Twenty-Seven

Marie

For Marie, it felt like she was swimming through fluid thicker than water, reaching for the surface. Other times, she struggled as if she was wrapped in layers of blankets. Regardless, she worked hard to take long, deep breaths, certain that more air and more oxygen would help her.

But sometimes those deep breaths lulled her right back into dreaming again.

She was aware of quiet voices simmering with anger. Then she dreamed of cold evenings whale watching with her family near the Thousand Islands, listening for the calls of whales and seals and seabirds. She came back a little bit more, to the clean evergreen smells of the woods around the Darke Consortium manor and heard more murmured arguments.

Really, did no one get along well enough to let a person have a good nap?

But then she dreamed of wandering through a nightclub, trying to find the humans who used to be her friends. She fought her way through packed dance floors of people just standing, not moving to the music, and crowded tables of people scowling at each other, talking about business deals. All she could think of was finding a place to enjoy the music, with people actually using a dance floor for what it was intended, and having fun. Couldn't she leave the people she'd come with behind and go find a place where she fit in better?

The scent of frankincense and eucalyptus opened up her sinuses and cleared away the fog of sleep. She didn't want to dream anymore, especially not frustrating dreams that left her heart pounding, and her chest burning with frustration.

When she attempted to open her eyes, her eyelids felt slightly stuck together. She must have slept for a lot longer than usual. She lifted her hands after some effort and rubbed the sleep from her eyes before looking around. A celestial sky greeted her. Wisteria vines rose up in curving, woven columns to form a circular space around her. The clustered flowers hung in curtains from column to column, enclosing her in the airy sanctuary. It was like one of the magic hours either just after sunset or just before dawn, when the light was uncertain, and both her loves were with her. But where were they?

She lurched upright.

"Hey! Whoa, whoa, whoa." Joe's voice was quiet but full of surprise. He rolled up from where he'd been lying on the floor nearby, kneeling so he could be at eye level with her. "You're safe. Take it easy."

The blankets rustled next to her, and Kuro's arms came around her. "We're inside one of my pocket universes. The Darke Consortium is waiting outside, when you're ready."

"Only when you're ready." Joe scowled. "We brought you here because they were full of questions and there was no way they were going to leave you alone until you woke up on your own. We didn't want to hide from them, but we also didn't want to deal with them if they weren't going to believe us. So here we are."

Marie stared at Joe and a growing sense of horror warred with the urge to giggle maniacally. Whatever had transpired between everyone while she'd been out of it—she really didn't want to think of it as having been dead, even though technically, she'd been dead—there was probably a significant amount of damage control required to get everyone even remotely back into the realm of friendship.

"Exactly what did you use as the entrance to this pocket universe?" she asked.

Kuro shrugged and she felt the motion across her back and shoulders. "One of the book dioramas you had on your shelf inside your cabin."

Her thoughts turned over at high speed. Some of the fragments of her dream lingered, and she was guessing she'd risen close enough to consciousness to absorb some of what had been going on around her. "So you brought me to Pier 66, and Duncan brought us all here."

Joe nodded. "Yup, exactly like last time. They were all waiting at the dock, too. The werewolf just about lost his shit."

Never a good thing for Thomas to lose control. He was a reasonably old werewolf. He wouldn't have survived in this world if he hadn't had his more volatile tendencies leashed. She hadn't anticipated a situation involving her would push his limits, even if they were friends. He wasn't exactly good at feelings, but then again neither was Bennett. Or Duncan, for that matter. To be fair, of the three of them, only Thomas ever had human feelings to begin with.

"But I sent them messages in advance," Marie sputtered. That should count for something. "And you told him too, didn't you?"

"It's one thing to read a message and know you'd seem like you were dead, and another for every sense and instinct he had telling him you were dead," Joe explained. "I was freaking out, too. But Kuro talked me through it, and I trust Kuro."

Ah. That was it, wasn't it? "And Thomas doesn't know the two of you, despite whatever I texted him."

"He didn't hear it directly from you," Kuro rumbled.

It took more than introductions and a meal for Thomas, or any of the Darke Consortium, to get to know someone. Marie felt the same way, so she could understand their reticence.

Kuro's voice was comforting. His warmth felt good at her back, too. Joe was holding her hands now, his thumbs brushing over the backs of her wrists.

