Divine Intervention (9/16)
Sep. 15th, 2005 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alixtiiTitle: Divine Interventions (9/16)
Fandom: Buffy/Angel
Characters: Dawn, Amy, Cordelia, Ethan, Willow, Kennedy, and others.
Rating: The overall fic will include material up to and including NC-17; most scenes are considerably milder, though.
Warnings: Het, femslash, BDSM, noncon, underaged—but none of these as the main focus of the fic.
Warnings for this chapter: Alcohol, het, femslash. Yes, there’s sex. It’s a busy chapter.
Timeline/Spoilers: Takes place after “Why We Fight.” Spoilers up to “You’re Welcome.”
Summary: Unlikely allies must team up to protect Willow from a resurrected enemy and the worshippers of the dark god Osiris.
Notes: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spikendru for a great beta. Anything wrong that remains is solely my fault.
Previous chapter can be found here.
All chapters can be found in my memories.
Chapter Nine
Dawn sat at Willow and Kennedy’s kitchen table, sipping some brandy she had finally found in their cabinet. Most of the others had gone to bed already, tired from the night’s hunt and ready to prepare for a long day ahead. A cheap motel nearby had been converted into a temporary Slayer barracks. She and Cordy had been put in one of Willow and Kennedy’s guest bedrooms, and Beth and Ethan in the other, while Amy and the other Wiccans were doing it slumber-party style in the living room. Over all, it reminded Dawn way too much of 1630 Revello Drive during the last few weeks of Sunnydale.
Kennedy slipped into the kitchen and sat down across from Dawn at the table. “Okay, what’s the deal?”
“Excuse me?”
“Look, Dawn. I’m not stupid. We’ve been trying to get reinforcements for days and all we’ve been getting is red tape. Then you make a phone call and they all start arriving, easy as pie. When they do show up, they report to you. You’re in command of them, even though Willow’s been fighting vampires with your sister longer than anybody else here. No offense, but she’s also way more powerful than you. Do you know what that says to me?”
Dawn decided not to answer.
After a moment, Kennedy continued. “It says to me that you have information that we don’t have, something that was able to persuade the Council to send the Slayers. And whatever that information is, it also caused them to not trust Willow to be in command.” She paused, a poignant silence that hung over the kitchen table. “Will’s going to go dark, isn’t she?”
“We think so,” Dawn finally admitted, her voice low. “We can’t be completely sure, but we can’t afford to ignore the signs, either.”
Kennedy picked up the bottle of brandy in front of Dawn and poured herself a glass. “So. Now what?”
“Look, you never saw Willow when she went veiny. You can’t imagine what she turned into.” Dawn repressed a shudder. “She has no limits, no barriers. Nothing can control her.”
“Hey,” said Kennedy as she finished off her brandy, “I know I wasn’t there when it happened. But believe me, I constantly live with the shadow of what happened. Willow turned into the man she killed on our very first kiss—a fact that I still have to thank Amy for, now that she’s sleeping under our roof. Do you think a day goes by when she isn’t haunted by what she did? Do you think I don’t realize the way it hangs over her, dominates her fears, her hopes, her every thought? Don’t think I don’t know how bad this is, Dawn. Because I do.”
Dawn merely nodded glumly as she downed her brandy. “We’re going to do everything we can to protect her. I promise that.”
Kennedy sighed as she got up. “I know that, Dawn. I do.” She put her glass in the sink, then started up the steps to her and Willow’s room. “Good night.”
Dawn poured herself another glass of brandy. She didn’t drink it; she just sat there, staring at it.
“The reins of command fall heavy on anyone’s shoulders,” a masculine voice stated from above. Dawn started to see Ethan coming down the steps. “Least of all a child.”
“And what would you know about that?
“Absolutely nothing,” Ethan admitted with a smile. “I’m far too anarchic for command, whether it be giving orders or taking them. The only power I desire is the power that comes at the point of a gun—or a spell, as the case may be. The power to warp the world to a will, to break another human being so thoroughly she loses her very will to live.”
