“He orchestrated a way to bring back the one person that has the ability to seteveryonefree,” she counters.
Boden presses the issue. “Which is why he manipulated your life so that you’d be disappointed by the humans and sympathetic to his cause, to play right into his hand.”
Slade sighs. “We can run, but then we’ll never be able to stop.”
“Look.” Beyond frustrated, Sabrina slaps a hand against the nearest wall, shutting everyone up with the harsh sound. “People don’t do what’s right because it’s fun, they do it because someone has to. It’shard.It’s not fair. But neither is letting innocent people continue to suffer for crimes they didn’t commit. And yeah, it’s a selfish motivation, but I want more out of my life than constantly fighting and struggling to survive. I’d rather just fucking deal with this now instead of having an axe hovering over our necks forever. I’m not running, and I’m not hiding. And no, I’m not confident that we can outsmart the fucking savant of human chess, or come up with a solution that will make everyone remotely evencloseto happy. But I’m also not going to roll over and give up. With those options ticked off the list, the only ones left that I see are either doing what he wants and trying to escape before he stabs us in the back, or using that same knife to get a final shot in on our way to the grave. May not kill him, but at least we go out with a final ‘fuck you,’ and I could make my peace with that.”
“So... what?” Reid demands. “We go to Ash and say ‘sure thing, Satan. We totally trust that you aren’t a goddamn liar and have a way to exorcise your buddies without killing us in the process, because I’m sure you have our best interest in mind. You know, despite the fact that you resent humans after centuries stuck in one’s bodyafteryou were already at war with them? As long as you pinky promise, we’re good to go?’ This is insane, Sabrina.”
She shoots him a withering glare. “I get that you’re upset, but there’s no need to be condescending.”
His arctic gaze is engulfed in obsidian as he growls out an agitated sound and his other half takes over. “There is when you’re talking about playing into someone’s hands that either hates the demon currently housed in your body, or loves her enough to fucking resurrect her!” Taking a few breaths to settle down, he stares at her with a broken expression. “If Aurelia imprisoned them, then as soon as she sets them all free, even if he loves her, he’ll kill you both to make sure it can’t happen again. Why would any of us want to be free if it means losing you? This is all we’ve ever known; we’ll figure it out.”
Giving him a sad smile, she replies, “That’s what I would do in his shoes, so yeah, my brain already went there. Which is why I’m proposing that we set emotions aside for a little bit, and work together to actually consider what Kaige brought up initially. Map things out, make a plan. See if there are any patterns in his behavior that we can find, and what avenues might be hiding between the lines that Acheron wouldn’t have anticipated upon. If we can identify most of the contingency plans that he would have in place, then we can anticipate his actions. If we can lay all of those out visually, maybe we can find a path he wouldn’t have considered.”
Giving him a blinding smile that renders him immobile, she says, “It’s no different than Redemption, if you really think about it. We lay out all of the code, identify the imperfections and gaps, and create something new out of nothing more than our collective genius. Ash may have centuries of experience on us, but we have new perspectives and technology on our side, a different outlook on the world. Which means we stand a decent shot at seeing something he might have missed because he was too entrenched in hundreds of layers of schemes and manipulations. He had to leave a loose threadsomewhere.”
Her coral irises sparkle with devilish intent before they’re engulfed. “And I know how to get under his skin better than anyone to buy us time to find it.”
***
“Why does it smell likea bottle of bleach exploded in here?” Bo pauses as soon as he opens the front door of the Slaughters' cabin. As soon as it clicks, he shoots an unamused glare back at Hunter. “Seriously?”
Shoving his shoulder in a half-assed attempt to get him out of the doorway, when Bo finally moves, Hunter passes by and takes a seat at the table before responding with a small smirk. “What was I going to do, tell her no?” He scoffs. "Like you'd be able to refuse her begging either."
A blush rapidly rises in Sabrina's cheeks. “I didn't beg. I just... pointed out the benefits of multitasking.”
"Getting off while getting a cabin we didn’t have to build since the Slaughters won't want to step foot in here anymore?"
Cin objects, "But then why bleach it?"
Damian refuses to meet anyone's eye as Hunter chuckles. "You have Sebastian to thank for that."
After he catches us up on that hilarious cluster fuck, Sabrina explains, "Long story short, I took Kaige’s advice to heart and we riddled out that my nefarious alter ego hid some of her power in each of you when claimed, and that’s why your stores weren’t completely depleted after the Alodia massacre. So I sucked down some of Hunter and Damian’s trauma and all of the lovely demonic power hidden inside, both benevolently ridding them of some of the guilt that plagued them, and gaining immunity from Ash’s mental tampering.” She takes a seat beside me at the table and adds, “Figured it might help condition my brain to associate pain and siphoning with sexy times, so it’d be less daunting when I need to. Masochism for the win, am I right?”
Slade steals the seat on her free side, studying her profile with an indecipherable expression. “Did it work?”
Wetting her lips nervously, she nods. “Still sucked a bit in a few patches, but it was easier to stay grounded so I didn’t get completely lost in my head. Images were clearer, too; more like being dropped in a memory, but aware enough to know it wasn’tmymemory. Because of that, it was easier to pack away afterward. Honestly, I think I could handle it as well as you guys do now even without getting laid, but if I had to choose, I'm obviously going to vote for option number one.”
“That’s,” he trails off, staring at her in awe.
“Remarkable,” I finish for him, and she turns to give me an appreciative smile.
“To be fair, I didn’t do much of the work on this one,” she teases, but I shake my head in disbelief.
“Don’t sell yourself short, beautiful. And I’m jealous enough to ask if, when we get a little downtime, you might be willing to practice with me to see if that memory thing is unique to you, or the rest of us could learn how to do it as well. Sounds a hell of a lot better than random images and blips of emotion. Could be incredibly useful when interrogating people, too.”
––––––––
Slade brushes his knucklesover her cheek. “Count me in on that experiment. Even if we fail, we still get to come out on top, so nothing to lose.”
A massive crack of thunder startles the fuck out of all of us, Bo and Hunter jumping to their feet instantly, while Cin loses control of the chair he was rocking back in and crashes to the floor. Heart sprinting in my chest, I crane my neck to see as Damian pulls the curtain back, storm clouds rolling in with a vengeance and darkening the sky alarmingly quickly. He, Hunter, and I turn to simply stare at Sabrina, rendered speechless.
It’s only been a couple of days since the last storm. If anyone was still clinging to denial that Sabrina was the blessing we all desperately needed, there’d be no denying the claim now.
“These aren’t some spring showers to get excited over. Storms are devastating and destructive.”
So is she, and she’s perfect. A different kind of disaster might just be what we need to clash with the current one in our lives.