"He and Ashke were asking us to prove it was you who sent the messages and not us using your phone." Joe tilted his head and looked up. "Which is valid, when I think about it from their perspective. I just wasn't inclined to be reasonable while we still had you in our arms and not settled in a safe place until you could wake up."

Chances were that there had been more demanding than asking, but she appreciated Joe attempting to be diplomatic.

"So I didn't walk around while dead." Whew. Relief spread through her like cool water. She hadn't been tense before, but she'd been the kind of stiff that came from waking after lying in an awkward position for a long time. Now she felt like she could get up and get some blood flow going.

"No," Kuro confirmed. He let his arms drop from her, and Joe's grasp tightened as he pulled her up to standing. "You were right that they were using the blue lotus in too concentrated a dose. The way you held the fresh flower and breathed it in with intention before approaching Babel was sufficient to prepare you for the amulet's power to be activated."

She nodded. Kuro stepped off the large bed behind her as Joe steadied her from the front. The floor was cool marble. There were tatami mats and blankets scattered around the space, with plenty of pillows in various sizes. It was all inviting without feeling messy. One could lounge just about anywhere on the floor here. Delicate gauze curtains hung between the columns of wisteria, stirring gently in the barest of breezes.

"So this is our space?" A pocket universe inspired by the desires of the three of their hearts combined.

"Yes," Kuro answered. "Now that you are awake, you can influence it more intentionally."

Of course. Magic, in all its forms, was guided by intent.

Her stomach growled and completely ruined the vibe the three of them had going. She clutched her belly and groaned.

Joe chuckled. "I guess one of us should have thought to make breakfast. I don't suppose one of your friends would have while they were waiting out there?"

"Did either of you explain to them what you were doing before you disappeared in here with me?" Marie asked.

Silence. Probably not, then.

She sighed. "You two are going to need to learn to play better with others. I'm going out first. Give me to a count of thirty before the two of you pop out or they might attack you on principle."

She walked over to where bookshelves stretched in the space between two columns. Among the books, there was one shining with its own light. This was the way she could look out into the real world. Or the dimension she came from. Whatever anyone wanted to call it. She was getting better at using the pocket dimensions Kuro created and that was what mattered. She reached for the diorama, through it, and out into the space beyond.

"If you destroy it, you could destroy Marie," Ashke was saying.

"Did anyone make breakfast?" she asked.

Thomas and Ashke were facing off directly in front of her. Duncan and Asamoah stood a few steps back. Thomas started to lunge at her, but she held up a hand to stall him. He froze.

It wasn't that she thought he'd hurt her. He wouldn't. None of them would on purpose, unless she gave them a reason to. She knew this. But Thomas, in particular, was susceptible to strong emotions and he'd been kept waiting for hours already. Besides, she had to keep in mind what Joe and Kuro had said about Thomas almost losing it earlier.

She did some mental math. Kuro and she had gone to Babel midafternoon, and it would have taken a few hours to get from Seattle to the little island the Darke Consortium used as a center of operations. Regardless, the way the amulet worked, she wouldn't have woken until dawn. So all of these people, her colleagues—no, her friends—had been waiting all night with only the word of two fox spirits to go by. Thomas, in particular, had to be at the very end of his ability to temper his reactions. He'd feel terrible if he accidentally hurt her with a touch, even if he'd only intended to check and confirm she was okay.

So no touchy-touchy.

"I'm okay," she said to all of them. "This was what we hoped would happen."

"About that." Ashke did a slow pass around her head before coming to hover in front of her. "The whole ‘dead but not really dead' thing is a disturbing concept. Also, the possibility of you walking around dead. You know it didn't make any sense to ask us not to kill you when you were already dead, but also not really dead. I'm not sure that word means what—"

She cut in. "It makes sense with context, so yes, the word does mean what you think it means. How about everyone here promises not to harm my boyfriends and you can all sit down while I explain."

Duncan and Asamoah said nothing, but they did sit at the small table in her breakfast nook. That was probably as close as she was going to get to a High Court Sidhe promising her anything in such a casual situation. After all, she hadn't actually died and was obviously standing and talking and holding off irate werewolves. Look at her, being all sorts of spunky in the morning.

Thomas stared at her. Two puffs of magic burst behind her and suddenly Joe and Kuro were standing on either side of her. Soft fur brushed her wrist and she looked to her left to find Joe with fox ears instead of human ones. His nine tails waved gently behind him. She turned her head to her right and found Kuro similarly in human form, with his fox ears and all nine tails. This was how she'd met them, and she realized, neither of them had been able to control their forms enough to appear like this together while they'd been under the hex.