“You’re absolutely charming, you know that?” Dawn said.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Ethan answered. “I worship chaos, Miss Summers. It’s not all bunny rabbits and happy puppies. The world has a dark side, as you well know.”
“Do I,” said Dawn, finally taking a drink of her second glass of brandy. She wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement.
“A good little girl doesn’t lie to her guardian, leave the continent, stage a prison escape, threaten wanted fugitives at the point of a gun, and then smuggle them out of the country—which I must thank you for, by the way—without knowing a little about darkness herself.”
“You’re welcome.”
“You must hate your sister.” Ethan said it so simply that Dawn had to pause a moment to process the change of subject. Or maybe it was the brandy.
“I don’t hate my sister,” she answered. “At least I don’t think I do. Why would I?”
“Because she stole your childhood,” Ethan answered, sitting down in the chair next to hers. “Not that she got to have much of one herself, of course, but she had a sacred destiny. There was no excuse for her and Rupert to steal yours as well. A girl your age should be in high school, thinking about boys, not commanding an army of Slayers and conversing with a chaos mage.”
“I never had a childhood,” Dawn pointed out. “Not really. I’m the Key. I didn’t even exist as a person until three and a half years ago.”
“And yet I seem to remember a little girl dressed up as Alice Liddell on the Eve of All Hallows.”
“They’re fake, the whole lot of them. Every single memory you might have of me before the day I broke you out of that prison isn’t real.”
“One day you might find that reality is far more mutable than you currently suppose, Miss Summers. The world is what one makes of it.”
“Sounds like something one would find in a self-help book.”
“I think you’ll find most of this new age nonsense is just ancient wisdom with a shiny new bow. What people will pay for, people will sell.”
“You’re not evil.” Dawn wasn’t sure why she said it. It just sort of came out.
“No,” agreed Ethan. “I don’t suppose I am. Good and evil are just labels that hold one back. The trick is to transcend—” He paused, considering. “That was a bit arch, wasn’t it?”
“A little bit,” Dawn admitted. “I’ve heard the whole ‘beyond good and evil’ thing a few more times than I’d like to count.”
“And yet the tune has a few good notes,” Ethan said. “‘One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.’ Very true.”
“Why would anyone want to give birth to a dancing star?” asked Dawn. “It sounds painful.”
“And so it is,” agreed Ethan. “That’s how you know you’re still alive.”
“What’s the use of living if it’s all pain and dying?”
“I’m actually rather fond of the pain and dying myself, so I might not be the one to ask,” Ethan answered. “Of course, I’m considerably less fond of my own pain and dying.”
“Well, I’m doing my best to make sure there’s no pain and dying at all,” Dawn said. “Although all indicators point to me failing spectacularly.”
“What do you want me to tell you, Miss Summers? That death is part of life and birth is always painful? That the sacrifices we make are what gives our choices meaning? A bag of tripe and you know it as well as I. I’m not Rupert, and I’m damn well not your bloody teacher.” Ethan picked up the bottle of brandy and put it away in the cabinet. “Go to bed, Dawn. You have a busy day tomorrow.”
* * * * *
“You’re quiet tonight, honey,” Willow said as Kennedy lay next to her in bed.
Kennedy paused before answering. What should she say? “I’m worried about you,” she admitted.
“Because of what Dawn said earlier? About Osiris?”
“Because of everything.”
Willow squeezed Kennedy’s shoulder. “Everything is going to be all right,” she promised, but over a year of living together made Kennedy more than capable of detecting the note of worry in her lover’s voice. Willow gave her a sweet goodnight kiss, but without thought Kennedy turned it into something more passionate, using her tongue to explore the inside of her lover’s mouth that she already knew so well.
Willow kissed her back, the witch’s hands grabbing both her shoulders and then moving further down Kennedy’s back. They broke the kiss, then Kennedy's mouth sought Willow's neck, kissing down the length of her body. As her tongue entered into her lover's body, Kennedy thought how much she loved Willow and never wanted to lose her.
* * * * *
“You’re aren’t supposed to be out alone past dark,” a voice rang out behind Amy. “It’s dangerous.”
Amy cast a glance behind her. Beth walked up to her and stood next to her on the house’s back terrace.
