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Fuck.
He swiped at it again and the flame went out, dousing one side of the ladder in shadow. I spun and scrambled up the narrow rungs, screaming when it was wrenched to the side beneath me. I didn’t look down and shoved open the attic door above me. It swung open as the ladder was wrenched from the wall. I grabbed the lip of the opening just in time, dangling and kicking my legs as the monsters below jumped for me, their claws scratching, gouging, their growls and hisses deafening.
With a cry, I dug my toes into the holes left from where the ladder had been attached to the wall and hauled myself up. Then with the last of my strength, I lifted the trapdoor that was lying on the attic floor and slammed it shut after me and shoved the steel bolt across.
Silence filled the room.
I spun around, searching the small space. Dim light came through the only window. I was above the peaked roof at the very top of the house, a tiny little attic room all on its own. It didn’t seem to be connected to the rest of the house. I could make out a large wooden trunk against the wall and bed in the corner with an upturned crate beside it. A wooden truck with chipped blue paint sat on top, and there was a stack of papers inside the crate and crayons scattered around it. I grabbed the papers.
Xavier had drawn these when he was a child. His mother had shown me images of him up here. I looked through the pictures, and my stomach turned over. Drawings of death, red crayon spurting from a stick-figure cat’s stomach. Decapitated people.
Monsters like the ones in the hall.
I’d been right. They were a creation of his child’s mind, then manifested in the realm he’d created. But this room felt different. The hum of Xavier’s power was gone. The air didn’t move like heat waves rising from scorching sand. If I was right, and he’d blocked this room from his mind completely, then he definitely might not know this attic was here anymore. And if he didn’t know it was here, perhaps I’d left his realm? Could this tiny little blind spot in his psyche be safe?
The bolt in the trapdoor rattled, a low growl echoing from below.
Or not.
Fuck.
I rushed across the room to the wooden trunk and heaved and shoved and finally got it on top of the door. I had no idea if that would hold, but it was all I could do.
I straightened and turned.
Then it hit me. There was light. It was dim, yes, but light all the same.
I rushed to the window and looked out. No blackness. No nothing. It was still before dawn, but the street, the houses, they were all there, but there was also no getting down from here, not when I was four stories above ground.
I was out of Xavier’s prison, but now I was in another one. If I had time to regain my strength and my magic, there was a lot I could do, but flying or telepathy wasn’t one of them. “Goddamn it.”
Something moved beside me, and I spun around. The comma butterfly had found his way to me. His orange wings fluttered madly. I felt his love, his relief at finding me again. He’d been with me a while now, and he wouldn’t have much time left before he needed to find a place to hibernate or he’d grow weak and die. He’d already been with me longer than should be possible. I held out my hand, and he landed on my palm.
“Hello, my little friend. I’m so glad you’re here.” He may not understand the words, but he understood the feelings that went with them. What I was about to attempt was a long shot, but it was all I had. He’d been with me when I was with Ren; he knew what I felt when I was around him. I thought of Ren now, letting those feelings flow from me—of course what I felt now was so much bigger, so much more, but the vibrations would be the same. “Bring him to me,” I said. “Find him.” It would take him at least a day to make it home, maybe longer.
His little wings fluttered again, and he lifted off my hand.
“Thank you,” I whispered and watched as he flew through a broken panel in the louvered air vent above the window and disappeared—hopefully, to make the long journey back to Ren.
All I could do now was wait and hope like hell that he understood what I wanted him to do.
That he had enough fight left in him to get to Ren and bring him to me.
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Chapter 33
Ren
* * *
The cemetery was quiet and oppressively dark even though we were only a few hours from dawn.
Willow, Iris, Rose, Mags, Daisy, and Else all stood in a circle. They’d been like that now for most of the night. They were calling on their ancestors, asking for help, for anything that could lead them to Jasmine.
Else was shaking, losing strength. She couldn’t do this for much longer, and going by the desperation in their voices as they chanted, and the pain on their faces now, they weren’t getting the answers they wanted.
I strode away. If I didn’t move, I’d fucking roar, or tear something to pieces. They didn’t need to see me like that. I’d caused that family more than enough worry over the years. Jasmine was their family, but she was my mate, and I needed to bring her home.
