Awakened

“I just don’t believe that, Damien,” Jack said firmly.

“I don’t want to believe it, either, but the facts are that Zoey isn’t coming back with Aphrodite and Darius, and she really isn’t talking to anyone about when she is returning. Then there’s the whole Heath issue. Zoey comes back to Tulsa, and you know she’s going to have to face the fact that Heath isn’t here—that he’ll never be here again.”

“It’s terrible, isn’t it?” Jack said.

Their eyes met in perfect understanding. “Losing someone you love that much would be awful. It has to have changed Zoey.”

“Of course it has, but she’s still our Z. I have a strong feeling that she’s going to be home sooner than you think,” Jack said.

Damien sighed. “I hope you’re right.”

“Hey, even you admit that I’m right a bunch. I’ll be right about Zoey coming back soon, too. I just know it.”

“Okay, well, I’m going to believe you, mostly because I love your positive attitude.”

Jack gri

“Well, whether Z comes back in a week or a month, I’m still not sure it’s a one-hundred-percent good idea for you to hang paper swords outside from a tree when you don’t know when you’re going to need those decorations. What if it rains tomorrow?”

“Oh, I’m not going to put them all up, silly! I’m just doing a test run on a few of them to be sure I have the folds perfect so they’ll hang right.”

“Is that why you have the claymore here? It looks awfully sharp and, well, exposed leaning against the table like that. Shouldn’t the pointed end be down?”

Jack’s gaze followed Damien’s over to where the long silver sword rested, hilt down on the ground, blade up and shining in the flickering gaslights that illuminated the school at night.

“Well, Dragon gave me strict instructions, which I mostly listened to even though I kept being distracted by how sad he looked. You know, I don’t think he’s doing very well.” Jack said the last part of the sentence in a hushed voice as if he didn’t want Duchess to overhear him.

Damien sighed and threaded his hand with Jack’s. “I don’t think he’s doing very well, either.”

“Yeah, he was telling me stuff about not sticking the pointy part of the sword into the ground ’cause it’d make it dull or something, and all I could think about was how dark the circles were under his eyes,” Jack said.

“Honey, I don’t think he’s been sleeping,” Damien said sadly.

“I shouldn’t have bothered him about borrowing a sword, but I wanted to use a real example to create origami from and not just a picture.”

“I don’t think you were bothering Dragon. Anastasia’s death is something he’s going to have to work through. I’m sorry to say it, but there’s nothing we can or can’t do to change that. And anyway, you had an excellent idea. Your origami is looking very realistic.”

Jack wriggled with pleasure. “Oooh! Do you really think so?”

Damien put his arm around him and held him close. “Absolutely. You’re a gifted decorator, Jack.”

Jack snuggled into him. “Thank you. You’re the best boyfriend ever.”

Damien laughed. “That’s not hard to be with you. Hey, do you need some help with folding the swords?”

It was Jack’s turn to laugh. “No. You’re not even good at present wrapping, so I’m guessing origami is not one of your many talents. But I could use your help with something else.” Jack shot Duchess a pointed look, then leaned closer to Damien and whispered into his ear. “You could take Duch for a walk. She won’t leave me alone and she keeps messing up my paper.”

“Okay, no problem. I was going to go for a jog. You know what they say: a chubby gay is not a happy gay. Duch can take some laps with me. She’ll be too exhausted to obsess over you.”

“It’s so cute that you jog.”

“You don’t say that when I’m hot and sweaty afterward,” Damien said as he stood up and fished Duchess’s leash from the winter-browned grass.

“Hey, sometimes I like you hot and sweaty,” Jack said, smiling up at him.

“Then maybe I won’t take a shower afterward,” Damien said.

“Maybe that’s a really good idea,” Jack said.

“Or maybe you should take the shower with me.”

Jack’s grin widened. “Now that’s more than maybe a really good idea.”

“Tart,” Damien said, bending to kiss Jack deeply.

“Linguist,” Jack said before kissing him back.

Duchess wriggled her way between them, huffing and wagging and licking both of them.

“Oh, pretty girl! We love you, too!” Jack said, kissing Duchess on her soft muzzle.

“Come on, let’s go get some exercise so we stay properly svelte and attractive for Jack,” Damien said, pulling on the big dog’s leash. She followed him, but with obvious hesitance.

“It’s okay. He’ll bring you back soon,” Jack said.

“Yep, we’ll see Jack soon, Duch.”

“Hey,” Jack called after the two of them. “I love you two!”

Damien turned, picked up Duchess’s paw, waved it at Jack, and yelled, “We love you, too!” Then they jogged away, Duchess barking excitedly as Damien pretended to chase her.

Jack watched them go. “They’re the best, ever,” he said softly.

The sword he’d just put the final fold on was the last of the five he’d made. One for each of the elements, Jack told himself. I’ll hang these five and let them be the testers.

As he cut the fishing line and threaded it through the last of the five, Jack’s eyes kept going upward, seeking the right spots from which to hang the decorations. But he didn’t need to look long. The tree seemed to be showing him where he needed to go. The thick trunk had been split almost in two, causing the sides of the massive old oak to tilt so that the thick branches leaned precariously close to the ground. Where before Kalona had escaped from the earth, the lowest branches couldn’t have been reached with a twenty-foot ladder, now his eight-foot ladder gave Jack more than enough height.

“Up there. Right up there is where the first one should go.” Jack gazed straight up from where he’d been sitting beside the little table at one of the major limbs of the tree that hung directly above him like a sheltering arm. “It’s perfect because it’ll hang over where I made all of the swords.” Jack dragged the ladder closer to the table and held the first of the five paper swords by the long length of fishing line he’d tied to its hilt. “Oh, oopsie. Almost forgot. Gotta practice,” he said to himself, pausing to punch the controls on the portable iPhone dock he’d carried out there with the table.

Something has changed within me

Something is not the same

I’m through with playing by the rules

Of someone else’s game …

Rachel’s voice began the song, strong and clear. Jack paused with one foot on the bottom rung of the ladder, and when Kurt took over the lyrics he sang with him, matching his sweet tenor, note for note.

Too late for second-guessing

Too late to go back to sleep …

Jack moved up the ladder as he and Kurt sang, pretending he was climbing the steps of the Radio City Music Hall where the Glee cast had performed on tour last spring.

It’s time to trust my instincts

Close my eyes: and leap!

He reached the top rung of the ladder, paused, and began the first chorus with Kurt and Rachel while he reached up and threaded the fishing lure through the bare winter branches.

He was humming along with Rachel’s next lines, waiting for Kurt’s part again, when movement at the split base of the tree caught his attention and his gaze shifted to the damaged trunk. Jack gasped. He was sure he saw, right there, an image of a beautiful woman. The image was dark and indistinct, but as Kurt sang about losing love he’d guessed he’d lost, the woman became clearer, larger, more distinct.

“Nyx?” Jack whispered, awestruck.