Necromancer Legacy - 16. Tears don't fall

Sasha pushed the door open and padded inside the quiet apartment.

“He’s probably asleep,” he whispered, and Nick nodded.

They kicked off their wet shoes and walked down the dim hallway to Gabriel’s bedroom. The door was left ajar and they could see that he was sleeping soundly. Sasha sighed in relief.

“He’s fine. Come on.” He put a hand on Nick’s back briefly to lead him to his own bedroom.

Sasha closed the door and flicked on the light. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel tired at all. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Nick—who looked like some wannabe ninja, all tall and lean with his snug black outfit, dark hair and pale skin, and of course the noteworthy long, heavy-looking sword—was standing in his bedroom right now.

“I take it you’re inviting me to stay the night, then?” Nick teased, his voice low and soft like velvet.

Sasha felt his face heating up.

“No,” he said, “I mean, yes, but only because we need to talk. About Gabriel.”

Nick looked a bit taken aback. “About Gabriel?”

Sasha gathered up his mother’s journal, which had been resting on his night stand—a voluminous leather bound book with his mother’s elegant handwriting covering every page, and some pictures and articles that had been slid inside here and there.

He sat cross-legged on his bed among the mess of sheets and clothes and opened the journal in his lap.

“I want to find a way to protect Gabriel.” Sasha looked up. “And you’re going to help me.”

‘No one is safe,’ Liv had said. Sasha shuddered. If he had some powers left, then he would use them to protect Gabriel, because his adoptive brother had been through enough already, and he needed a break from all the supernatural crap.

“I know there’s a spell in there we could try,” he said, flipping the pages. “Some kind of simple protection spell. If I can just find it…”

While he searched, Nick leaned his sword against a wall and started to roam around the small bedroom. Sasha felt a bit embarrassed about all the messiness, but Nick didn’t seem to mind.

Unlike Gabriel. Gabriel would totally freak out at all the accumulated dust in the corners and the heaping piles of clothes. Hey, it was organized; a pile of dirty clothes in one corner, and a pile of clean ones atop his chair. Perfectly legit system. Anyway. Gabriel wasn’t allowed in his room.

Nick picked up a small notebook that had been tossed on the floor next to the bed. When Sasha saw what it was he freaked.

“Hey, no, don’t read that.”

Too late.

Nick had already flipped through the pages, and looked at the entries. He smiled, amused. “Is this a dream journal?”

Sasha extended his arm lazily to try and snatch it, but Nick just leaped away from the bed, and he kept reading.

“Stop reading it.”

Nick didn’t stop. In fact, he started reading out loud. “I was going out with Nick and he had taken way too much stuff. Like three doses of speed. And at some point I could tell that he wasn’t feeling okay. It was weird because in the dream I was on something too, and I was starting to feel it. But Nick went to the bathroom and I followed him, and he wasn’t doing so good. It wasn’t a good dream at all. But I’m still glad I had it, because it just shows that I worry about Nick. I care about him. I’ll just have to keep an eye on him so it doesn’t happen in real life.”

Sasha felt so completely embarrassed. But at least Nick hadn’t read one of the sex dreams.

Nick looked up. “I’m not a drug addict. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“I’m not worried,” Sasha said very quickly.

Nick re-read a specific sentence: “I’m still glad I had it, because it just shows that I worry about Nick.”

Sasha threw a pillow at him, and Nick just dodged it, smiling.

“I wouldn’t take three doses of speed. Are you crazy?”

“It’s just a stupid dream! Stuff I write first thing in the morning when I feel like it. Those are private.”

“They’re hilarious. Oh my God, the next one!” And Nick read it: “I dreamed about Jesus. In my dream he looks kinda like Jared Leto, and he falls in love with another guy, but they have to keep it a secret because reasons. Thought it was interesting. And maybe it’s close to the truth. Who knows? Because he kept going on about tolerance. So I’m sure he loved gays and stuff.”

Nick actually slid to the floor and held his stomach because he was laughing so much.

“Stop reading that,” Sasha exclaimed, his face flushed, “I think I found the spell.”

