Love.The edges of Saer’s eyes tightened.
“And when you walked into the fire, we wept for you.We honored you.”Asheda’s voice fractured.
Saer’s continued stoicism unleashed something primal in Asheda.He clenched his fists in violence and roared, “What do you want from me?”
Saer took in a slow breath.What did he want?
How could he make this feeling inside stop?
He held up a shuddering hand and let it feel the air, the warmth surrounding Asheda’s body.“I came back because I know the fate that has befallen your family.”
Ruki’s spirit sprang between the two of them with renewed vigor, eyes glinting.“Yes, Saer, tell him!”
Saer ignored the desperate call, picturing Neyu in his mind.He must have been so close—so close—to seeing her before Lucifer ordered him back to the surface.Would he be here for years again?Years of drenching himself in whateverthisfeeling was?
No.
Asheda unleashed an angry cry and whirled around, showing Saer his back.“Why have you returned?”he asked again.
Saer paused and assessed the chief.Ruki had always been Asheda’s opposite, taking after his mother more than his father.Slower to anger.Quicker to trust and laugh.Ready to share a smile and a story.
The echo of his desperate promise to Lucifer replayed in his mind.I’ll find you a spirit which feels opposite to this one.I won’t disappoint you, I swear it!
What if Asheda was the key?To putting him back in Lucifer’s good graces, to seeing his Neyu again…
But, Ruki’s death had done something to him.Would Asheda’s do the same?
Was it worth it?
To get back before more years passed, the obvious answer screamed through his veins.
“For you,” Saer answered, just above a whisper.
The leader’s body tensed, but didn’t turn.“I’ll go nowhere with you.”
Years.It had beenyearssince seeing Neyu!Saer approached, keeping his voice low even as it was fueled by desperation.“Not even if you were able to see your eldest son again?What about your wife?The baby you never knew?”
“Saer!”Ruki’s tone buzzed, though Saer’s eyes remained locked on the chief’s back.
“They’re gone forever.”Asheda’s strong voice trembled at the end of his words.
Saer set his jaw, then spun towards the soul.“Spirit of Ruki, tell your father you’re here.”
The soul’s eyes widened, shifting to Asheda.“Father, Iamhere.Hear me, please!”
The chief whipped around to face Saer.“You dare?”
Somethingflared.Saer shifted to his heat sense, then quick as a blink to his soul-sight in an effort to delineate what he picked up on.It was that third element.The thing he’d gleaned from humans, now and again, but never labeled.Familiar, but not visible.Warm, like an invisible sun’s light kissing his skin.
Mine,Saer thought, unbidden.At last, he started to see, and his heart sped.
Saer gestured to Asheda’s right side.“Your son calls you.Will you not answer?”
“I hear nothing!Don’t play me for a fool!”Again, the flare of a particularsomething—warm and almost touchable.He knew it.
He’d been made from it.
The figure of Ruki fell to its knees, arms wound tight around itself as pitiful sounds escaped it, ripping through Saer.
