“How right you are, and yet…” Cobon flicked his hand at the breathtaking landscape. “It is not this beauty that interests you—and certainly not the beauty of our home in the Aether. It’s that girl, isn’t it?” Cobon sneered. “But she must die. And you know this as well as I do.”
“Shewilldie. When her time comes. But that time isnottonight at the hands of the poltergeists.”
“Time…” Cobon repeated with a far-off gaze, “a mortal creature’s enemy, but what do we care of time until the absurdity of love grips us, eh brother?”
Cobon turned a knowing eye to Asher and wiggled his finger at him in time with the pendulum of a grandfather clock in the room. “How is your little romance with that skinny Irish cow going—a hopeless endeavor, if you ask me. Borders on desperate, does it not?”
“You cannot understand it, Cobon.”
“I understand more than you think,” he spat, but then he smiled brightly. “If I were you, I would disembarrass myself from such a bauble. A human cannot love an Envoy—we are…” Cobon drew a great breath. “…too powerful, too wise.”
“I will protect her from any that would harm her, brother, even to my own demise.”
Cobon pursed his lips. “I admit, I’ve tried to hasten her death—the ghosts in the lab—that’s why you’re here, isn’t it? There was the fall from the Luftzeug, a deadly in-between, a splinter, a poisoned quill—none of it worked,” he shrugged, laughing. “She is resilient—and of course you keep rescuing her, though you haven’t given her the gift…yet.” Cobon narrowed his eyes. “—a good thing, and I’ll tell you why, but first you must know I have protected the Sullivan line for centuries. In the end, her energy belongs to me. But you can keep her body and soul—I have no use for them.” Cobon paced the room, his brow furrowed. “You keep her atyour zoo in Bear Towne, but I cannot figure out how you hold her there—I saw no cage, no chains, no rope…? Will you tell me?”
“She is free to leave.”
“And yet she stays. Why hasn’t she run from you? Is it because she fears the others?”
“She stays not from fear.”
Cobon grimaced. “Really? You believe she stays because she loves you, but does she know you stood by while her dear sister perished… No?” he taunted. “I thought not. And what of your challenger, that mutt Pádraig? How did you win her away from him?”
Asher ignored him.
Cobon paced with long strides across the room.
“You are a fool, Asher. You mistake your girl’s fear for love, but what does it matter? As long as the others are here on Earth, you will never be free to love her. The others would destroy you and the girl if they knew.” He faced the great clock, staring hatefully at it. “There is a way, though.”
Cobon turned to Asher, almost hesitantly. “You could complete the black rock with her energy without killing her completely—send the others home but remain here on Earth…with her…”
Asher shifted his gaze, and Cobon grinned. “You are intrigued by the idea—why else would you ignore her now, as she cries for you. Even I can hear her.”
“It’s not possible,” said Asher.
“Oh, but it is! Simply remove her soul—gently, of course—separate it from her body, but keep hold of it,” he told him raising an instructive finger. “Let her energy out, and then rebind her to her body—it’s a simple energy swap. Be sure to fling the rock away, far away—the others will follow it. Open the Aether, and send them home. You’d be free to love her…”
Asher straightened ever so slightly, and Cobon smiled gleefully. If his brother weren’t insane, Asher would have found Cobon’s sudden good humor suspicious.
“Bring the girl here, Asher, she needn’t fear this. We’ll talk…the three of us. Over dinner—she’ll like that,” he rambled. “And I’ll try not to kill her in the meantime—she’ll like that even more, I suspect.”
“I will choose the time, Cobon,” Asher commanded. “And you will not touch her.”
“I promise you nothing, brother, you know my impatience. Make it soon,” Cobon stressed, “and she’ll be safe.”
With that, Cobon bowed, and Asher reappeared in The Middle of Nowhere in time to watchhisgirl fall asleep in another man’s bed.
Chapter thirty-one
Neglect
“Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.” - Otomo No Yakamochi
Hailey made it back to her room just as Giselle came down from the ceiling. She changed Hailey’s dressings before leaving for class that morning, and she even pulled a stray staple out of her neck. Tomas found another two lodged in her scalp, and Asher was still a no-show.
“Where do you think he is?” she asked Tomas as he twisted her hair into a fancy ponytail. Thank goodness too. Hailey couldn’t lift her arms high enough to touch her belly, let alone brush her hair.
Tomas shrugged, uninterested, and as he finished, Fin let himself into her room.
