“Stay out of my mind,” I snapped, recognizing the renewed pulse of images for what they were.
She smirked as she moved toward the wall, then flittered toward Shala’s door. “You’re new to the practice, so let me give you a piece of unsolicited advice: if you’re going to stake your claim on this one, you might want to ward her thresholds. There are far worse things than me prowling about.”
I whirled on her to snap back at the threat, but before I had the time to rage, she’d disappeared to find her nightly meal.
I would have continued panting, teeth clenched, jaw flexed, poised to fight, if the humming hadn’t resumed.
My shoulders slumped. I was alone with the human.Myhuman.
Shala abandoned her half-prepared meal and walked slowly to the table. Her eyes traveled to the spot where I stood, unfocused. Perhaps she couldn’t see me, but she sensed mypresence. I chewed on my lip and settled into the seat beside her, touching her gently, almost gingerly. I wanted to be close, but…
She exhaled and closed her eyes. “I know you’re here,” she said.
She’d been stoned for her faith. She’d seen the face of the immortal. I hadn’t left her side, nor had she left mine.
I squeezed her hand but revealed only my voice. “I am.”
The skin between her brows pinched. She swallowed. “You felt…different. Strange.”
A feeling—gratitude, perhaps—soothed the space between my shoulders. She was perceptive. She recognized when something beyond the veil didn’t feel like her ‘angel.’ The demon she called Star.
I didn’t want to scare her, but she couldn’t make the mistake of being too trusting.
“Would it surprise you to learn there are others? More than me, more than the god or his angels that you once served, more than you could fathom.”
“No,” she said solemnly. “The day I accepted you, I accepted everything.” She squeezed my arm in return. “I’ve seen the temples and those I knew to be heathens within. I’ve heard stories of sacrifices to foreign gods. Who was it tonight? A name I know?”
“It was someone...something...you don’t want in your house,” I said honestly. “But I’ll fix that.”
She chewed on her lip. “Fix it? How?”
I didn’t want to explain the concept of warding. Not yet. I just needed her to trust me. “There are three things I need you to do.”
“Anything.”
The uncomfortable tension that followed her proclamation was too much. I couldn’t dwell on it, or I’d unravel.
“It’s not for me, it’s for you,” I clarified. “There’s a merchant from the distant south. He’ll be in your village next week. Hetrades in fine golds and jewels, but he carries a black stone as smooth as glass. Make a trade for this stone and sleep with it under your pillow.”
Her lips pressed together. “My husband won’t appreciate gemstones…”
“You won’t need to trade anything of value. I’ll be with you even when you don’t see me. Whatever you offer, I’ll charm the merchant to see it as an excellent deal,” I promised. “Second, there is a plant that grows just beyond the city walls. It has thick green leaves that grow in triangular spindles, with a thick, clear sap within. The sap is used for medicine against burns. Do you know the one?”
She made a face as if leafing through a book within her mind. “I do.”
“Hang it, fresh or dried, over your front door. Take the sap from one leaf and wear it on your wrists. Will you do this?”
“What’s the third thing?” she asked.
This was the most painful.
“Silence,” I said. “I won’t have you dragged from the city again. If someone asks you who you worship, you lie. If they question why you sleep with a stone beneath your pillow, you tell them it was a pretty gift from your mother before she died. When they inquire why you hang the plant, tell them it’s an ingredient in broth from your home village.”
“Denying one’s god is an unforgivable sin.”
My throat knotted. “Letting harm befall you is the only sin I won’t forgive, no matter which of us commits it.”
I didn’t know where to start in the jumbled explanation of gods and souls and realms, or if I should at all. Humans had been given rigid binaries through which they viewed the world. Theologies helped us both, I supposed. Some more than others.