“I can watch out for myself,” she answered. “Unlike some of us.”
“I know I’m still going to be alive tomorrow morning,” Beth countered. “Can you say the same?”
Amy shrugged her shoulders fatalistically, then realized Beth couldn’t see the gesture.
“That’s life, I suppose,” she said. “Most of us don’t get any warning of what is going to come. We still manage to deal. Or not.”
“Why are you here?”
Amy started at the change of subject. “I wanted to see the stars,” she answered. “The constellations are different here.”
Beth smiled, a sad smile. “Are they beautiful?” he asked.
“They are,” she answered, looking up at them. “You see them and you realize just how small you really are in the scheme of things. But you also feel connected, knowing that even though you are just one small thing, you’re also part of something much bigger.”
Beth nodded. “I’ve drawn the night sky,” he said. “But I still don’t really know what it looks like.”
“Darkness,” answered Amy. “A void so dark and so vast it seems like it will consume anything and everything. But somehow, these points of light manage to break through, to light up the night sky, and make themselves known.”
“Why are you really here?” he asked again. “In Brazil. Helping this Willow girl.”
“It’s the will of Goddess,” Amy whispered.
Beth laughed scornfully. “And you strike me as the paragon of devout faithfulness.”
“She’s treated me well,” Amy said. “I mean, there was the three years I spent as a rat, but besides that, I’ve done well. I have power, I have . . . well, mainly I just have power, but I have to say I’m pretty happy with that; I like power. And when Hecate spoke to me last year, it meant something. That I was special. That She had picked me.”
“So this isn’t about your mother?”
Amy eyed Beth warily. “What do you mean?”
“Your mother was a witch, as well as an insane bitch. Within a year of the Slayer turning her own spell against her, you had already become an accomplished witch yourself.”
“I wanted the power.”
“Who doesn’t?” asked Beth. “But you wanted it so badly, you chose to follow your mother’s less than stellar example?”
Amy didn’t particular like the direction this conversation was going, but wasn’t sure how to extricate herself. She flirted briefly with going back inside the house, but found that she couldn’t. She had to defend herself—explain why she wasn’t her mother. Because she wasn’t.
Was she?
“I’ve avoided my mother’s mistakes,” Amy insisted.
Beth laughed. “What mistake? Tackling the Slayer? If I’m not mistaken, there’s still a Slayer inside that house who is less than happy with you. And at least your mother didn’t turn herself into a rodent.”
“I’ve made mistakes. I’ve learned from them.”
Beth nodded. “Right. Because you’ve found Goddess, and She’s spoken to you, and now you’re all about the balance and worshipping nature and carrying out Her will. Tell it to someone who can’t see the future.”
Amy glanced over at Beth, wondering what it was exactly that he saw.
“Well, I’m not about to start singing, ‘Goddess loves me, this I know, because the Wiccan Rede tells me so,’” she said, “but I’ve learned things. How to avoid karmic payback, if nothing else.”
She paused. “I could ask you the same question, you know. Why are you here?”
“Well, a seventeen-year-old with a gun busted me out of prison and hasn’t let me out of her sight since.”
Amy laughed. “We both know that isn’t true. There were plenty of times you could have slipped away if you wanted to. Right now, even.”
“I didn’t want to. Don’t want to. Where else would I go? Besides, I can see far enough ahead to know I’ll be glad I stayed.”
“Well, it’s good to know this experience has a silver lining for at least one person,” Amy observed. “Know anything else that might be useful?”
Beth shook his head. “Don’t know what the Rite of Isis will do, if that’s what you mean. And I don’t know if we’re going to win or lose. Free will means it could go either way.”
“Why is it that people only talk about free will when things are going badly?” Amy asked. “Can’t the gods ever take responsibility for some of the bad things that happen down here too?”
“Who’s going to make Them?” Beth answered back. “Although at this point I think we’re all willing to blame this one on Osiris. Of course, He has a point. Willow is dangerous. She’s more powerful than most people could even imagine. She’s unstable. This time last year Hecate was perfectly willing to let you take her out with a penance malediction. It was Janus who convinced Her otherwise.”
