58: AINSLEY

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Battle Unicorn is trudging through the darkest parts of Luke trying to find his water spark. It’s slow going, and they’re tired. Come on, Slugs! Quit dragging your butts!

They trot along faster, deeper, coming to stand at the very bottom of his cavernous spark well. Light pours out from them, pure white pushing back the penetrating dark. There are two solid bulges there. They kick them, trying to get either to rouse. Sadly, those lumps don’t budge an inch.

I know what they have to do, and they aren’t going to like it. They’re sorry for what they did to Luke, vowing to never hurt him again. But there’s nothing gentle or pleading when it comes to my love for this man, so if it takes a little glorious violence to wake them up, they’ll just have to bring the blood. Giddy-the-heck-up, Battle Unicorn! I command them.

They start stampeding around the well, tromping those lumps with unbridled fury. There’s some movement from the one on the left, so they shift their focus to the one on the right, fully engaged in this holy revival now. They start bucking and shredding before proceeding with pounding again. Just when I reckon they might give up, they do a last resort manoeuvre that makes me wince. They rear back, then drill their horn right in that lump with brute force. It jolts so hard it nearly breaks their horn clean off.

We might’ve celebrated our victory, but we’re all exhausted, and we’re running out of time. Someone’s come into Luke’s room and is barring the door from the inside. I turn my head expecting to see Pritchett. Only, it’s Lucius, and he’s panicking. “You have to go,” he warns me, hauling a dresser in front of the door before dragging the bed across the floor to further support it. “You’re not safe here. Not right now. Dericka’s a little unhinged.” He looks at Luke’s limp body at my feet. “Did it work?”

“I’ll tell you as soon as I know,” I promise him.

“You have to transport him out of here,” he orders me.

“About that…” I’ve never even long-distance transported myself, and Nick has never come with me even on short transports.

“You can do this, Ainsley,” he encourages me. “You’ve been connecting to his spark for months. Your sparks will carry him.”

The door starts to break away as I kneel beside Luke. The place I know better than anywhere else isn’t a viable option. It’s been too long since I was home at the old house. A million things could’ve changed since then. It isn’t a safe choice. It has to be our bed. I can picture every single thing about it right down to the rip in the fitted sheet where I tore the elastic trying to get the squibbing corner over the mattress.

I close my eyes tight and picture our bed, draw a long breath, and will us there with every fibre of my being. Then we’re off into the atmosphere, drifting away like a fart in the wind, before reforming in the center of our dorm room, and not on the bed I aimed our butts for, meaning we crash unceremoniously to the floor with a resounding thump.

“Didn’t exactly nail the heck out of the landing, but it could’ve been worse,” I mutter, refusing to move from where I’m laying. I can’t find the energy to even untangle myself from Luke’s legs. He’s making a nice blanket. I just need to close my eyes for a minute…

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“Why are we here? Why am I naked? What the actual light did you do to me?”

At first, I reckon the transport was botched. He’s flattening me completely where he landed on top of me. I’m not entirely sure we’re two separate people anymore, but then he rolls off. After patting myself down, and finding all my bits right where they should be, I bravely open my eyes to see if his are too. He seems okay, so I brrrt a laugh.

“I might’ve kidnapped you the tiniest bit at the behest of your dad...” I hangfire, still a little disoriented. “He’s a really swell freaking guy. Totally different experience off leash.”

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Luke hauls me to my feet and pulls me into his arms. My hand instinctively rises to his cheek where my sparks skitter excitedly to the surface only to be greeted by a locked door.

I volley a feral groan and try, albeit unsuccessfully, not to cry. I was sure our fix had worked, but it seems like that isn’t the case or else our water sparks would be banging the crap out of each other right now with a captive audience of three.

“Look at me.”

I can’t bear to. Seeing those Regular brownish-grey eyes is going to tear a fissure in my heart I know will never heal. I want his calming blue rings and swirling white flecks, the eyes that peer so deep into my soul they waterlog my sauce shooter completely.

“Look at me,” he repeats, softer than the first time.

I slowly lift my head, then jolt back two paces, absolutely shocked by what I see.

