He gives her ass a light smack. "Later, beloved."
She looks up at him, eyes shining with fondness and finally nods. "Later. What else?"
"We'll go find a Yule tree and you and Rez will decorate it while I start the baking. A Yule log,some raisin-studded saffron buns or boar-cake would be traditional, but there's this panadería a few blocks over that makes the best marranitos and Imayhave sweet talked the baker into giving up her recipe. Pig cookies, boar-cake, close enough. "
"Yae! You're not supposed to use your magic on humans," she protests as she rinses off.
"Who said anything about magic?" I ask, slyly. I can tell when she realizes that I flirted my way into getting the recipe when jealousy spikes in her emotions. "Envious little Mischief," I tease. "You'll forgive me when you taste one. Do you want to make Christmas cookies to take to Shadow House tonight?"
She perks up. "The chocolate crinkly ones?"
"Anything you want, sunshine." I kiss the tip of her nose and reach behind her to shut off the water.
I meet Rez's eyes and we smirk. "And then there's the matter of the shinies..." I say.
She looks up sharply, a beaming grin on her face. "Shinies, you say?"
"But you're not allowed to steal them. Rez and I haven't decorated a tree in... many years. We'll need new ornaments. Are you up for picking them out for us?"
"Um, yes, duh.”
"Pretty magpie," Rez rumbles, blotting her long red hair dry.Magpie, the name he used to call Lux who, just like Lucy, was drawn to anything shiny or sparkly. Does Rez suspect the same thing I do? That the Light Bearerhasbeen reborn in our perfect, snarky, utterly oblivious little thief?
Lux was never specific in how she'd return. If I'm right, does Lucy have her memories? A piece of her soul, or only the light within?
If we tell her stories of the Light Bearer that came before her, will it surface buried memories?
But Lucy asks for stories of the Light Bearer before I can even pick one to start with.
As we pile into the pick-up truck, Lucy snuggled between us on the bench seat, she leans her head on my shoulder, sweet as can be, and asks me to tell her about the Light Bearer.
CHAPTER6
LUCY
So, I woke up glowing last night, and not in the freshly-fucked, can't-stop-smiling-like-an-idiot kind of way. Straight up glowing like I had a flashlight under my skin. A flesh light if you will. Did I snicker when I came up with that? Yes, yes I did. But humor has always been a way for me to dodge all the scary shit in my life. Humor and taking unnecessary risks, stealing, stabbing, anything to get my adrenaline pumping.
After my demonkin fell asleep, I slipped into the ensuite and studied myself in the mirror in the dark bathroom. Glowing like a goddamn beacon. I rubbed at my chest, and because I've always talked to the shards—usually to amuse myself—I whispered to them. I questioned them for the first time, feeling like a lunatic, until they pulsed in my chest: dimming and then flaring once for yes, dimming and staying dim for no. It was like playing the weirdest game of "Hot and Cold" ever, but I learned a few things.
It's not a curse binding us together, not some souvenir I took from Iradil's tomb. It's the shards themselves. They brought me to Rez and Yaelyn to keep me safe, and both of the demonkin have shards of their own, embedded somewhere behind their breastbones. Because they once guarded the Light Bearer. Now they guard the shards themselves, waiting for the Light Bearer to return.
And they loved her. More than they'll ever be able to love me.
I didn't have to ask the shards if Reznik and Yaelyn love me, though, because I already knew: despite my many, many flaws, my demon and incubus love me.
But as I finally got the shards to dim (who knew 'pretty please, with a cherry on top' was enough to make the snarl of Christmas lights in my ribcage go out?) and snuck back into bed, I realized how much bigger than me this all was. Bigger than a thieving contract with one of the scariest men in existence. I've got the Light Bearer's fancy arcane rocks glowing in my chest. I need to know more about her if I'm to unwind the mystery I've bumbled into. And maybe get my collection of glow-in-the-dark rocks out of my chest in a way that doesn't involve Khadyr reaching into my chest and giving my heart a little tickle while he's at it.
So I asked them about her while sipping from the thermos of half coffee, half hot chocolate Yaelyn made me for the drive.
"She was always meant to return," Yaelyn explains. "And reclaim the crown the nine sun shards make up. We pray for it every Yuletide. She's the only thing that can bring balance to the shadow realm."
"Like bringing balance to the force? For every Jedi, a Sith Lord?" Damn, was I actually spot-on in my anxious inner ramblings as I stalled outside Iradil’s tomb?
Reznik frowns at me. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Lucy."
I squawk out a protest. "You know, like in Star Wars? Do you live under a rock? Luke Skywalker? Darth Vader force choking a bitch?" I hold my hand in the force-choke pose and pretend to choke myself.
"If you wanted to be choked, Spark, all you had to do was ask."
