Page 26 of I Am the Night

I expect her to drop back to the table, dead once again, but instead, she bursts into explosions of light that go off like fireworks in the contained space.

As vials of liquid begin exploding, I grab Sebastian and put up a shield, using a blend of light, air, water and darkness. It seems to do the trick as sizzling chemicals splash against the shield and slide off harmlessly, and projectile balls of fire and light crash into it and fizzle out. I feel the hits to my magic but withstand it easily as Elal and Ifi rush to contain the damage.

Eventually the light show dies down and then Lyx's body bursts into dust and disappears, leaving nothing but a massive mess behind.

"That was fire!" Ifi says in awe.

Sebastian looks confused, so I clarify. "It's a meme thing. It means cool."

"Fire means cool? That wasn't any more clarifying."

I snort. "Welcome to my world."

The Note

We are weaned from our timidity

In the flush of love’s light

we dare be brave

And suddenly we see

that love costs all we are

and will ever be.

Yet it is only love

which sets us free.

~Maya Angelou, Touched by an Angel

Sebastianand I wait in Ifi and Elal's private quarters while they put out the last of the fires in their lab. I offered to help, but they insisted there were too many variables to allow other magic to interfere.

I look around in surprise at their very modern studio situated upstairs in the mausoleum. It's all leather and steel, tasteful and sparse, juxtaposed against stone walls and marble floors. Their kitchen is small but gourmet, with some definite black trade gadgets from my world. "How do they even make a cappuccino machine work without electricity?" I ask.

"Magic?" Sebastian postures as he takes a seat on the leather sofa.

He's been pretty quiet since we got up here, so I take a seat next to him and place a hand on his knee. "You okay?" I ask.

He grunts.

"So that's a no," I say. "I know you all have a history with the Light Dragon. Do you want to talk about it? This must be hard for you."

It was unusual that she had two 'last wishes'. Not to mention that she blew up after. The Ifrits look shook—as Ifi might now say with his new grasp of earth modern lingo.

"She was my mentor," he finally says. "Before I became a Druid."

I nod. "I knew you’d been close at one point, before your falling out."

"Falling out," he says, with a bitter undertone to his words. "Yes. We certainly did. She turned her backs on us—on me—because she didn't like the direction the Order was going."

"Because of the Fates," I say, and guilt floods me even though I'm not really the same person as back then. At least I don't feel like I am.

"Yes, in part. There were a lot of complicated politics at play. And then Cole did what he did, and she sided with him against the Order and the Fates, severing ties with us all, just as Cole did."

"And you lost your brother and your mentor all at once," I say. "That must have been heartbreaking."