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“Yes,” she answered, face hardening, turning resolute. “We need to stop the alarm.”
She moved toward the door but stopped. Turning, she pulled Fey into a bone-crushing hug.
“I love you, sister,” she said into Fey’s neck. “And I’m so happy you’re okay.”
And then she was gone, racing down the hallway and into the dark of the palace.
Lilith stared at Fey long and hard enough that Fey began to feel uncomfortable under her sister’s dark assessing gaze. She was like this, at times, almost cat-like in the way she stared, waiting for the other person to break first.
“When was the last time you ate?” Lilith asked, finally. She knelt to pick up the blade she’d dropped earlier and set it on the kitchen counter.
Fey’s stomach rumbled, as though in answer. Hours, she realized. Nodding, as though she had confirmed something, Lilith turned and started rummaging through the kitchen.
“You must be running on fumes,” she said. “You need to eat something. You’re no good to us if you fall over in the middle of a fight from hunger, and it feels like we’ve all got a long night ahead of us.”
“Thanks,” Fey said, smiling slightly. Lilith had never made her anything to eat before, had never particularly liked caring for others in such a domestic way.
Fey pulled up a chair to the kitchen counter, watching Lilith’s back as she pulled bread out of a cupboard and began to assemble a meal.
“So, there’s an antidote, huh?” Lilith asked as she worked. “Did you take it?”
She glanced at Fey over her shoulder, and in answer Fey called Fire, just enough to produce a ball of flames in the palm of her hand.
Lilith whistled, turning back to her task. “Impressive,” she cooed. The butcher’s knife in her hand thumped rhythmically against the cutting board and she cut slices from a large red tomato. She fiddled with something in the drawers, and Fey let out a deep sigh.
It was okay. Everything was going to be okay. Her sisters knew, all of them, and Alice was on her way to end it all. Things would be okay, and then, finally, they could all be together again. A family, like they used to be before all of this started. Before Alice left them.
Lilith finally finished and set a plate down in front of her, nudging it toward her. A very simple meal, Fey thought, but even still, the sandwich made her smile. Tomato, chicken, and lettuce. It wasn’t the sort of gesture she expected from Lilith.
“And Alice?” Lilith asked, tilting her head to watch Fey and she took off her mask, setting it aside and plucking the sandwich from the plate. “Did she take the antidote, too?”
“Yeah,” Fey answered. “But she wasn’t ever given any Allium at her Awakening, so it didn’t do anything... But she’s the one who figured all of this out; she’s the one who’s been making the antidotes. She was behind the warehouse we burned.”
Lilith nodded, absently. Then she frowned at the sandwich still in Fey’s hand.
“Eat,” she pressured. “Go on.”
Rolling her eyes, Fey took a bite. Satisfied, Lilith turned back around and began to clean up.
“How many people know?” Lilith asked, stuffing the bread back into its container, and sealing it.
Fey shrugged, taking another bite, chewing thoughtfully. The tomatoes tasted off, bitter. Or maybe it was the lettuce? She made a face, looking at the sandwich in her hands before setting the sandwich back down on her plate, her appetite vanishing.
No wonder Lilith never cooked for any of them, before. She couldn’t even make a sandwich right.
“I’m not sure,” Fey answered, swallowing the bite she’d taken with no small amount of difficulty. Yuck. “Enough that there’s no way they can keep it quiet after tonight. And the High Priestesses…”
Her stomach clenched.
Something was wrong.
Lilith put the cutting board in the sink and ran water over it, grabbing the soap and continuing to clean up.
“What about the High Priestesses?” she prompted, but Fey wasn’t listening.
Something was very wrong. Her stomach clenched again, more painfully this time.
It took a moment for Fey to understand what was happening, to identify what the powers inside of her were doing. She hadn’t called either Earth or Water, but they surged inside her, anyway. There was a hot ball in the pit of her stomach, and her power was coalescing there, swirling around inside her, until the feeling began to lessen and vanish.