“Jared Leto? Man, this is too good. I would watch that movie.”

“Shut up.”

“Gays and stuff,” Nick quoted and laughed some more. “What’s the stuff for?”

Sasha was trying to focus on reading his mother’s instruction for a protection spell. “You’re being very distracting,” he accused.

“Can I own the rights to this?” Nick sat up, flaunting the small notebook up in the air. “I’ll use it for writing material. I’ll call Jared Leto’s agent and see if he wants to play my gay Jesus. We’ll make the movie together and then it’ll get banned but people will watch it online anyway.”

Sasha rolled his eyes and darted out to snatch the notebook from Nick’s hand. He tossed it in a drawer, before slumping back on his bed, annoyed.

“Very funny.”

“No I’m serious.”

“Well you can write your screenplay later we have more important things to do right now.”

Nick rose from the floor lazily and stretched his long limbs, effortlessly graceful and cat-like. “You said you found the spell?”

“Yeah. Okay. First we need candles.”

Sasha jumped off the bed and went to gather dusty candles from his desk, along with a box of matches. Nick helped him to clear up a section of the floor, pushing away school books, empty cookie boxes, and clothes with his foot—okay, so maybe Sasha’s organization system wasn’t perfect. Sasha placed the candles in a circle and started to light them.

“Smells nice,” Nick commented.

“Thanks.”

Lilya had never said he couldn’t use scented candles for spells, so Sasha had happily selected candles that smelled like coffee, hazelnut, vanilla, cinnamon—so that when he performed witchcraft, his bedroom smelled like cake. Lilya would always use candles for spells. She said it helped her concentrate, and that it was a sort of placebo effect more than a real help for the spell. So it comforted Sasha to use them too.

With Nick they sat together in the circle and held hands.

“I feel silly,” Nick admitted.

“Shut up this is important. Just be quiet and let me do this.”

He had his mother’s journal in his lap again, open at the right page. He felt like it gave him strength. He breathed in and out deeply then started reading.

“I seek the spiritual protection of a guardian angel that will accept to appear before me, for someone who is very dear to me. In exchange I offer my eternal gratitude and I will owe them more than my life—”

“More than your life?” Nick whispered. “That’s a little extreme, no?”

Sasha hushed him. “It’s what my mother wrote. You have to exaggerate with them. Don’t worry about it.” He kept going: “I summon you to humbly ask for your protection, so if you accept, please show yourself, and I will be forever grateful.”

“This is getting a little redundant.”

“Nick shut up.”

There was a sort of disturbance in the air then, and it was like the floor was tilting and the walls closing in on them. Then it went back to normal.

And there he was. A fox spirit—in the form of, well, a fox. He was as big as a wolf, and his fur was bright red, reflecting the light of the candles. He had a fluffy white-tipped tail that danced all around him in the air. Like an excited dog that would wag his tail.

“Shay?” said Sasha.

“You look a bit disappointed,” the fox spirit said telepathically, “were you expecting someone else? I’m still your spirit guide, you know.”

“I thought this might happen,” Nick admitted.

Shay’s round hazel eyes turned to him. “You can hear me?”

“Apparently,” Nick said.

“That is interesting. Perhaps because I’ve made contact with you once before.”

Sasha interrupted them. “My mother said not to trust you.”

“Lilya was paranoid. If you want my protection, you have it.”

He shook his head. “Not for me. For Gabriel. I need you to protect him.”

“No problem.”

“So you’ll do it? Just like that?”

“Of course.”

“So you don’t want anything in return?” Nick said suspiciously.

“Eternity is a long time. I’m sure I’ll come up with something.”

Sasha and Nick exchanged a glance.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Nick said.

Shay replied before Sasha could say anything. “That was just a little joke. You’ve already summoned me. I’ll protect Gabriel. He won’t even know I’m there.” Then Shay switched topics, staring at Sasha with his beady eyes. “I can’t believe you let that thief steal more of your powers. You barely had the necessary energy to summon me here tonight, I hope you know that.”