This was information Amy hadn’t had before. She turned to Beth with interest. “Really?”
He nodded. “After she helped fight back the First Evil. That’s part of the reason why Ethan is here, because Janus has taking a liking to the girl. Ethan doesn’t know it, of course, and neither does Dawn.”
“Is that how it is, then? We’re just pawns in some sort of divine plan? Cogs in the Great Wheel? What happened to free will?”
“Free will and fate are compatible. Just because one wants to do something doesn’t mean it’s not predestined.”
“Except you can see the future, which kinda screws that all up.”
She looked up at the constellations in the sky. The patterns were there when one knew what to look for, but each individual star simply travelled through the vacuum oblivious to the greater design. “So I’m here for Hecate, and Ethan’s for Janus. Who are you here for, Beth?”
“Me,” he answered simply. “Being able to see the greater picture means that I’m not bound to it. I’m free to make my own decisions, can pick the future I want.”
“This is the future you want?”
“I knew to come out here, didn’t I?” Beth asked. He reached out with his hand, touching Amy lightly on the shoulder. He slid his hand slowly across her collarbone, feeling his way as he went, then continued up her neck, her chin, until his hand lightly caressed the side of her face. And then, having found his target, he leaned in and kissed her. He was perhaps half an inch shorter than Amy, so he had to pull himself up just slightly to do so.
Amy tensed for a moment, then gave into the kiss, opening her mouth to let Beth’s tongue slip into it. They explored each other’s mouths for a moment, then Amy pulled away as she felt Beth’s hand slide to her shirt. “We’re outside,” she reminded him.
“No one will see,” he said, his voice confident. She wasn’t convinced he would tell her the truth even if he could see the future, but she gave into the risk as she let him pull the shirt over her head. He explored her breasts, her waist, her back with his hands and mouth, actually “seeing” her for the first time. He kissed her between her breasts, then slid his tongue up her body to her neck. He leaned in and whispered in her ear.
“Get on your knees.”
Chagrined, Amy did so. Beth could go first if he wanted.
Just as long as Amy got her turn.
TBC. . . .here
Fandom: Buffy/Angel
Characters: Dawn, Amy, Cordelia, Ethan, Willow, Kennedy, and others.
Rating: The overall fic will include material up to and including NC-17; most scenes are considerably milder, though.
Warnings: Het, femslash, BDSM, noncon, underaged—but none of these as the main focus of the fic.
Warnings for this chapter: Alcohol, het, femslash. Yes, there’s sex. It’s a busy chapter.
Timeline/Spoilers: Takes place after “Why We Fight.” Spoilers up to “You’re Welcome.”
Summary: Unlikely allies must team up to protect Willow from a resurrected enemy and the worshippers of the dark god Osiris.
Notes: Thanks to
spikendru for a great beta. Anything wrong that remains is solely my fault.Previous chapter can be found here.
All chapters can be found in my memories.
Chapter Nine
Dawn sat at Willow and Kennedy’s kitchen table, sipping some brandy she had finally found in their cabinet. Most of the others had gone to bed already, tired from the night’s hunt and ready to prepare for a long day ahead. A cheap motel nearby had been converted into a temporary Slayer barracks. She and Cordy had been put in one of Willow and Kennedy’s guest bedrooms, and Beth and Ethan in the other, while Amy and the other Wiccans were doing it slumber-party style in the living room. Over all, it reminded Dawn way too much of 1630 Revello Drive during the last few weeks of Sunnydale.
Kennedy slipped into the kitchen and sat down across from Dawn at the table. “Okay, what’s the deal?”
“Excuse me?”
“Look, Dawn. I’m not stupid. We’ve been trying to get reinforcements for days and all we’ve been getting is red tape. Then you make a phone call and they all start arriving, easy as pie. When they do show up, they report to you. You’re in command of them, even though Willow’s been fighting vampires with your sister longer than anybody else here. No offense, but she’s also way more powerful than you. Do you know what that says to me?”
Dawn decided not to answer.
