Chapter 29

29

I catch up with my parents for about an hour before Darcy slides down the stairs on his butt. I smile as I watch him, because my parents installed the slide to the side of the stairs just for me when I was a toddler, and it’s how both me and my sister still come down most mornings. I wave to him from the kitchen table, and he flashes a sleep-lined grimace at me as he stalks over and sits across my lap, pressing his face into my neck.

I wrap my arms around him, rubbing his back as he grumbles in his deep, resonant voice. “Yer s’pose to cuddle me when I expend all my energy saving yer sister’s life.”

I kiss his messy hair and hum. “Sure thing, mate. I’ll do that next time.”

“We are not making a habit of Liz getting herself into trouble like that,” Dad protests.

Darcy grumbles again, then slowly peeks at them over his shoulder. He takes a deep breath, shakes his head, and buries his face in my neck again. “They’re fuckin’ human,” he grouses.

I nod, because it’s true. “So am I, remember?”

“Yeah, but at least you have access to magic. They’re so far removed from it that they can’t even see it when it happens right in front of them.”

“What is he talking about?” Mom asks curiously as she grabs the man a couple of fritters and a coffee instead of a cider.

“I’m a dragon shifter and a feu follet and MawMaw’s oracle—” Speaking of the old woman, she comes tottering in, cane in hand, and settles on the chair that’s been hers my entire life. “And you all can’t see it or remember it, so he’s complaining about that.”

MawMaw tuts. “I like that about you,” she tells my parents, who look confused, then their eyes glaze over for a second, and they smile at my grandmother.

“Hey Mama,” my mother greets her, leaning over to kiss her cheek. “Where ya been?”

“Oh, I was just visiting my sister,” she responds as Darcy harrumphs irritably.

Darcy sits up, accepting the coffee my mama offers him with a muttered thanks, and peers at MawMaw. “Did you see that” —he rumbles out a sound— “that attacked in the barn?” he demands sourly. “Elijah killed it.”

“Did I?”

“You shifted,” he explains, then returns his attention to MawMaw.

I guess I’m more murdery in my dragon form than in my human form.

MawMaw’s jaw tightens. “The cherubs are the ones who trapped the Avatar all those years ago, but they wouldn’t have come up with that plan on their own. We thought they might’ve had contact with The Hollow.”

Darcy sputters into this coffee, coughing like he just heard something startling. “Fer fuck’s sake,” he grumbles, setting his coffee down. I hand him a napkin and he wipes the mess up, talking as he does. “The Hollow was banished out of the universe, so how’d it get access to the barn?”

“Banishment isn’t going to stop a determined evil forever. It would have eventually figured out how to bypass the event horizon. It may have already done so, but how long it’s had free access is anyone's guess. I'd bet my eyeteeth that it was free when the cherubs locked the last Avatar of Neutrality away.”

My dad picks up the newspaper and starts reading as Mom hums, cleaning up and pulling out ingredients for supper. They’re completely ignoring a conversation about magic. “It’s weird how they can do that.”

Darcy tightens a fist into the hair at the back of my head. “Ignore it. They’re not going to remember this conversation anyway. The last time The Hollow was in this universe, it almost destroyed it,” he explains to me. “We banished it keep it out of our universe, but if it’s figured out how to get past the event horizon of the universe, we’re fucked.”

“What is it?” I ask. MawMaw said “evil,” but that doesn’t explain what it is.

“We don’t know,” MawMaw replies with a frustrated scowl. “We call it The Hollow because it consumes without finding satiation. It will eat anything and everything. It is small, but it can hold entire galaxies in itself if it has enough time to consume them. It’s hollow, and it’s evil. It is intelligent and delights in causing harm.”

Darcy growls in agreement. “Have you heard of Bootes Void?”

It’s an area of space about three hundred thirty million light years across that doesn’t have as many galaxies as it should, according to modern astronomy. It only has something around sixty galaxies when there should be several thousand.

“Yes.”

“There’s a void like it that is almost two billion light years across. We call it Hollow’s Void because it ate the matter in that area of the universe. It ate almost two percent of our universe before we were even aware of it.” Darcy pales even as his determined expression tells me he’s about to do something extremely dangerous. “The only powers in the universe strong enough to banish it are the collective powers of the Avatars, because you get us together and we can channel an incarnation of the universal force of magic. That force has the power to banish it.”

“Is the magic talking to you?” MawMaw asks, curious.

Darcy nods with a grim frown. “It’s giving me the history of The Hollow.”

MawMaw blows out a relieved breath. “We thought it could be The Hollow behind this. The” —she makes a rumbling sound— “is the first real proof of our theory.”

