The Aether Candle

If things didn't go as planned, perhaps she'd tear his throat out. Just because.

In fact, should it come to that, she had valid grounds. He hadn't admitted as much, of course, but now that she wore one of his stupid trinkets around her wrist, given to her in a realm he ought to have been powerless to summon her to, she knew that he was a sorcerer. The very one she'd nearly stumbled upon that night in the woods. Did it matter that he'd moved on shortly thereafter, only to find that the witch-hunters were better than Maria when at detecting his unwelcome presence? He was still Coalition. He still had something of hers, if only a hair, which would allow him to summon her again. Or worse.

With a shake of her head, Maria pushed the thoughts aside. She was here for her father, and to avenge Wei. She could decide what to do about the sorcerer later.

Fingering the bracelet she hadn't been sure would shift along with her, Maria became a fly once more. Then she slipped under the door to the basement.

"Allow me to present the last vial," Abner said.

"I don't know if I can arrange another pick-up so soon," Vigilance replied. "Can it wait until tomorrow?" Abner must have glared at her, because she rushed to add, "Or I can drive it over myself." Her tone was so unctuous that Maria somehow found it within herself to hate the woman even more. "That won't take but an hour."

"Should they have any questions as to why we need dispose of two bodies in a single day, I trust you can handle them?" Abner asked as Maria made her way down the stairwell. "That is, if you've not pushed yourself past the point of exhaustion already?"

"I can handle it," Vigilance grumbled.

There were hundreds of reasons for that exchange to take place. Any number of bodies they might need to dispose of. At least, that's what Maria tried telling herself. Yet she knew what she'd find in that chair after she tore the two of them to bloody ribbons and was glad her chosen form could not experience nausea the way a woman's could.

Worried that even a fly might make too much noise, Maria turned into a spider. Each second of scurrying was an eternity. At long last, though, she was close enough to strike. When she pushed off the wall, she had eight legs, slim as stalks. By the time she reached her prey, she had four, heavily-muscled and covered in black fur.

She took him by surprise, but it wouldn't have mattered if not for her bracelet. He was that fast. His forearm smashed into her chest with enough force to send her flying across the room. She managed to rake her claws before he did, but they failed to connect with anything vital. Before Maria could regain her balance, he'd closed the distance and delivered a kick to her ribs that would have shattered concrete. Thanks to Caleb, though, it had no more effect on her than forcing her hind legs to slide across the floor.

Thirty seconds would have been enough. His blood soon filled her mouth and she felt a rush of cold air that did not disturb her fur as his life extinguished.

"Wait!" Vigilance shouted, falling to her knees. She crossed her arms in front of her face, as though that would do anything but slow the process of her dying.

Maria stalked slowly towards her, still in the form of a panther.

"It was all him!" the woman claimed. Tears streamed down her pale cheeks. The sight only made Maria want to end her that much more. "I'd have killed myself, a thousand times over, if I had your powers. You have to believe me."

Maria didn't have to do anything, though. Her father was dead, the same as her lover. She was the sole survivor of their triad, their mission an utter failure. Not that she even knew what it was supposed to have accomplished in the first place. In a way, Maria was freer than ever. Free to turn her back on the Nation. To claim any life she pleased, for no more reason than that it might help to quiet her rage.

No. She was not so weak as to let her grief destroy her.

On two feet, she approached Vigilance. Placing a hand on the woman's shoulder, Maria said, "I'm not going to hurt you." The voice that passed through her lips was distant and hollow. She sounded the way her father had when last she'd heard him speak.

"Thank you, thank you," said the woman who'd taken her father's will away from him.

Maria's eyes flicked right, to the body slumped forward in the chair. She barely recognized it, though they hadn't tortured him. It seemed they'd focused instead on draining his blood as quickly and efficiently as possible, wasting not a drop. Yet Maria had never seen him so still. Her father was as calm as Wei was passionate, yet she'd never seen him so still.

The anger welling up inside her was hotter than any flame Wei could produce.

Before the woman could gasp, Maria's hands were at her throat. It was not the first time she'd killed a woman, but it was the first time she'd killed as a woman.

Then she too collapsed to the floor and began to cry.