She smiled. It was really good to be reassured the hex was truly lifted.

"Wolf," Kuro greeted Thomas.

"See? We tried to tell you she'd wake up in the morning." Joe's voice was a tenor counterpoint to Kuro's deep rumble, but no less a challenge to Thomas.

Her stomach growled louder than any of them.

"Please, nobody take a swing at anyone inside my cabin." She walked straight over to her refrigerator.

"What are you doing?" Thomas asked.

"Making breakfast," she responded, grabbing things out of various drawers. "My stomach is upset."

"We heard," Duncan commented dryly.

Asamoah chuckled.

"If you are willing to listen, I'll give you all a recap while I'm cooking," she promised. "If you're still here by the time the rice is done, you can eat, too."

No one said anything. No one left, either. Asamoah usually did the cooking up at the manor, but he had come by once in a while to have a meal in her small space. It was nice to be able to cook and have her food appreciated by someone who she thought of as an incredible cook himself.

She placed her armful of fresh ingredients on the counter, then pulled her rice container out from under the counter. It took a minute to scoop the rice and rinse it, setting aside the rice water to give to her plants later. It'd been a few days and surely some of them could do with hydration.

"The pain witches took Joe," Marie started. She pushed the start button on her rice cooker and waited for the short song to finish playing before continuing. "So there was no time to do more research or develop a complicated plan."

Joe growled. "I didn't expect them to take me, but I figured if they'd come to talk to me, it couldn't be a good thing."

She picked up the head of napa cabbage and started pulling off the large outer leaves, stacking them on a cutting board. "I'm kind of mad at you, now that I'm remembering it. That was really upsetting to find out about."

She paused, snuck a glance at Thomas and the rest of the Darke Consortium members. She also remembered Joe, in fox form, trapped in a pet carrier, having to see her go flying across a room. "But this is pot calling kettle. So, moving on. Kuro and I threw together a plan to take an Egyptian amulet and some very specific variants of blue water lilies out of Socrates Industries. They're going to report them stolen."

"Reinhardt mentioned to me that you requested a replica be made," Duncan said.

Marie washed the cabbage leaves in the sink and gave them a firm shake to get rid of excess water. "Yeah, that was part of my initial plan which completely got rearranged in the rush. I had to improvise and fortunately, Jenna was able to make a second replica in even less time than she made the first."

"I want to know why any plan included you being prepared to be harmed in any way," growled Thomas. "Let alone dead."

"Only mostly dead." Marie delivered that line with a deadpan expression and at least Asamoah chuckled.

For the rest of them, the reference might have been too recent. She glanced at Joe and Kuro.

Considering the source material before their time kind of stung a bit, but she might as well get used to that and just start making a list of movies to ask them to watch with her. Maybe they could listen to audio books together, too.

Before Thomas could get more irritated, Marie starting layering thinly sliced pork belly with the leaves of cabbage. It helped her calmly continue. "It really wasn't part of the plan. It was more of a precaution. We were walking into a place where we were reasonably certain Kuro had a measure of protection as a subcontractor arriving to fulfill a contract. He couldn't go in alone—it was too risky to go in without backup—not when he needed to both finish the contract and negotiate the release of Joe. Too many variables. Me going in as a wild card was good, but I'm also aware of how tempting a target I make. That was going to work to our advantage in a couple of ways. Still, I'm physically vulnerable. We had the amulet anyway, so I performed the initial stages of the ritual before we arrived at Babel's offices."

It was a mistake for the pain witches to consider her weaker simply because she drew her power more slowly from her sources. A witch's talent and their capacity to manage a reservoir of power varied. It wasn't limited by the kind of witch they were. Marie had formidable talent and the ability to maintain a massive reservoir of power. It was to her advantage to only make herself known in moments of acute need. It was also preferable to have as few witnesses as possible. Eamon and his two associates were aware of her now, and likely were sensitive enough to recognize the type of magic she had wielded in that room.

They would know she wasn't a pain witch and that she hadn't had the power of a coven behind her. If they were particularly sensitive, they might know she drew her power from the life energy of growing things. That was too much information, as far as she was concerned.