“Why is the insect thing proof?” I ask, flashing back to seeing my sister with a stinger through her chest.

Darcy’s hand in my hair tightens again, grounding me away from that visual. “That monstrosity you killed is a creature that only exists inside The Hollow. That’s why I said it was impossible, but if it’s here, then more than likely The Hollow is, too, and we gotta banish that fucker again before it eats more of our universe. We’ve barely recovered from its last meal.”

“So we need Bellamy and Santanos, and we need to find The Hollow?” I clarify.

MawMaw smiles sweetly at me. “You were always such a smart boy. You still planning to graduate in the spring?”

I reach over and take her hand in mine. “Of course, but I don’t think I’ll be coming back to the farm. Darcy’s my mate; I’ll be sticking with him.”

“Of course, dear,” she agrees, squeezing my hand. She returns her attention to Darcy. “Are you all immortal? I know Bellamy is, but is Santanos?”

“Yes,” Darcy responds tensely. “Unlike his parents, who weren’t.”

MawMaw shoots him a chastising frown. “There wasn’t any real need to kill them,” she sighs. “Well, you can’t take anyone against The Hollow that isn’t immortal. Are you going to give my grandson your Kroner?”

Darcy tenses even more, body going still, hand pulling my hair tight as he seethes for a few long seconds. “I cannot.”

MawMaw’s eyebrows rise to her hairline. “He is your mate,” she says, as if that’s enough.

I wrap my arms around my mate and pull his attention away from her. “I don’t know what a Kroner is, but whatever it is, I don’t need it,” I assure him, holding his eyes with a hand on his sharp chin.

Darcy’s eyes blaze with fire. “I would give it to you, Peach, if I hadn’t given it away already.”

“I don’t even know what it is,” I remind him and peck a kiss to his lips. “I’m not losing anything.”

“You’re losing everything,” he corrects me. “It’s the gift of immortality that every immortal is born with to give to their mates.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” I hug him close. How painful would it be to have given someone the gift of immortality for them to abandon him. “I’m sorry you went through that, but it’s ok. I don’t blame you. It’s hard to wait for thousands of years before finding your mate.”

Darcy trembles in my hug, but when he pulls back his eyes are blazing with fiery anger. “I didn’t give it away because I couldn’t wait. I was owned. I gave it away so that my owner couldn’t have it.”

“Who did you give it to?” MawMaw asks, angry. “We can pull it out of them.”

Darcy shakes his head, pressing his lips into a thin line. “No. We’re not doing that. I hate the man, but we need him to be immortal if we’re going to banish The Hollow.”

Understanding dawns on MawMaw’s face. “You made Santanos immortal?”

Darcy’s eyes flare with fury. “It was better than Lilith.”

I think my lover needs a break. “MawMaw, I think I need to get Darcy home. We’ll call you later, if that’s ok?”

MawMaw blinks a couple of times, smiling sweetly. “Of course, darling. Call me if you need anything at all.”

I smile back. “I will,” I promise, then call out. “Baby, I need to take Darcy home.”

The flink appears on my shoulder, chittering excitedly as they wrap me up in their arms, winding their tail around Darcy’s wrist.

The atmosphere disappears for a moment, then with the thunder of teleportation, we appear in the living room of a well appointed home. A glance out the front window tells me we’re back in the city and in a brownstone neighborhood. A short Asian man appears in the doorway, holding a cleaning cloth. He appears completely nonplussed by our arrival.

Darcy jumps off my lap, grabbing my hand. “Matsumoto-san, this is my mate, Elijah Penn. He’s moving in today. The baby flink decided to bond with him, so don’t be surprised by random visits, and see about stocking the kitchen with foodstuffs compatible with flink diets. Elijah loves curry.”

Matsumoto-san answers with a bow. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Penn. I am Kaito Matsumoto, Mr. Hellspinner’s butler. Please let me know if there is anything you need. I do the shopping, take care of the house, and manage the staff. We will sit down soon to talk about your specific needs.”

“Thank you,” I tell him, petting the baby.

Darcy pulls me towards the stairs. “I assume you want a tour of the bedroom?”

I laugh, because that thought hadn’t crossed my mind, but if that’s going to help cool him down, I’m all for it. “Sure.”

Darcy chirps as he starts up the steps, the baby chirps in response, and then they teleport out.

“I wonder if there’s a way to make that less deafening,” I wonder as my ears ring.

Darcy pauses for half a second before continuing up the stairs. “I could probably create a spell for it.”

“I think my ears would appreciate that.”

Darcy shoots me a smile over his shoulder. “I’ll look into it when my magic recovers.”

I wonder how long that will take? He doesn’t seem worried about it, so probably not long. “Cool.”