Chapter Seven

Dan tried to roll over but found his path was blocked.

Because his mom was in his bed with him.

She was sitting atop the covers, though, and was fully dressed. Or as close to it as could be expected if she wasn't about to leave for, or hadn't just gotten home from, work. One of his dad's old dress shirts up top and black leggings down below.

They hadn't had slept together, then. Hadn't had sex in the real world. And why would they? She'd made it clear that they could carry on in the Aether, but only there.

"Daniel?" she asked, looking away from the legal pad she'd nearly set afire with that intense stare. "Are you really awake?"

His first attempt at a response was swallowed by the pillow his face had made its way back to. Grumbling to himself, Dan slowly sat up. Sort of. Turned to face her, at least, and propped his chin up with one palm. "Are you really surprised?" Man, he felt like shit. It was tempting to fall flat on his back and go right back to sleep. Or head downstairs and pop a few Advil. "I do that from time to time. Wake up, that is."

"Not lately, you don't."

Why was she looking at him like he might turn into a frog at any moment?

Or, um, go back asleep—which he'd already given some thought to. Damn. It was no fair how moms could do that. Talent or no, they always knew what their sons were thinking.

Just to prove how wrong she was, Dan sat all the way up. It felt like his life's greatest achievement. All the more reason to wish she hadn't laughed at him and the groan he'd let out. "How long was I asleep?" he asked after sliding back to sit against the wall.

"Four days."

"Say what?"

She snorted in amusement then leaned over to kiss his forehead. "You had me worried for a while there. Even after the bleeding stopped."

"What blee—" Dan began, before it all came back to him.

His last trip to the Aether had been unlike the others, in almost every respect. Sure, it had still featured an insanely attractive woman, but not the way he'd have liked. Caleb and a long-dead warlock had figured just as prominently. Not that Barty really was a warlock, because that was a derogatory term born out of ignorance. That the man was about as threatening as a wounded sparrow didn't mean it had been entirely safe for Dan to cross over, though, considering how far past his limits he'd already stretched himself.

"How are you feeling?" his mom asked in a soft voice.

"Fine," Dan said.

His mom raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing.

In truth, he didn't feel that bad. At least not compared to what he'd expected when Caleb had told him that his assistance was required. Though falling into a coma that lasted for several days, and involved untold amounts of bleeding along the way, hardly qualified as dodging a bullet. There was no telling what his mom had done to ease his recovery, either. At least he'd slept through the worst of it. At that point, all he felt was groggy.

"Okay, I feel like I just woke up after having the worst time trying to fall asleep," Dan admitted. "So, yeah, not great. There's no need for anyone to jab pencils into the backs or their hands or anything, though. A shower and a cup of coffee should do the trick."

A wan smile formed upon her lips. Her lovely, lovely lips, which he really wanted to kiss. Even if they looked a bit dry. "It's a pen, dear," she said, raising the implement in question.

How long had she sat there beside him, neglecting basic needs like food and water? Surely not the whole time? "Shouldn't you be at work?" Dan asked.

Chewing her lower lip, his mom said, "About that."

"Is that supposed to be an impression of Jane?"

She flicked her nail against his thigh, though the covers blunted what was already a feeble blow. "Of you, silly." For a moment, Dan expected her to accuse him of once again putting out feelers for a threesome. But that might as well have been a different woman.

Even though it very much hadn't been.

"I'm temporarily unemployed," his mom said.

"They fired you? For staying home to look after your son?"

"I quit." With a frown, she added, "Without giving them two weeks' notice either, which was pretty stinky of me." His mom shrugged her guilt off. "Though I'd be more worried about that if I planned on asking for a reference."

"And why won't you be?" Dan asked, daring to stretch an arm across her shoulders. He leaned down to smell her hair, but only because he was curious as to whether she'd gone without showering during his convalescence. And that was only because he hated the thought of his bad decision-making leading her to suffer while he slept. Not because he was hoping to get lucky before they got out of bed or anything.

"If all goes well on Saturday, I'll be working for my mother."

Dan blinked several times. "I thought my grandparents were dead." Of course, he'd also thought their last name was Ferguson, not Blackthorne.