After a moment, Kennedy continued. “It says to me that you have information that we don’t have, something that was able to persuade the Council to send the Slayers. And whatever that information is, it also caused them to not trust Willow to be in command.” She paused, a poignant silence that hung over the kitchen table. “Will’s going to go dark, isn’t she?”
“We think so,” Dawn finally admitted, her voice low. “We can’t be completely sure, but we can’t afford to ignore the signs, either.”
Kennedy picked up the bottle of brandy in front of Dawn and poured herself a glass. “So. Now what?”
“Look, you never saw Willow when she went veiny. You can’t imagine what she turned into.” Dawn repressed a shudder. “She has no limits, no barriers. Nothing can control her.”
“Hey,” said Kennedy as she finished off her brandy, “I know I wasn’t there when it happened. But believe me, I constantly live with the shadow of what happened. Willow turned into the man she killed on our very first kiss—a fact that I still have to thank Amy for, now that she’s sleeping under our roof. Do you think a day goes by when she isn’t haunted by what she did? Do you think I don’t realize the way it hangs over her, dominates her fears, her hopes, her every thought? Don’t think I don’t know how bad this is, Dawn. Because I do.”
Dawn merely nodded glumly as she downed her brandy. “We’re going to do everything we can to protect her. I promise that.”
Kennedy sighed as she got up. “I know that, Dawn. I do.” She put her glass in the sink, then started up the steps to her and Willow’s room. “Good night.”
Dawn poured herself another glass of brandy. She didn’t drink it; she just sat there, staring at it.
“The reins of command fall heavy on anyone’s shoulders,” a masculine voice stated from above. Dawn started to see Ethan coming down the steps. “Least of all a child.”
“And what would you know about that?
“Absolutely nothing,” Ethan admitted with a smile. “I’m far too anarchic for command, whether it be giving orders or taking them. The only power I desire is the power that comes at the point of a gun—or a spell, as the case may be. The power to warp the world to a will, to break another human being so thoroughly she loses her very will to live.”
“You’re absolutely charming, you know that?” Dawn said.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Ethan answered. “I worship chaos, Miss Summers. It’s not all bunny rabbits and happy puppies. The world has a dark side, as you well know.”
“Do I,” said Dawn, finally taking a drink of her second glass of brandy. She wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement.
“A good little girl doesn’t lie to her guardian, leave the continent, stage a prison escape, threaten wanted fugitives at the point of a gun, and then smuggle them out of the country—which I must thank you for, by the way—without knowing a little about darkness herself.”
“You’re welcome.”
“You must hate your sister.” Ethan said it so simply that Dawn had to pause a moment to process the change of subject. Or maybe it was the brandy.
“I don’t hate my sister,” she answered. “At least I don’t think I do. Why would I?”
“Because she stole your childhood,” Ethan answered, sitting down in the chair next to hers. “Not that she got to have much of one herself, of course, but she had a sacred destiny. There was no excuse for her and Rupert to steal yours as well. A girl your age should be in high school, thinking about boys, not commanding an army of Slayers and conversing with a chaos mage.”
“I never had a childhood,” Dawn pointed out. “Not really. I’m the Key. I didn’t even exist as a person until three and a half years ago.”
“And yet I seem to remember a little girl dressed up as Alice Liddell on the Eve of All Hallows.”
“They’re fake, the whole lot of them. Every single memory you might have of me before the day I broke you out of that prison isn’t real.”
“One day you might find that reality is far more mutable than you currently suppose, Miss Summers. The world is what one makes of it.”
“Sounds like something one would find in a self-help book.”
“I think you’ll find most of this new age nonsense is just ancient wisdom with a shiny new bow. What people will pay for, people will sell.”
“You’re not evil.” Dawn wasn’t sure why she said it. It just sort of came out.
“No,” agreed Ethan. “I don’t suppose I am. Good and evil are just labels that hold one back. The trick is to transcend—” He paused, considering. “That was a bit arch, wasn’t it?”
“A little bit,” Dawn admitted. “I’ve heard the whole ‘beyond good and evil’ thing a few more times than I’d like to count.”
“And yet the tune has a few good notes,” Ethan said. “‘One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.’ Very true.”
