's mouth was parted in shock, Sam's eyes were bulging, and Luke was slowly shaking his head. With a heavy sigh, I realized that a simple answer did not mean a simple solution.
"So how do we fix me?" I asked.
Nick waggled a finger in my direction. "We shield that hot little body."
"Won't work," Luke said. "Our shields aren't airtight. We have to let oxygen and aether leak through or we'd be powerless."
"Right. But put a few layers around her and the amount able to pass through will be normal. No more than water through multiple layers of cloth," he shrugged. "- or such. We just need to slow her pull on the world."
Finally, Sam found his tongue. "But she's pulling that much aether in? What the hell is she?"
"A Muse," Nick told him. "And like all Muses before her, she's unique. We just happened to get the one that's a walking, talking aether vacuum. I don't know how – or exactly what – she's doing yet, but it seems that something about Sia draws free aether to her. Look at how Gabriel's clung to her across multiple veils. It's like she's the magnet and the force of life is made of iron filings."
"No." Bel didn't move or throw a fit. He just dumped that word into the room so hard everyone else shut up immediately. "For all you know, sealing her off could kill her. If that much aether is running to her, who's to say she doesn't need it. You're not killing our Muse."
"We'll test it first," Nick assured him.
Bel just shook his head once. "Too much of a risk. We all know Sia's powerful. The things she can do? No human has managed half of what she's learned in her first month. Maybe she's like the kid in that movie and made of special force stuff."
"Midichlorians," Sam explained to the rest of us. "I let him watch Star Wars – and Bel, she's not Anakin. This isn't a movie and she's not exactly made of aether. If we try the shields and she feels anything at all, we'll pull them off."
He thrust one dark arm toward me. "And what happens to her, huh?"
"Bel?" I asked. "If I need aether to live, and there's no free aether on Daemin..." I shrugged, unable to figure out how to ask my question but hoping he understood. "Isn't it better to test this here?"
His jaw clenched hard, the muscles bulging to prove it. "What if it's like suffocating? What if it hurts when they do that to you?"
"I'm pretty tough, big guy." I looked over to Nick. "If all it takes are a few shields, then can't we layer them up one by one, checking to see if I feel weak or weird in between?"
"That's basically what I was thinking," he agreed. "Put yours on the inner layer, then add mine over it, then Luke's."
"I can shield, too," Sam offered.
Nick just lifted a hand. "If three isn't enough, then we'll add you and Beelzebub. I just don't like the idea of you two having anything draining your defenses."
I pushed back from the table. "So let's do this. I'm so ready to get out of this house."
Nick dropped his head but I could still hear his chuckle. "Dove, setting a shield on something, especially something that moves, is going to take a little work – on your part. This is probably going to take all day."
I just shrugged. "The sooner we start, the sooner we're done, right?"
Stepping back, Nick gestured toward the hall that led into the office. "I'm ready when you are. I figure we know your shield doesn't cause problems, so we'll put mine over it and see if the veils react. Then we can give it a few hours before putting Luke's on."
As I passed around the back of the guys, I patted Bel's shoulder. "And if there are any problems, I'll scream 'pineapple,' ok?"
It was supposed to have been a joke, a reference to using a safe word for dangerous play. I just didn't think about the fact that Bel still wasn't quite caught up on modern culture. Most days, he did pretty good, but the nuances often passed him by. This was one of those times.
He caught my wrist. "I don't like this, Sia. I don't like the idea of you hurting. Satan brought me here to keep you safe."
"I know," I assured him, patting his hand with my free one. "But Nick won't hurt me, either. He's already promised to keep me safe."
"If not, I will rip his wings off. I swear it."
He was so adamant that I wanted to laugh in his face. I also didn't want to hurt his feelings, so I quickly bent and planted a kiss on his cheek to keep control of my smiling mouth. "You're a good hero, Bel, but I'm going to be just fine. I have no intention of being babysat for the rest of my life. Think of this like losing my Muse virginity. Just a little pinch, then it's all over."
With a wink, I hurried out of the room, hearing the others chuckle softly at my analogy. Even Bel. Clearly, there were some types of pain they didn't mind a woman suffering through. In my opinion, this was definitely in that category, because if I couldn't leave the house, I'd never be able to protect my friends.
∞∞∞
The shield I'd been using in the corridor and as defense in Bel's lessons wasn't the same thing Nick had me make this time. Unlike that one, this shield was more dense and required less conscious thought. In many ways, building it was more like making a sprite. I had to imagine the form, believe in it completely, and then
will it to live.
The whole point was to create something that would survive on its own without me needing to constantly direct it. The trick was tying it back to me so it didn't simply expire after a few hours. My first attempt was a tragic failure.
The second was better. The seventeenth was finally determined to be good enough. Then, Nick had me remove it and remake it at least ten more times until little more than a thought had me encased in a layer of microscopic little Sia symbols. These, however, spun on themselves like millions of little gears, making my shield into a truly resilient barrier that was nearly invisible. After a few minutes inside it, the thing was no more bothersome than trying to look around my own nose.
Then Nick put his on top. That was a little strange. The moment it closed around me, my ears popped and it felt like the pressure changed. Sitting behind Nick's desk, Luke was staring intently at the map, leaned over to get the best view of the veil bubbles. For a moment he tensed, but it didn't last long. With a sigh, he leaned closer and shook his head.
"It's better, but there's still a peak pointing at the house. About half as big as it used to be, though."
Nick waved that off. "Not really surprised. She's been increasing in power for a while now, and I assumed two layers wouldn't be enough. At least the second shield is making a difference."
"Yeah, but..." Luke glanced over to me. "How are you feeling, Sia?"
Lifting my arms, I let them flop back down. "Fine. I mean, I can see Nick's shield in front of my eyes, and that's going to take a bit to get used to, but that's my only complaint."
"Can you still make sprites?"
I immediately conjured one up, a pretty little blue butterfly. I half expected the thing to stick to the transparent layer clinging to my skin, but after flapping for a few seconds, it made its way out without any hesitation. When it reached the other side of the room, I unmade it and pulled the aether back. That's where we found the first problem.
The aether didn't just return like it always had. The moment it reached me, it began to waft, hesitating in the microscopic gap between Nick's shield and mine. I wasn't the only one who noticed. Nick and Luke both sighed.