The Last Hope

27 - Reunion

SONG FOR THIS CHAPTER - Electric Love, Borns. Linked above! If you enjoy the chapter please vote and share, it means a lot. Also, I actively encourage commenting and am trying my best to reply to any as quickly as I can. Want a chat? Don't be shy!

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Mercy was in her room, trying to distract herself from the crazy turn her life had taken by doing something mundane. She hunched over her bent knee and stretched again to paint her other toes.

Felix had only just left her alone. She'd had to beg him. He'd followed her around all day like he was stuck with glue, waiting on her every beck and call. At first, it had been nice, but as time wore on, and pale blue sky darkened to midnight black outside her window, it began to grate. She loved Felix, and she was happy he was glad to have her back, but she needed some time alone, to process everything that had happened.

So now she sat in her bedroom at the temple, Felix in his own room across the hall, painting her toenails and desperately wishing for sleep. But her mind was abuzz. They had a lead on the sword, and tomorrow, they were going to see Yaakov in the hospital to ask him about it. Felix had been visiting Yaakov in the hospital every day since he'd been taken in. Some kind of survivor's guilt fuelling him, so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary tomorrow when Mercy and Mona went with him.

But that was still hours away, and no matter what kind of calming meditation techniques she tried, Mercy couldn't quiet her rampant thoughts. She knew why she was on edge. Sebastian was here, sleeping under the same roof as everyone she held dear. She could feel him through that abhorrent rune, every time he moved, she felt it. Like a piece of string tied to her mind, tugging sharply.

She cared about all of them, even Ariah, and she'd willingly allowed a wolf to enter their home. She didn't miss the cautious looks the Sentinels gave her this afternoon, the concern lining Mona's face every time Sebastian shifted even slightly. Felix was especially jumpy around him, refusing to go anywhere near after the "neck-snapping" comment, not that Sebastian had seemed to mind.

Her whirling thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. She jumped and screwed the cap back onto the nail polish before hobbling carefully across the room. Maybe Felix had come back to spend more time with her.

Green eyes met hers with a ferocity that had Mercy stepping backwards. She was aware that she didn't look her best, in tattered old pyjamas shorts and a tank top, with her hair scraped back. She hadn't even managed to catch all the strands, she hadn't really cared until she saw that it was Lincoln standing outside her door, not Felix.

Lincoln, who looked like a model even when he was dripping with sweat after training or soaked through with rain or... or staring at her like he was about to rip her head off.

"If you're here to yell at me, I'd really rather you didn't." Mercy baldly stated, crossing her arms over her chest, and leaning her hip against the wooden door frame. Blocking his entrance.

His brows pinched together as he took in her defensive stance. "I'm not here to yell at you. I Think that counts as treason." He readjusted his body, slouching ever so slightly and breathing out a sigh. He looked less like a threat and more like he was exhausted, faint purple marred the skin beneath his eyes.

Mercy didn't buy it, "then why do you look so pissed?"

His face smoothed out and he took another breath, "I just ran into our guest."

"Oh." Mercy pursed her lip and looked down the hall at the empty stairs. She didn't know where Sebastian was sleeping - hadn't bothered to ask. After he'd refused her offer of food, she'd given up trying with him, noticing the way he'd not so subtly nudged the full plate away with his booted foot. No one seemed particularly inclined to make any sort of contact with him, and despite a few sly remarks offered about her physical training, he'd kept to himself in the corner with a book for the majority of the day.