“Why would anyone want to give birth to a dancing star?” asked Dawn. “It sounds painful.”
“And so it is,” agreed Ethan. “That’s how you know you’re still alive.”
“What’s the use of living if it’s all pain and dying?”
“I’m actually rather fond of the pain and dying myself, so I might not be the one to ask,” Ethan answered. “Of course, I’m considerably less fond of my own pain and dying.”
“Well, I’m doing my best to make sure there’s no pain and dying at all,” Dawn said. “Although all indicators point to me failing spectacularly.”
“What do you want me to tell you, Miss Summers? That death is part of life and birth is always painful? That the sacrifices we make are what gives our choices meaning? A bag of tripe and you know it as well as I. I’m not Rupert, and I’m damn well not your bloody teacher.” Ethan picked up the bottle of brandy and put it away in the cabinet. “Go to bed, Dawn. You have a busy day tomorrow.”
“You’re quiet tonight, honey,” Willow said as Kennedy lay next to her in bed.
Kennedy paused before answering. What should she say? “I’m worried about you,” she admitted.
“Because of what Dawn said earlier? About Osiris?”
“Because of everything.”
Willow squeezed Kennedy’s shoulder. “Everything is going to be all right,” she promised, but over a year of living together made Kennedy more than capable of detecting the note of worry in her lover’s voice. Willow gave her a sweet goodnight kiss, but without thought Kennedy turned it into something more passionate, using her tongue to explore the inside of her lover’s mouth that she already knew so well.
Willow kissed her back, the witch’s hands grabbing both her shoulders and then moving further down Kennedy’s back. They broke the kiss, then Kennedy's mouth sought Willow's neck, kissing down the length of her body. As her tongue entered into her lover's body, Kennedy thought how much she loved Willow and never wanted to lose her.
“You’re aren’t supposed to be out alone past dark,” a voice rang out behind Amy. “It’s dangerous.”
Amy cast a glance behind her. Beth walked up to her and stood next to her on the house’s back terrace.
“I can watch out for myself,” she answered. “Unlike some of us.”
“I know I’m still going to be alive tomorrow morning,” Beth countered. “Can you say the same?”
Amy shrugged her shoulders fatalistically, then realized Beth couldn’t see the gesture.
“That’s life, I suppose,” she said. “Most of us don’t get any warning of what is going to come. We still manage to deal. Or not.”
“Why are you here?”
Amy started at the change of subject. “I wanted to see the stars,” she answered. “The constellations are different here.”
Beth smiled, a sad smile. “Are they beautiful?” he asked.
“They are,” she answered, looking up at them. “You see them and you realize just how small you really are in the scheme of things. But you also feel connected, knowing that even though you are just one small thing, you’re also part of something much bigger.”
Beth nodded. “I’ve drawn the night sky,” he said. “But I still don’t really know what it looks like.”
“Darkness,” answered Amy. “A void so dark and so vast it seems like it will consume anything and everything. But somehow, these points of light manage to break through, to light up the night sky, and make themselves known.”
“Why are you really here?” he asked again. “In Brazil. Helping this Willow girl.”
“It’s the will of Goddess,” Amy whispered.
Beth laughed scornfully. “And you strike me as the paragon of devout faithfulness.”
“She’s treated me well,” Amy said. “I mean, there was the three years I spent as a rat, but besides that, I’ve done well. I have power, I have . . . well, mainly I just have power, but I have to say I’m pretty happy with that; I like power. And when Hecate spoke to me last year, it meant something. That I was special. That She had picked me.”
“So this isn’t about your mother?”
Amy eyed Beth warily. “What do you mean?”
“Your mother was a witch, as well as an insane bitch. Within a year of the Slayer turning her own spell against her, you had already become an accomplished witch yourself.”
“I wanted the power.”
“Who doesn’t?” asked Beth. “But you wanted it so badly, you chose to follow your mother’s less than stellar example?”
Amy didn’t particular like the direction this conversation was going, but wasn’t sure how to extricate herself. She flirted briefly with going back inside the house, but found that she couldn’t. She had to defend herself—explain why she wasn’t her mother. Because she wasn’t.