“How bad is it?”

I stare blanks, trying to process it. I don’t want to scare the propellers off him, but this is not what I imagined my fix would do.

“It’s different than I expected.” I recoil my nose, and before I can stop him, he’s running to the mirror with me apologizing profusely. “I. Am. So. Sorry.”

“They’re purple and gold!” he steams.

I wince.

“I did not consent to this!” he boils.

“It was implied.”

He stares at himself for long enough I’m sure as all heck he’ll scud out of the room if I don’t break the silence. “So, you got your water spark back.”

He holds up his hand, drawing a pool of water in his palm. “I did.” The relief hits him then, and his sneer contorts into a smile with all the teeth.

“And you probably got your fire spark back too,” I quickfire in hopes he won’t hear that crap shooting out.

His smile falls away as he holds up his free hand. While the pool of water continues to rest in his left palm, a small fireball ignites in his right. The fireball flares to twice the size, and he snaps his fists closed in surprise, snuffing out both in an instant.

“Ow,” I grimace. “Boss job on the dismount though.”

“What the heck just happened?”

“Your fire spark must’ve been the one to take the horn. Probably needs a hot minute to cool down,” I report, “and you got your dark back too, to go along with your light.”

“The gold. Did you…are we...” he fogs.

I laugh. He does not laugh.

“Are you feeling an unhealthy urge to follow me around and lick my steel balls?” I slamfire.

“If we’re being totally honest here, I’m pretty sure I felt that way before all this,” he simmers.

“Do you feel different?” I redirect.

“Yes, but not about you.”

“Then it’s probably safe to say I didn’t synergize you against your will which just means you’re complete now. Like me. You’re whole and connected in glorious balance to your spark well,” I accurize.

He looks more closely in the mirror.

I smile. “You’re a light and dark sheath and wielder now, Luke. And your sparks are fire and water. Red and blue make purple.”

“Everything that went to sleep is awake now,” he feedwaters. “Am I a shattered spark? Are they going to lock me in the vault?”

I go to him, placing my palm over his heart. He leans right into it. This time when my sparks rush out to greet him, he welcomes those slugs in. They brush up against each other, a spark jamboree that makes us both sigh contentedly.

“There are no more vault volatiles,” I inform him. “I evicted them.”

“You what?”

“Well, I sort of fixed them,” I explain.

“Like you fixed me?” he vapours.

“Big blitzing no. I ruined them completely differently than I ruined you,” I dryfire.

He laughs. I laugh too.

“This is…” He places his hand over mine on his heart. “It’s everything, Ainsley. You’ve given me everything.”

“You are every-freaking-thing,” I insist.

“Is there really nothing you can’t do?”

“I’m a winner, SS White Horse,” I clip. “Losing isn’t something I nurture.”

“I don’t know how I can ever thank you.”

“You can start by having me for dinner every night and maybe for breakfast too.”

He smirks, pulls me closer, and wraps me in his strong as heck arms. “I am a starving sucker, and you’re definitely delicious enough to eat for three square meals a day.”

“Such a competitive scut.”

He grins. “So, what’s Hurricane Ainsley wrecking first? The rings?”

“No, abso-freaking-lutely not,” I backstop. “Hard as heck no. Those are load bearing walls. Some people will still want to make those choices, and I’ll never do anything to take those choices away.”

“What’s next then?”

“First I’ve got some walls of my own that need your wrecking ball,” I announce. “Then I’m taking down some bigger walls, starting with the barrier around this cage.”

“You still think it’s a cage?”

I shrug. “It won’t be once I knock the walls down.”

He walks me back toward the bed. “I’m gonna wreck the heck right out of your walls.”

“You promise?”

“I promise,” he chuffs. “Should we shield?”

“I’ll do it,” I return fire. “I’ve become something of a shield aficionado as of late.”

He troughs his brow.

“I’ll tell you all about it when I don’t have a mouthful of your piston.”

He glugs darkly as he pulls me onto the bed with him under me.

“I love you, Ainsley,” he gurgles against my mouth.

“I love you too, Luke.”

“Best I show you how much.”

“Best you do,” I agree.