The Lev n Fax Saga

Part Eight

The house wasn't quite the chaos Cyrus had been afraid he would walk into, but he winced anyway. Fabius was making coffee in the kitchen, and shot Cyrus an apologetic look. "Ange kicked me out of the bedroom," he said, as if this was some great confession. He and Cyrus stood there for a moment, and then Fabius added, "There was some burnt bread. I tossed it out. I hope it wasn't a problem."

Cyrus grimaced at him, and made a vague "carry on" motion with his hand as he walked past. Angela was leaning against the doorway of the main bedroom, watching whatever mess was in there unfold. She snapped her attention to him, chin raised, the moment he approached.

"The hell did you do? The angel hasn't stopped sobbing since you left, and I can't figure out what you did to the other one."

"I took away the angel's pain briefly. It was the only way to get him moving." Cy held up his hands defensively, and she still smacked him.

"Idiot. You know that makes it ten times worse later on. And judging by how he's handling it, he's-"

"I know, alright? I know, I just didn't have a way to carry them both," Cyrus protested.

"Why didn't you just levitate the body?" Angela braced her hands on her hips, tipping her chin up again.

Cyrus blinked. And blinked again. "Oh," he said faintly. "I didn't... think of that."

"Obviously."

Cyrus rubbed his face. "Sorry. I had a few things on my mind at the time."

To his surprise, she slid an arm around his waist and gave him a brief hug. "It takes a while to get used to, when you didn't grow up with it. I get it. Just, if you're going to use magic to solve your problems, use it smart, yeah?"

"Yeah." Cyrus squeezed back, before stepping into the room. "Levant?"

The angel was hunched on the edge of the bed, eyes red, mangled hand still clutched to his chest, and while he wasn't sobbing, he hadn't stopped crying. Lev didn't even look at him, didn't move. Cyrus found himself double checking that the angel was still breathing. Of course he was, Cyrus thought, but still.

At least he didn't protest Cyrus' presence. Cy moved slowly, afraid to startle him. The closer he got, the more he realized nothing had been done about any of the many, many wounds that still littered his body. He turned long enough to frown at Angela, but she was gone. Judging by the sounds coming from the kitchen, she and Fabius were arguing over her coffee consumption again.

"Why are you here?" Levant whispered, startling Cy.

Cyrus braced a knee on the edge of the bed and started rolling up his sleeves. "I promised to keep Sorin on the right path. I didn't do enough to stop him from fighting Fairfax, but I was able to do this, at least." He nodded at Fax.

"Kill him?"

"God, no." Cyrus frowned. "I saved his life." Combining spells was tricky; he'd ended up trying to weave the spell for making someone fireproof with a stasis spell. It took some doing, as he hovered his hand over Fax's chest, and then dragged it towards Fax's face, fisting his hand as if grabbing a blanket. He mumbled the reversal spell as he reached Fax's head and pulled back, hand still clutching the imaginary blanket as he moved off the bed.

Fax jerked up with a hoarse gasp right as the magic fled Cy, draining from him so fast he stumbled. For a brief moment, his head spun. Too much, too fast. He should have thought of that. On the bed he could hear Lev and Fax trying to talk over each other, as if they didn't even notice the witch who was about five seconds from face planting on their bedroom floor.