The fox was right, Sasha thought with an unsettling feeling in his gut. Upon hearing Shay’s words, a wave of exhaustion hit Sasha like a punch to the face, and he felt empty and drained. He suddenly wanted nothing more than to crawl in his bed, hide under the covers and sleep forever.

Nick spoke up. “I’ll make sure he gets them back. You take care of watching over Gabriel. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Understood. I like your style Nicholas. You’re a fast learner, I respect that. Nice sword, by the way,” Shay added as a last touch before disappearing.

This time, when the floor seemed to tilt under him, Sasha almost collapsed. But he caught himself, and struggled to keep his eyes open. Nick was staring.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” Sasha murmured.

Nick took care of blowing off all the candles—which, Sasha had to admit, made for a much safer environment.

“Are the walls still moving?” Sasha asked.

“No.”

“Oh.” Sasha closed his eyes and they burned. He had a throbbing headache all of a sudden.

Nick helped him to the bed and Sasha grabbed a pillow and curled up on himself.

“Did you want me to sleep on the floor, or—?” Nick was hesitating.

Sasha caught his arm, feeling the warmth of Nick’s skin through the thin black fabric of his shirt.

“Don’t be silly,” Sasha said as their eyes met.

Nick said, “I won’t do anything.”

“I know that.”

Nick went to flick off the light. Sasha found the darkness soothing. Then Nick came to lie down next to him, making a half-hearted attempt at detangling the mess of sheets. Then he gave up.

There was a silence. Sasha suddenly realized how intimate it felt to have someone in his bed with him. This was his bedroom. His bed. It was just so private and special. But he didn’t mind too much. Because it was Nick. Knowing himself, if it were anyone else lying down on the bed next to him, Sasha would freak and frantically kick them out in less time than it took to say hello.

Instead Sasha felt strangely warm and safe. He didn’t even need to turn around and look at Nick. Just knowing he was there, feeling his quiet presence, made Sasha feel better—like he’d felt lonely before, all those nights alone, without ever realizing it.

“Nick. You sleeping?”

“Yes,” Nick answered.

Sasha smiled into his pillow. “Thanks for saving me earlier. I don’t remember if I said it.”

“I think,” Nick said, “if we start thanking each other for every time we’ve saved one another, we’ll never see the end of it.”

“Good point.”

He heard some rustling; Nick was turning around. He shifted closer to Sasha, until his chest touched Sasha’s back, and then Nick put his arm around him. Sasha tensed at first, and held his breath; he just wasn’t used to it. But then he let himself relax, and he realized his chest felt all warm and fluttery.

“Is this okay?” Nick asked.

It’s more than okay, Sasha wanted to say.

Instead he just whispered, “It’s fine.”

Another silence.

Then: “Nick. D’you think our parents are in Heaven?”

“Honestly? I don’t—” He interrupted himself, then said, “I don’t know.”

“You were going to say I don’t think so.”

Nick’s voice was soft. “I just don’t think anyone goes there directly after dying, from what I’ve heard. This is just speculation on my part, but I think you have to prove yourself in the other dimensions somehow, and then once you’ve done that, you can go. But like I said, I don’t know. Couple weeks ago I didn’t even believe in Heaven or Hell.”

Tears started to fill Sasha’s eyes, threatening to overflow; he was probably just tired, or something.

Even though he was afraid of the answer, Sasha asked, “Do you think they’re in Hell?”

Living and reliving their worst fears, over and over again, with no one to rescue them from it like Nick had done for Sasha when he was stuck in that tall black tree.

“I don’t think so,” Nick said gently. “I mean, they’ve got to be in a better place. Don’t listen to me. What do I know? Maybe they are in Heaven. Your parents died trying to save Gabriel’s life, didn’t they? That’s got to mean something. If sacrificing yourself for your kid isn’t a one way ticket to Heaven, then I don’t know what is. It would be pretty empty up there, believe me.”

Sasha knew that Nick was just trying to make him feel better. But that was okay. Sometimes you just needed someone to try and make you feel better. Sasha closed his eyes and took Nick’s arm, pulling it tighter around himself.

“Thank you,” Sasha whispered.