Was she?
“I’ve avoided my mother’s mistakes,” Amy insisted.
Beth laughed. “What mistake? Tackling the Slayer? If I’m not mistaken, there’s still a Slayer inside that house who is less than happy with you. And at least your mother didn’t turn herself into a rodent.”
“I’ve made mistakes. I’ve learned from them.”
Beth nodded. “Right. Because you’ve found Goddess, and She’s spoken to you, and now you’re all about the balance and worshipping nature and carrying out Her will. Tell it to someone who can’t see the future.”
Amy glanced over at Beth, wondering what it was exactly that he saw.
“Well, I’m not about to start singing, ‘Goddess loves me, this I know, because the Wiccan Rede tells me so,’” she said, “but I’ve learned things. How to avoid karmic payback, if nothing else.”
She paused. “I could ask you the same question, you know. Why are you here?”
“Well, a seventeen-year-old with a gun busted me out of prison and hasn’t let me out of her sight since.”
Amy laughed. “We both know that isn’t true. There were plenty of times you could have slipped away if you wanted to. Right now, even.”
“I didn’t want to. Don’t want to. Where else would I go? Besides, I can see far enough ahead to know I’ll be glad I stayed.”
“Well, it’s good to know this experience has a silver lining for at least one person,” Amy observed. “Know anything else that might be useful?”
Beth shook his head. “Don’t know what the Rite of Isis will do, if that’s what you mean. And I don’t know if we’re going to win or lose. Free will means it could go either way.”
“Why is it that people only talk about free will when things are going badly?” Amy asked. “Can’t the gods ever take responsibility for some of the bad things that happen down here too?”
“Who’s going to make Them?” Beth answered back. “Although at this point I think we’re all willing to blame this one on Osiris. Of course, He has a point. Willow is dangerous. She’s more powerful than most people could even imagine. She’s unstable. This time last year Hecate was perfectly willing to let you take her out with a penance malediction. It was Janus who convinced Her otherwise.”
This was information Amy hadn’t had before. She turned to Beth with interest. “Really?”
He nodded. “After she helped fight back the First Evil. That’s part of the reason why Ethan is here, because Janus has taking a liking to the girl. Ethan doesn’t know it, of course, and neither does Dawn.”
“Is that how it is, then? We’re just pawns in some sort of divine plan? Cogs in the Great Wheel? What happened to free will?”
“Free will and fate are compatible. Just because one wants to do something doesn’t mean it’s not predestined.”
“Except you can see the future, which kinda screws that all up.”
She looked up at the constellations in the sky. The patterns were there when one knew what to look for, but each individual star simply travelled through the vacuum oblivious to the greater design. “So I’m here for Hecate, and Ethan’s for Janus. Who are you here for, Beth?”
“Me,” he answered simply. “Being able to see the greater picture means that I’m not bound to it. I’m free to make my own decisions, can pick the future I want.”
“This is the future you want?”
“I knew to come out here, didn’t I?” Beth asked. He reached out with his hand, touching Amy lightly on the shoulder. He slid his hand slowly across her collarbone, feeling his way as he went, then continued up her neck, her chin, until his hand lightly caressed the side of her face. And then, having found his target, he leaned in and kissed her. He was perhaps half an inch shorter than Amy, so he had to pull himself up just slightly to do so.
Amy tensed for a moment, then gave into the kiss, opening her mouth to let Beth’s tongue slip into it. They explored each other’s mouths for a moment, then Amy pulled away as she felt Beth’s hand slide to her shirt. “We’re outside,” she reminded him.
“No one will see,” he said, his voice confident. She wasn’t convinced he would tell her the truth even if he could see the future, but she gave into the risk as she let him pull the shirt over her head. He explored her breasts, her waist, her back with his hands and mouth, actually “seeing” her for the first time. He kissed her between her breasts, then slid his tongue up her body to her neck. He leaned in and whispered in her ear.
“Get on your knees.”
Chagrined, Amy did so. Beth could go first if he wanted.
Just as long as Amy got her turn.
TBC. . . .here
