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I shrug. “Probably not. It’s a lot smarter to throw me out of a helicopter and into some basilisk-infested waters. Good way to get rid of someone who’s supposed to be dead.”
Carolina rubs my shoulder. “I’m sure that won’t be the case. You’re his son.”
I see where Emil gets his sweetness from. I don’t need to tell her that the Blackout existed so I could be killed.
“I’m sorry we never got to properly meet before this,” I say.
“Me too. You must mean something to Emil given how much he wanted to defend you.”
“I think Emil would’ve done that for anyone. You raised him right. I swear I’ll do everything I can to get you back to him in one piece. No one’s harmed you, right?”
Her voice shakes before she can fully form her first words. “Senator Iron demanded that Eva heal his bruised-up bodyguard and when I defended her Dione struck me. Eva healed him and took care of me too after they all left.”
I don’t know how I’m going to do it but I’ll make sure Dione and Jax feel double the pain they put Eva and Carolina through.
Eva massages one of her bandages. “Healing is becoming harder. I haven’t been under the stars in however many nights we’ve been trapped here and Luna keeps draining my blood, even though she’s okay.”
Her own sickness. Luna is probably mixing some potion to try and buy herself more time.
“I haven’t been apart this long from Iris since we met,” Eva says. “I’m not making it back to her.”
She states it like a fact. I understand her in my own way.
“How’d you meet?” I ask.
Eva hesitates, but gives in. “Alchemists were hunting me for obvious reasons,” she says, gesturing at her whole body. “My foster family couldn’t protect me. I’ve always avoided violence, but I needed the Spell Walkers. Iris’s mother, Finola, answered our call for help. She brought me into their haven and introduced me to Iris.”
“Love at first sight?” I ask.
“No, not at all. It was better. Iris brought me a change of clothes and
we talked until the sun came up, even though I was exhausted after weeks of never being able to get a full night’s sleep.” Eva is crying and I’m about to grab her some tissues when she continues. “Iris told me this story about how her parents took her to see the Moon Belle constellation when she was ten. Finola bought her a shirt off the street, but Iris didn’t get to try it on beforehand. It was a perfect fit, and I couldn’t help but feel like Iris was talking about us too. We fit, and I feel naked without her right now.”
Carolina gets up and drapes a shivering Eva with a blanket around her shoulders and the kind of hug that makes me miss Mom even more. Then she turns to me. “Do you feel this way about my son?”
I’m so thrown off by the question; then I realize this is coming from a woman who understands she may never get to see her children grow into full adults who choose to have partners and start families. I don’t know anything about Emil’s dating history though I bet he had tons of guys attracted to him.
“I wouldn’t say I feel naked without him,” I admit. “But I feel cold without him. If that makes sense. It’s like someone finally let me out into the sun and I was so into how warm it made me feel. But then I was forced back inside and I regret how much I sat around instead of actually embracing the day.”
I would do things differently with Emil. I didn’t kiss him when I left Nova or when I came back to save him. Kissing when a literal war is breaking out never comes to mind. If the stars cross for us again, I’ll give it my all.
“He’s the best person I know, and I haven’t even known him that long,” I say.
“That’s my son,” Carolina says proudly. “Ever since he was young Emil always wanted to make someone feel better. I didn’t know until his teacher told me, but in sixth grade Emil wouldn’t play with Brighton and their friends during recess because he was comforting a girl who had lost her sister. The boys were always close, but it only made them closer because Emil was so scared of losing Brighton too.” Now she’s crying. We have no idea if Emil and Brighton are dead or if one is alive and missing the other. Both thoughts are devastating. “When we lost Leo, Emil managed to hold on to his warmth. He fought so much to keep it together for us. My hero. Whenever he would give into his grief, the warmth would come back.”
I chuckle, thinking about how Emil is true to his firefly nature. “Funny, I have a nickname for him and—”
The buzzing of the gleam-shield goes quiet and the door opens. Dione enters with Zenon behind her. But he’s supposed to be gone.
“Storytime is over,” Dione says. She turns to Zenon. “Do we have enough?”
“Should do the trick,” Zenon says.
I stand. “You’re not even supposed to be here!”
Dione stands behind Eva and Carolina. Her expression is mostly menacing, which always feels for show, but there’s a hint of a conscience like when she hit pause on our mission to give some cash to a celestial whose eyes had been gouged out by some gleamphobic hunter. “We needed you to get up close and personal, Ness. How else are you going to play the roles if you don’t understand your subjects?”
Play the roles? Then it hits me. “No, I will do everything else, I will keep making up fake people, but you can’t make me impersonate them—”