"It was a good thing I did, too." She took a breath, thinking carefully. It was best for the members of the Darke Consortium to know what might be a threat to her, and through her, them. "I did reveal myself as a witch in that room. And while the pain witches are probably in no shape to come after me, if any of them survived, there were three Babel representatives present who now know what I am. It might be good if they think I'm dead for a while. I'd rather stay out of sight and out of mind, if at all possible."

She reached for a large kitchen knife and cut the layered cabbage and pork belly into sections, then arranged the stacks in a pot in a circular shape, leaving space in the center. She quickly chopped an onion into large chunks and dropped those in the center, then added sliced ginger and a handful of dried mushrooms. Normally, she would have soaked those in a bit of boiling water and used both them and the water in this dish, but it'd be just about the same to put them in and cook it this way. She filled a large measuring cup with boiling water from her electric hot water dispenser and added dashi powder to make a quick stock then poured it over everything.

"You didn't have time to call any of us?" Thomas's voice was quieter and the growl had left it.

Marie put a lid on the pot and placed it on the stove to come to a boil. She turned to completely face Thomas. "We're spread thin as it is, and I honestly wanted to limit the number of us coming directly into contact with Babel. Right now, they're an organization competing with us to acquire objects. I didn't want it to start evolving into an actual rivalry."

"It may come to that, regardless," Thomas replied.

"Maybe." Marie looked to either side. She didn't know if Kuro and Joe would continue to freelance for Babel. After all, the pain witches who had kidnapped Joe had acted outside the terms of their contract with Babel. "But Babel is obviously hiring supernaturals. There will be more occasions when we encounter people working for them. There's no need to start anything on a large scale anytime soon."

Thomas shrugged. Asamoah and Duncan continued to listen without comment. The two of them were a bit more distant from anything having to do with direct interaction with humans. They were advisors to the Darke Consortium and they believed in taking objects of power out of human possession to prevent mass harm. It was like being morally against genocide and taking action to prevent it. The right thing to do, but without a personal investment in the cause.

Like Bennett, up until recently, neither Asamoah or Duncan had direct relationships with humans to make them personally invested in the day-to-day interactions of mortals. Unless Marie counted. As a witch, she was essentially human, but gifted and longer lived than most.

She sighed and cleaned off her counter, then added a couple of splashes of soy sauce and a splash of mirin to her pot. "In any case, I was wearing the amulet under my clothes because it seemed like the best place to hide it while Kuro held the second replica. We needed the feel of the amulet's magic in the room, but until we actually handed the replica over, no one should have been able to tell that the one he was showing them was a dupe and didn't hold any actual power. Doing the ritual beforehand was mostly an added safety precaution, and if that pain witch hadn't lashed out at me, it never would have had to be activated at all. I would've just walked out of there and had to wait for the blue lotus to leave my system."

"What are the properties of the food you're cooking, Marie?" Asamoah asked quietly.

Marie was glad to have a different line of conversation to pursue. She had offered the last bit of information because it was good to be thorough in her explanation, but mostly to fill the heavy quiet in the room. "Pork belly layered with napa cabbage. The pork belly is a healing protein source and a comfort food. It's particularly good for maintaining stomach health and can help the spleen, too. The cabbage goes well with it, decreasing inflammation and bloating. Shiitake mushrooms are good for immune system and liver health and supporting the cardiovascular system. Ginger is also really good for digestion and is a magical catalyst and accelerator. Since I'm coming back from the dead, I figured it would be important to eat restorative foods."

"Your intuition is your greatest strength," Asamoah said. "Much of the knowledge you've gained has been through following your intuition as you choose courses of study and lines of research. This was a complicated situation, and I am glad you came through it alive and well."

"Even if it did take the dawn to bring you back to life," Ashke added.

A corner of Duncan's mouth might have twitched. Thomas grunted. Marie huffed out a breath and stacked bowls next to her rice cooker, then placed a handful of long-handled spoons next to them. Her rice cooker sang as it finished steaming the rice. Her pork belly and cabbage had come to a boil, and she lowered the flame to allow it to simmer. She lifted the lid and gave the broth a quick taste, then added a touch of fish sauce before nodding. She grabbed herself a bowl, scooped some rice, then used another serving spoon to help herself to pork belly and cabbage with a scattering of the now-tender mushrooms.

"Help yourselves."

Joe and Kuro waited until the others stood and made their way to the bowls. Asamoah and Duncan each handed a bowl to Kuro and Joe, respectively. Thomas didn't growl. Marie smiled behind her spoon and figured that was about as good as she could hope for.