Page 77 of Aleko
“Right! Sorry! Sorry. Not the time. But um…” Yazmin turned and looked at the gathered pack. “Where is Pellos? She thinks she killed you.”
“Oh, no! No, Lia! I’m here.”
Pellos pushed past Sebastian and Lia stared at him in shock.
“I’m all right,” he said, smiling at her and giving an awkward wave.
“But… how?” Lia felt like her head was three feet thick.
“Right,” said Yazmin, “so as I was saying. Killian—did they tell you about Killian?” Eliandra nodded. “Well, he went to the Library of Alexandria, which I’m absolutely furiously jealous about. Also, not the time, sorry—and he came back with a cure. There was a bit of a... a... whip-round of sorts,” Yazmin grimaced, “and we did a spell and now Pellos is werewolf!” Yazmin ended on a chipper note, and beamed at Lia. “So, you see, everything’s fine.”
“What does she say?” asked Anuket.
“She says I did not hurt Pellos,” said Lia in Latin. “That itwas Seth. And now they have made Pellos a wolf.” She could hear Hudson whispering again, and she realized that he was translating.
“Huh,” said Anuket. “Well, that’s nice. But I fail to see how you are responsible for any of that.”
Lia rubbed her hand across her scalp. “My head hurts.”
“Well, we’re all done,” said Anuket. “Go get some sleep. I’m sure you’ll feel better in the morning.” Anuket made little shooing motions at her.
“No,” said Lia, tears trickling down her cheeks. “No, I say that every day, but it’s never true. I only make things worse. I ruin everything. Rami is right, the only way to fix everything is to never be born.”
Lia looked down at the wand in her hand. It would be easy to make a wish.
“Um…” said Yazmin, taking several urgent steps forward. “No. No, no. That’s a bad idea.”
“Your priestess saysnoa lot, but in this instance she’s correct,” said Anuket. “You’re tired. You thought your human friend was dead. That’s upsetting. And your brother was an annoying dung ball. Don’t let any of his arrogant ramblings get to you. Just go home and get some sleep.”
“What home?” yelled Lia, angrily. “I have no home!”
“Well, this one seems quite intent upon you,” said Anuket gesturing at Alekos. “Why can’t you stay with him? Assuming he is an acceptable suitor.” She looked at Yazmin. “Is he acceptable?” she muttered toward at Yazmin.
“Uh… What are we terming acceptable?” asked Yazmin.
“Yazmin!” barked Hudson.
“Has a suitably large estate? Can provide her with slaves? Will make her children his heirs and not abuse them. That kind of thing.”
“Yes, absolutely! Very acceptable!”
“Thanks so much,” said Alekos sarcastically.
“Only probably servants and not slaves. Humanity is trying to get away from enslaving people,” said Yazmin.
“And how is that effort going?” asked Anuket.
“Mixed results,” said Yazmin honestly.
“As I would expect,” said Anuket.
Lia wanted to laugh. This had all gone completely off the rails. None of the pack, least of all Alekos, were supposed to be here and Yazmin seemed like she was trying to slow the conversation down and make Lia keep talking.
Anuket turned back to Lia, clearly preparing to try to be encouraging again.
“You are very bad at this,” said Lia. “You are all very bad at this.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but I never wanted to be a father! I don’t know what to say.”
