Page 12

Chapter twelve

L avender slowly intruded upon Ash’s senses.

He was wrapped in the void, aware of nothing at all.

But slowly the lavender grew stronger… and was there light as well?

The moment he acknowledged the light, Ash woke up. His head felt like someone had taken a table saw to it. His vision was blurry and he had daggers in his throat.

He groaned and immediately regretted it, closing his eyes again.

He sensed movement overhead. More danger? He forced his eyes open. Everything was painful brightness but he saw a blur of pink.

Pink was good. Pink meant Hallow.

“Don’t move, don’t try to talk.” Hallow’s voice.

Relief washed over Ash. He’d been looking for Hallow... He’d been looking for him in the alleyway, hadn’t he?

His eyes had fluttered shut. He needed to know more so he opened them again. It didn’t hurt as much this time.

His vision cleared slowly. He wasn’t in the Alley. It was too bright. No, this was... his mind was blank. Slowly he recognised his own bedroom.

“How?” Ash’s voice sounded like he’d swallowed barbed wire.

Hallow’s familiar hand pressed him gently down to the bed. “You came to save me, love. Used everything you had. You have to take it very slowly.”

Ash coughed when he tried to reply.

Hallow offered him a water bottle with a sipper lid, holding it to his lips. He drank gratefully, tasted something sweet and vaguely salty.

“He’s awake!” Hallow turned his head to shout it but Ash still winced.

Footsteps thundered in the hallway and the bedroom door banged against the wall as Willow ran inside. “Ash, you idiot, I thought we’d lost you.” All her anger and panic and momentum halted abruptly at the side of the bed and very gently, she touched his arm. The careful pressure contrasted with her tone. “Bastard.”

“Technically, he did die.” Hallow said the words softly, obviously not wishing to make anything worse. “But only briefly.”

“Christ.” Willow peered into Ash’s face, searching.

Ash’s stomach clenched. “Died? I died?”

Hallow moved to the other side of the bed to Willow and sat down, picking up his hand. “How much do you remember?”

Ash squeezed Hallow’s hand reflexively. He needed the comfort of Hallow’s warmth. He cleared his throat. “I went in to find you. I used the portal in the backyard. Then I realised—” He took a moment to catch his breath. “I felt a part of you, in my void. In me.”

Willow huffed. “Your void.”

“In the other world, Ash has a hole where his chest should be,” Hallow supplied.

Willow waved the explanation away. “I’ve heard. I want to know more but not right now. Please continue.”

Ash sipped from the water bottle. “I let the piece of you lead me to you... That doesn’t sound right. But I found where The Quetch was hiding. I heard chains, and I used magic to fight it. I thought it had worked, and then it hit me.” He swallowed, searching his memory. “I don’t remember anything after that.”

Hallow’s thumb stroked gentle circles on the back of Ash’s hand. “My people, the power we have, whatever we use it for, whatever it can do, it all comes from love.” He pursed his lips, glancing at Willow. She nodded at him. “What you did, when you came to save me and died doing it? Like I said before, you used everything you had. It’s the most powerful spell possible in the Grefenlands. Your actions didn’t just break the chains The Quetch had put on me — It broke the curse and freed my powers.”

“Holy shit.” Willow patted Ash’s shoulder. “I only got like, seventy percent of that but good work, baby brother.”

Ash tugged on Hallow’s hand, he needed him closer. Hallow moved in, helping Ash sit up more.

Ash wrapped both arms around his frame, careful not to crinkle his wings. “I love you so much, Hallow. When I thought you were in danger, I couldn’t think straight. I could only think about getting you back. There was...nothing else I could do.”

Hallow leaned into him, arms pinned to his sides by Ash’s embrace. “Thank you.”

“How am I alive then?” Ash mumbled into Hallow’s shoulder. Hallow pulled away enough to free an arm. He wiped a tear before he spoke. “My magic brought you back. The moment the curse broke, I felt your life running out and I took hold of it. I pulled your spirit back into your body and healed you.”

Willow ran both hands through her hair. “Okay. I’m going to put some soup on and try to process all of that. And— give you two some privacy.” She walked out, shoulders tense.

Ash looked into Hallow’s startlingly beautiful, familiar eyes and reached for him. He felt an overwhelming joy and he needed to convey it somehow. His cheeks were damp. “Thank you, Hallow. I... you saved me. Thank you.”

“You saved me first.” Hallow slipped an arm around him and kissed his nose. “Thank you.”

Ash tried his best to stay in this fluffy, happy moment, but something niggled at him. “The Quetch? Is it dead?”

“No. It’s still there. I got you away, and I sealed the portal behind me to stop it following, if it even can... but it’s still there. I can’t defeat it alone even with all my magic back.”

Ash took another drink and winced as his vision flickered. “We still need to beat it to get you home, then.”

“Don’t worry about that now. You only just woke up, and you need more sleep.”

The front door slammed downstairs. There was a brief moment of quiet, and then footsteps clattering up the stairs. Charli burst into the room and launched herself at Ash. He caught her with a grunt.

“Careful!” Hallow tried to slow her trajectory and lessen the impact on Ash by catching her arms but it didn’t really work.

“You ASSHOLE! You were dead? Like actually dead, I’m SO glad you’re alright!”

Ash patted Charli’s back, closing his eyes and enjoying her solidity.

No, it was something else. Something he was aware of when he held Hallow. It came to him instantly: he could feel her magic. Her nascent potential. It felt familiar, warm, like home.