"I may not have been entirely honest about some things when you're little," his mom said in a voice that begged him not to hate her forever. "We should talk about Santa Claus."

He snorted. "Figured that one out on my own, thanks," he said. "Like, two years ago."

"That long ago?" she asked, before leaning in for a quick kiss...on the cheek. Then his mom leaned back and tapped her legal pad. "Anyway, I won't really be working for your grandmother. She's the head of a different division. I only mentioned her because it's time you knew my parents are still alive, and why I lied about them."

"They're like us," Dan said for her. "And you wanted to get away from all that."

His mom nodded. "I've seen that bleeding before," she said. "It happened to me." She didn't give Dan a chance to act surprised at that. Not that he really was. "I was a little younger than you when I first started visiting the Aether...recreationally." With that semi-admission, she looked away in shame. "I went a little crazy with it. Then tried to quit, several times. It wasn't until I met your father, in college, that I succeeded."

"I see," Dan said.

She looked a question at him, her olive green eyes all but begging for a response. He had none to give, though. There was simply too much there to process.

It was strange. Dan felt no shame over wanting to take his relationship with his mom to the next level. He'd once thought incest as wrong as wrong got, but no longer did. On some level, he now felt the worst thing he could do was offer any woman his heart when it rightly belonged to his mother. Yet he did have one reservation—would it not dishonor his father's memory to bed the man's widow whilst she still grieved?

Dan had always known that what they'd had was special. Once he and his friends had reached their teens, they'd learned to look past the surface and see the dysfunction in their parents' marriages. A few had even gotten divorced. Dan's parents, though? The thought of them separating had never even occurred to him or Jane. Yet he'd apparently still underestimated the strength of their bond, having failed to realize that his mom had been a junkie when she'd met his dad, who'd essentially saved her from herself.

How could Dan compete with that? All he had to offer was a relapse.

"Are they with the Coalition?" Dan asked eventually.

"You know what that is?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. He didn't, really, but that was besides the point. The way things were going, Dan figured he'd know all too much about the Coalition soon enough. "I suppose Caleb told you," his mom said with a sigh. "He promised he wouldn't, but I shouldn't have believed him. He never could keep his mouth shut."

"Are you sure we're talking about the same guy?" Dan said, moving a little closer to his mom. "Because I've always had the opposite problem."

She rested her head on his shoulder. "Well neither of us has to worry about how much he tells you anymore. At least not for a while. They've called him back to the city."

When it became clear that she wasn't going to explain unless he prodded, Dan did so.

"With hundreds of empaths on staff, you'd think they wouldn't worry about us lying. There's no way we'd get away with it, and they've got to know that I know that."

"Obviously," Dan said, in a tone that earned him an elbow in the ribs.

"It is standard procedure," his mom continued, "and if there's one thing the Coalition excels at, it's making sure everyone follows procedure. Still feels unnecessary, though."

"What's standard procedure?" Dan asked.

"Splitting people up before they file their reports or give testimony to a review board," his mom said, making the Coalition sound more boring and bureaucratic than he'd imagined.

Perhaps they should look into joining the Nation instead. Though Dan wasn't sure he could go that long without electricity or indoor plumbing.

"Like the teacher who gives a make-up test that only asks which tire to the students who claim they missed their final exam because they got a flat on the way to school?"

His mom chuckled. "I haven't heard that one before."

"You've gotta get on Facebook," he told her. "You're missing out on all the good memes."

"I thought kids are supposed to try to keep their parents off social media sites?"

Dan shrugged. "If they're lame, yeah."

She patted his thigh. "Well, now you know what I've been up to. Studying for that make-up test." The most beautiful eyes in the world turned towards Dan. They were as captivating in real life as in the Aether. "A Great Chieftain has come to New York."

"Did someone forget to tell him about the concrete and skyscrapers?" Dan interrupted.

His mom snorted. "He's come to investigate the disappearance of one of his triads. The Vice President of External Relations seems to think we might know something about that. Before they let the Nation interrogate us, though, they're going to do so themselves."

"Why do I feel like the former is going to be more unpleasant?"

"It might be," his mom allowed. "But they're the ones offering to put us on the payroll."

