Page 164 of Change

That was Damen’s job.

“Summon me.”

The world fell from under my feet Kiania’s voice sounded in my head. It’d been quite a while since I’d heard her speak to me in this way. Where had she been?

“I’ve been here the whole time,” she said. “I’ve stayed back out of respect for Mu—you’ve had to learn how to work together—but he can’t help you right now. He’s still regaining his strength. Summon me.”

I touched my fingers to my lips. Me, summon a shikigami? It wasn’t possible.

“You have once already,” she said, which made no sense at all.

But my focus shifted as Titus ducked down, barely escaping the swooping falcon’s snapping beak. Jameson, in the meantime, stood victoriously some feet from me. Not even considering me at all in this fight. He stood arrogant and proud, already posing for victory.

CouldI summon Kiania?

Yes. I didn’t have any other choice.

I put my fingers against my mouth, whistling the way I’d seen other onmyoji do. I’d had no instruction manual on how this worked—this wasn’t even supposed to be my thing—so all I could do was hope. I visualized Kiania in my thoughts, praying with every ounce of my being that she wasn’t wrong.

All sound stopped and, through the dense fog, Jameson finally looked in my direction.

“What the—” he began, but his question was cut off as a white tiger leapt out from the mists, standing between us.

But Kiania only stood for an instant, ears perked and tail curling, as she blinked once in acknowledgement before railing after the other shikigami.

“How did you do that?” Jameson suddenly moved in my direction; his eyes blazed in fury.

I was frozen in the face of his sweeping anger, and I could only stare at death as it bore down on me.

Then Titus was there, a solid force shielding me from the onmyoji’s glare, and I was pressed to his back, his hand wrapped around my wrist as I was trapped in an impenetrable place between the wall and the dragon’s body.

“You’re still dealing withme, Jameson,” Titus said. “Leave her out of it.”

“Don’t give me that shit. She just summoned a shikigami!” Jameson replied. “Finn Abernathy’sshikigami! And I want to know how.”

“Howis none of your concern.” Titus sounded eerily calm, especially considering he probably didn’t understand any of this more than me. The only indication of his confusion was the slight tightening of his fingers.

“Whois she?” Despite Titus’s warning, Jameson didn’t seem ready to let the subject drop. Besides the ongoing conversation, the shikigami were quieting.

The battle between them had been anticlimactic and short lived—which made me wonder just how strong Kiania was.

However, Kiania didn’t speak to me again, nor come further to our assistance. Instead, even without seeing, I knew she’d left. The tight pressure against my chest loosened, and my fingertips no longer tingled.

And I might have been insanely tired, or just overwhelmed from the day, but for the first time in a while, I was beginning to feel slightly more normal.

Titus sucked in his breath—readying a response—when the plane suddenly lurched. The unexpected turbulence threw us off-balance. I fell backward, squished between Titus and the wall, and my face pressed against the hard metal.

“It’s fine.” Titus’s words were a whisper of reassurance, and I cracked my eyes open—not even realizing I’d closed them. He’d braced his arms on either side of my head, as he lowered his forehead to touch mine. “You’ve enough to worry about. Let me just kill him first, and then I’ll get you home. Can you hold on a little while longer?”

Hold on?

It might not even be a concern anymore. In fact, I wasn’t feeling quite so bad at all. My head was starting to clear—and something I’d once considered to be the constant haze of my thoughts, I now welcomed.

I didn’t even have to question. I could still sense ghosts—if necessary, of course.

Still, my skin prickled, and my stomach was still tied in knots. I was tired, and, for a little while at least, I just wanted to let someone else do the worrying.

I swallowed once. Titus said he’d take care of this—we’d be okay.