She climbed off him, oblivious. “You really scared Mum. She’s pissed.”

“Yeah. I can imagine.”

The three of them looked at each other for a moment, smiling, enjoying each other’s company. “But I’m okay now.”

“So, what happens next? Is Hallow moving in?”

Hallow frowned and looked out the window. “It’s a possibility.”

Ash grabbed for his hand again. “But didn’t you say you were wandering for a purpose? The blight on your food crops?”

“In time they’ll give me up for dead and send someone else though.”

“But your family... they’d miss you,” Charli said. Her eyebrows were knitted together and her mouth pulled down, imagining something terribly sad.

“And The Quetch would go after whoever they sent, right?”

Hallow looked back at him, his expression schooled. “It seems likely.”

“Then you can’t move here. None of us can pretend there’s no consequences.”

Hallow folded his arms. “I wish I could. I could be happy here if it wasn’t for the other things.”

“So what then?” Charli rolled her eyes. “You can’t stay but you can’t go back?”

Hallow ruffled her hair. “Uncle Ash needs more time to recover. His body had the worst shock it possibly could have. He also needs plenty of food to build himself back up. We plan after he’s better.”

Ash teared up. For so many years he’d been on his own. Coped on his own. Got sick and had to pay extra to stay longer in a hotel or hostel, closing himself off to eat whatever he could get his hands on, resting and navigating foreign pharmacies for medicine. Lying alone, feeling helpless.

Hallow just laying out so simply what he needed, and knowing that he, Willow and Charli would make sure he was taken care of? It felt so strange, but so welcome. He needed to be taken care of, and he had people who would do happily do it.

“What is it, what’s wrong? Are you in pain?” Hallow moved closer, pressing his palm to Ash’s forehead.”

“I’m just...” Ash searched for words to describe the surge of emotions but came up with only one. “Grateful.”

Willow came in with a bowl of soup, it smelled divine, chicken and vegetable. Probably their mother’s recipe. She took one look at Ash and Hallow and placed the tray of soup and toast on the side table. “Come on, Charli, let’s give the boys a moment.”

Charli protested but Willow dragged her out, shutting the door firmly behind them.

Ash wiped his eyes on his pyjama sleeve.

Hallow moved closer beside him and pressed against his side. He didn’t ask if Ash was all right, which he appreciated. “Can I hold you?” he asked instead.

“Yeah.” Ash’s voice broke.

Gently, as if afraid Ash might shatter, Hallow slipped his arm around Ash.

Ash pillowed his cheek on Hallow’s chest, listening to the beat of his heart and allowing his tears to flow freely. There was nothing else in him. All he could do was cry and be held.

Hallow hummed, his voice surprisingly low, fluid, beautiful. He sang him a song in a language Ash didn’t recognise.

Ash calmed down, the tears drying up.

“How’s your void, love?”

Ash lifted his head to look at his chest. It looked ordinary, but then it always did on Earth. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the strange sensation of emptiness and longing he’d become used to.

He couldn’t detect it.

His heart beat. His lungs inflated and released air. His body felt solid, complete. The sensation was so foreign that he sat up straight, pulling out of Hallow’s grip to pat himself down. He felt only a warm body, solid muscles, and pyjamas.

He turned back to Hallow, full of wonder. “It’s... I think it’s gone? Is that even possible?” He didn’t dare hope. Most likely it was hidden because he was in the real world. But the yearning, the sense something important was missing, he couldn’t feel it. Could it really be gone?

Hallow tipped his head to one side. “It’s possible. Do you want me to check?”

“Please.”

“I don’t know if this will work.” Hallow’s hand lit up with baby pink light. He pressed his palm to Ash’s chest, spreading his fingers out and pressing the pads against his collarbones.

The warmth of his hand had Ash’s heart fluttering as if it was their first date and he was sixteen years old.

“It... it could be gone? I feel the hint of something but it’s not the same amount of power.” Hallow frowned. “I’d need to go to the alleyway to check for sure.”

Ash pressed his hand over Hallow’s and brought it to his lips, kissing each of his fingers in turn. “If it’s gone, it’s because of you.”

Hallow’s expression softened. He moved closer to Ash. “It’s possible. It could have collapsed as part of your power’s attack, it could have healed when I brought you back, or it could have been a part of what you paid in your act of sacrifice. Or what you were offered in return.” Hallow’s cheeks got pinker with each kiss Ash placed on his hand.

Ash kissed his wrist and let their clasped hands drop to the bedspread. “I wouldn’t have done anything like that if it wasn’t for you.”

“So I should take all the credit for it?” Hallow teased. “Because I will. Even if you were the one who rescued me from the monster, I’ll tell it in a way that makes me the hero.”

Hallow’s smile drew Ash in like a moth to a porchlight. “Do it, you deserve to be the hero.”

He pressed his lips to Hallow’s softly, sweetly, trying to pour all his gratitude, love and awe into it. Hallow melted, winding both arms around him and returning the kiss with the same passionate energy.

Ash wanted nothing but this. To exist in a world which was only himself and Hallow. To be in a universe of pink hair and gently fluttering wings. Of transcendent beauty. To love and be loved. His stomach rumbled. Ash realised the soup Willow had brought him would be getting cold.

“I should eat,” Ash murmured against Hallow’s lips.

Hallow chuckled, stroking his cheek. “Unfortunately, yes.”