Raze hums low in his chest. “Peri, I think this power of yours might be the key to that. If you can calm down the creatures and make them feel like they’ve already settled in… We should see what it can do on the rift when you really try.”
I look at the swell of roiling shadow that cloaks the city, and my throat closes up. I can soothe a creature here and there, but… Does a cream puff like me really stand a chance at fixing a problem that huge?
I guess there’s only one way to find out.
“Come on,” I say. “We’d better find Rollick.”
8
Raze
The overflowing rift doesn’t look any prettier at its back end. The thick, dark atmosphere still drapes over the nearby buildings—big houses on bigger lawns in this apparently more upscale suburb—like a haze of watery mud.
Peri wipes her hands together and glances around. There’s no one else in sight except for one of Rollick’s assistants who came along to monitor her experiment. That’s why we trekked all the way around the city to conduct it.
The demon figured it’d be better for her to make the attempt far away from the human refugee camp and the soldiers now marching among them.
He phrased it as if he was concerned about how their presence might distract her. I can’t help wondering if he’s also a little worried about her powers going haywire the way they used to and blasting a whole bunch of the mortal beings we’ve been trying to save.
Peri’s control has gotten so much better, but the collapsed rift has thrown us all for a loop. I can’t totally blame Rollick for wanting to be careful.
From the quivers of nervousness mixed with the aura of hope Peri gives off, she’s picked up on his other possible reasons too. She sucks her lower lip under her teeth and then drags in a breath, setting her shoulders in a determined stance that makes my heart twinge with affection.
She might be short and soft, but my Glowbug is a force to be reckoned with.
She walks right up to the misty edge of the rift’s deluge. No living beings show on the other side either, not even the warped creatures that’ve spilled out of the rift from the shadow realm. But I’m here if any of them decide they want to take a piece out of the woman I love.
My hands flex at my sides, ready to release my claws.
“All right,” Peri says with even more than her usual good cheer. “Let’s do this!”
She holds out her hands toward the shadowy haze. A gentle smile curves her lips, tugging at my heart even more.
Her voice comes out as soft as the rest of her. “We’re glad you want to be part of this world. We’d like to be able to work together. You have so much power and passion. It could be a really great partnership.”
Rollick’s assistant arches her eyebrows. She flicks her gaze toward me. “Is she trying to clean the rift up or take it on a date?”
I scowl back at the shadowkind woman. “This is how her power works. She has to focus on how much she cares.”
The assistant’s expression remains skeptical, but thankfully her hushed comment doesn’t appear to have rattled Peri. The turquoise glow that’s now the usual color of her power has lit up on her palms.
She holds her hands out farther, and the glow expands. It washes into the mass of shadows, wavering and glittering as if caught in currents we couldn’t see before.
I watch the edges of the mass, checking whether it’s eased back or retracted at all. If Peri can convince the rift to suck all this noxious darkness back inside, to commune with the mortal world in some less harmful way, the catastrophe could be over just like that.
I don’t see the border of its deluge budge at all, though.
Peri inhales again with a little shakiness to the sound. She pours out even more of her turquoise glow, but sweat has started to bead on her forehead. A tremor runs through her stance.
My claws pop out even though this isn’t a threat I can tackle with brute force. I grit my teeth against the urge to tell her to stop.
I shouldn’t distract her. She can tell when she’s worn herself out.
That doesn’t mean I like seeing it, though.
Peri appears to make a conscious effort to loosen her posture before her body can tense up. The glow emanating off her starts to ebb all the same. It dwindles and contracts, both fading away and absorbing back into her form.
A sigh tumbles over her lips. She cocks her head, examining the haze in front of her. “It hasn’t moved one bit. I guess it’s really stuck on this spot.”
