“Curious thing about being dead, our desires are no longer so limited. And with time, our anger isn’t so unlimited.” The air shifted, and Jesstin could almost feel Gennady’s hand on his shoulder. “It’s over. You’re free now. I think you’ve carried this long enough, but you’re too stubborn to listen to a word I say. Otherwise, I’d be alive.” Gennady cracked a halfhearted laugh at the poor joke. Jesstin couldn’t find it in him to join in. It was all he could do to keep from collapsing. “I didn’t come here to rub it in. I actually came to say good-bye.”
“Where the fuck are you going?” Jesstin sputtered. He pulled himself up from his knees in the mud and scooted back to his dry spot. He was... calmer somehow, even if nothing had changed. Gennady anchored him, as he always had. As Elloven had. Until that moment, he hadn’t made the connection.
“I used to think it was my anger keeping me here.” Gennady sat beside him. “That it was my duty to haunt you to the end of your miserable days.”
“And now?”
“It was you.” Gennady shook his head. “Your necromancy. And I guess you just needed me too much.”
“What?” Jesstin scoffed. “No.”
“You always were so cursed needy, always letting me fight your battles for you...” Gennady held up his fingers and started to count. “Let’s see, there was the time at the armory when you were pissed out of your mind and couldn’t even count your coin, and I had to pay for the dagger myself. Whew, and all the pub fights I broke up to keep you from spending a hard night in the brig. Wait, wait, and how about when Scholar Barnwell threatened to visit Rhiain personally if you didn’t start turning your assignments in, so I did them for you. Shall I continue?”
“Whatever you need to tell yourself, you donkey.”
They shared the next laugh, and as it slowly passed into the easy silence of a lifelong bond, it was the first time Jesstin felt good since before he and Elloven had entered the spiral. “I’m sorry, Gen. I am truly so fucking sorry.”
Gennady nodded. “I know.”
“And I miss you more every bloody day that passes.”
“I know that too, mate.”
“The one good thing I’ve ever done was open that door in the netherworld. You picked a good time to leave.”
“Astonished you pulled it off. And without my help? A miracle,” Gennady said. “Could be why I’m not tethered anymore. You must have found some peace down there.”
Jesstin nodded at his bent knees. “Wasn’t mine to have.”
“The Jesstin Skylark I know wouldn’t let such a trifling point get in his way.”
“I don’t know who I am.” He held up his hands. “Not sure I ever did.”
“Time to figure it out, eh?”
Though Gennady was as solid as air, his presence soothed Jesstin, just as it always had, as they leaned together against the tree.
“I’m spent,” Jesstin declared and slapped his hands to his thighs. “I could sleep for a year.”
“Why not?”
“Yeah. Why not?” With the storm behind him, he could hardly keep his eyes open.
“Jess, if you do ever see my sister again...”
“Not bloody likely.”
“But if you do, ask her to repeat the second half of our mother’s message.”
“What second half?”
“You know I can’t tell you.”
“The odds of me seeing her again are on par with me growing a second head to curse you out.”
“Even if I could tell you, it won’t mean anything unless it comes from her.”
“Doesn’t mean anything then.” Jesstin’s head bobbed like an old man’s. “If I fall asleep...”
