Essence of Quinn Parts 3 & 4 (MxM)

Whispers in the Dark

The others were already in the chapel. Quinn, Air and Calista took their places to wait for the visitors from the other side.

Quinn took a cleansing breath, calling on his calm façade because right then? The mental whiplash from the past few hours felt like it was verging on overwhelm. To top everything else off, his instincts tingled. He felt the ether skirting around him, keeping its distance, but keeping to the edge of his awareness nonetheless.

Something was coming.

The summons was accepted, and when the two ghulehs appeared in the circle, Quinn was surprised at who accompanied Amaya.

Air broke away from Quinn’s side, joy bleeding from him when he realised his baby sister, Aella, was acting as Amaya’s chaperone today, instead of their grandmother, Ayla.

“Lala!”

He pulled Aella into a fierce hug, but Quinn focused on the other piece of his heart who watched them clinically.

Amaya.

She met his eyes and hers widened with realisation. He smirked the moment she realised he could see her. Her eyes lit up, and his heart kicked. His kit was truly a wonder to behold. A true sight for sore eyes.

She ran to him and he wrapped his arms around her, breathing her in and welcoming the warm tingles of quintessential magic she gifted to him.

“Welcome, little one,” he murmured, voice all gravel.

Amaya looked contented. Happy, in fact. Since Quinn’s ill-fated meeting with Boreas, and Amaya’s subsequent agreement, Mayim had taken over her guardianship from Agrat and Svarog. This had caused tensions amongst the seers, but things seemed to have calmed down some, thankfully. Amaya now thrived under her new mentorship.

She held him tightly and looked up at him.

“I knew this day would come. I told you to have faith, did I not?” she said, taking on that knowing tone that belied her young seasons. Quinn tensed, frowning. Amaya rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. You’re not interested in thanking the Fates. But I will give thanks on your behalf.”

Quinn sighed and stepped back. The weight of his own doubt settled heavy in his gut. She looked older. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why, but she’d grown taller and lost some of the soft youthfulness from her face since he'd last laid eyes on her. She seemed more grown up in her demeanour, somehow, too. On the cusp of adulthood, but not quite there yet.

“The Fates had no hand in this. It was of my own making,” he answered, only half believing his own words.

Amaya narrowed her stare, but she didn’t say anything more. She turned to Calista and threw her arms around the other ghuleh. They settled into chatter, and Quinn draped an arm over their shoulders.

Something else had caught his attention, though. Aella. Something had happened. The emotional currents around her pulsed off-kilter. Not dim, but perhaps unstable. Echoes of turmoil rippled beneath the surface, but she was doing her best to hide it.

He sensed a little sadness, too. The fact she was here in Ayla’s place suggested a decline in the older ghuleh’s health. A pang of grief flared in Quinn’s chest at the thought of losing such a luminous soul as Ayla’s to old age.

That wasn’t the whole of it, though.

Aella’s bright purple eyes met Quinn’s for a second, and they glowed. She quickly looked away and took a deep breath, as if bracing herself before she looked at him again.

Quinn tilted his head, studying her intently. She seemed taken aback for a moment, but composed herself quickly.

His instincts crackled, like distant thunder rolling closer, heavy with the promise of a storm yet to break.