"What a job interview," Dan said. He lowered his voice and tried to sound all stuffy and authoritative, "We've looked over your resume and we're really quite impressed. Your references all check out as well. There's just one last thing—we need you to prevent an imminent war from breaking out. Do that and you're hired!"

"More or less," his mom said.

"And we're okay with that?" he asked, heart racing. It was a simple question, but he was going to have a hard time not reading too much into her answer. If she was willing to bring magic into her life, and not just in secret, what else might she be open to?

His mom sighed. "I think so." She kissed Dan on the cheek again, but this time it didn't feel as innocent. He wasn't sure how to explain the difference. Her lips still hadn't touched his. Maybe it was the way she lingered, as though the kiss was as much an excuse to get closer to him as a sign of affection. How little effort she made to avoid having her breasts press against him. Either way, it sent shivers down Dan's spine and made his cock stiffen. "I've spent twenty-something years lying to myself and everyone around me, tearing my family apart in the process, because I figured it was either that or let my power control me. It's time to find out whether I can embrace it without being destroyed by it."

"Agreed?" Dan said, unsure what sort of response was appropriate.

His mom laughed as she swung her legs over the side of the bed.

"Where are you going?" he asked with an indignant tone that was mostly in jest.

The look his mom threw him over her shoulder made his spine tingle and his cock stand at attention. "To shower," she said. "Care to join me?"

In the span of three or four seconds, Dan died of shock, came back to life, and nearly perished once again. "You sure about that?" he asked, because he was oh-so-smooth.

By way of response, his mom slowly unbuttoned her shirt, let it fall the floor, and then stepped out into the hallway. Dan smacked himself in the face a few times, afraid he might have fallen asleep and passed through to the Aether without realizing it, then jumped out of bed. That proved to be a mistake, though. A sense of vertigo reminded him that he still wasn't in top shape. Dan placed a hand on the bed to steady himself, drew a deep breath, and tried to process everything. They most certainly were not in the Aether, where it took a lot more than getting out of bed a little too quickly to make his head spin, yet his mom had just propositioned him for sex, starting to undress before him. He probably should have given some thought to declining the offer, but was incapable of doing so.

Yes, it would be different. Their bodies were different here, full of imperfections and tragically limited in their functionality, to say nothing of the long term consequences. There'd be no going back from this—no breaking up with his mom if things didn't work out, at least not in the sense of telling one another that they'd remain friends then proceeding to cut the other out of their life as quietly yet as thoroughly as possible. Dan didn't feel like he was taking any risk at all, though. If he was about to roll a die, it was weighted in his favor.

He found the door to the bathroom open and the rest of his mom's clothes on the floor. She'd closed the shower stall, but only to keep the heat in. As soon as he set foot on the tiled floor, she wiped the mist from the glass, smiled at him, and curled a beckoning finger.

Dan wasted no time stripping down then reaching for the door. As the cloud of steam hit him in the face, though, time seemed to slow. Not because any part of him was slamming on the breaks, though. His subconscious wasn't trying to get him to reconsider. Only to savor the moment. Commit every detail to memory, from the oppressive heat he'd need a moment to get used to, by which time he'd have worked up a sweat anyway, to the smell of soap, mildew, and cleaning products. And, of course, the sight of her body.

She had her back to him, so he couldn't tell how different her breasts were. Whether they sagged down to her hips or retained some of their shape. Yet, from what he could see, Dan knew he wouldn't care either way. Whatever she looked like here, she was perfect. The woman of his dreams, almost literally. No, her waist wasn't as narrow, and there were slight folds in her back. Her ass and thighs were dimpled with cellulite, and the latter was better acquainted with gravity than even her yoga pants had led him to believe. Yet while his eyes registered the differences, they meant nothing to his heart. Or his cock.

"Help me with my hair?" his mom asked, tossing a damp red mop over her shoulder.

Seeing as her luxurious mane was clean, Dan wasn't sure what she wanted him to do. Until she handed him the plastic bottle. He squeezed a glob of shampoo into one palm, returned the bottle to the shelf beside them, then started working up a lather. His mom purred as he ran his fingers through her hair and gently massaged her scalp.