Many a time, Micah and Jinx had shared an eager whisper, the sudden itch of an idea or a scrap of knowledge gleaned from the day's adventures. Their excitement was equally contagious. With every breath, it wafted in as sweet as the trouble that had always fuelled it, turning their laughter wonderfully giddy.

Despite the jarringly different circumstances, Micah could feel the same reaction coming on in this moment. A wild curiosity buzzed in his ears, drowning out all else, bubbles popping in his stomach and tickling his throat with the strange urge to giggle. He withheld the urge, but still his lips curled upwards. He stared into Jinx's twinkling emerald eyes.

Perhaps pain had rendered him a little delirious. Still, his voice tumbled out in the form of a tremulous whisper. "What?"

"Can it wait a moment?" The strained edge to Lilith's voice snapped the effect, drawing him back into the present. "Trust me, I'm mightily curious to discover why we're now blessed with the presence of two angels, but we need to make sure our first one isn't going to bleed out on us first."

As she spoke, she finished tearing a strip off her shirt and bundled it into a violet ball, pressing it up against his wound. He gasped sharply, trying not to flinch back. The woolly fibres seemed to find every exposed corner, tiny pricks forming an extra layer of discomfort. He felt for the bend where the wall met the floor behind him.

"There are a hundred other things in this room you could've used other than your own clothes," Rivo said dryly. Lilith waved him away with a twitch of a grin.

Micah dared himself to look down and regretted it immediately. His blood was already soaking the cloth. He swallowed past the burning in his throat. "I... I'm not going to die, am I?"

Lilith's smile spread further, tinged by softness as she raised her head to flash it his way. "No," she said, with such certainty that it sounded like fact. "You're going to be fine, Micah. Can you keep pressing this in for me?"

He nodded, replacing her hand with his to guide the strip of balled shirt into his chest as she rose and darted to the other end of the room, beginning to rummage through the jumble propped up against that wall. Jinx took it as her cue to interject. "I thought you were immune to danger."

"Apparently not." His laugh sounded false, rattling in his throat, cutting off with a hitch as another rod of pain speared his middle. He pulled the cloth closer, holding his breath. Jinx's fingers laced with his, more tentative and gentle than she usually was. He returned her squeeze. Another smile pulled at him, weaker this time but summoned by the same joyful relief. He was going to be fine. His new friends had come back for him, and his oldest friend was by his side. He couldn't let either of them down.

And he still needed to find Corinne.

Jinx settled back on her heels, the twitching in her wings visible beyond her shoulders. The glitter in her eyes gained a dimmer shine. "I've felt so guilty, Micah." Her grip tightened, her gaze flicking down to the blood. "I regretted not following you immediately. It's not been the same without you."

"Yeah." His head dropped. "I bet it's been way better."

"No." The shred of fierceness that shaped the word startled him. She caught his eye with one half of a reassuring smile. "We've all missed you. Me, Siofra... Nerezza, definitely, though she's pretending otherwise. Ghidor is, well, you know what he's like, but I'm certain he worries too. And Eike..." A spark of mischief lit up her expression. "Eike is the reason I'm here."

Hope bloomed in his heart, cradling each of the names close. "He let you come after me?"

"Not exactly." She scratched at a spot behind her ear, her hesitant pause crackling in the air between them. "I--"

"You know, for somewhere so cluttered, this place sure is lacking in first aid supplies," Lilith murmured, cutting off the faint syllable. She stood, humming in thought, then jerked towards them. Her eyes widened. "Oh, sorry. Did you already start the story?"

Intrigue pinched her voice, poking it that note higher. Rivo strode over to her. "Sit with them. I'll keep looking."

She nodded, scurrying over, lips pressed tightly shut as if to shove down the full force of her grin. Sitting cross-legged, she gestured at them to continue.

Jinx's expression collapsed entirely into a frown. She tipped her head towards Lilith. "This doesn't really have anything to do with you."

Her tone carried a condescending edge, one Micah couldn't help but wince at. Not so long ago, he'd thought that little of humans, but they'd proved time and time again to be far more than he could have imagined. He ran his tongue over his teeth, debating how to voice the revelation.

"It has plenty to do with me," Lilith said, nipping in before he could. Perhaps she'd missed the insult, for her voice was light and airy, her chin resting in her palm. "Do go on."

For a moment, Jinx looked as if she might argue, but the notion was cast away by the returning tug of a smile. "Alright." Her gaze flicked back to Micah. "This morning, I went to find Eike. I was going to ask him to give me some of Asariel's blood so I could go after you, but when I reached the cathedral, I could hear his voice from inside. Like he was talking to someone. But there was no second voice."

Micah frowned at the dramatised way she spoke the final statement. "He was just talking to Asariel. He does that all the--" All of a sudden, his mind caught up, attaching sense to the concept. He inhaled, regretting the breath's sharpness when it cut through his insides. "But he can't. Asariel's Heart is--"

"Down here, I know. That's what I thought." Jinx shifted nearer, her posture entirely conspiratorial by now. "So I snuck in. The stupid little spying hole you made in the ceiling turned out rather helpful."

He couldn't help but be taken in by the mystique she conjured. "And what did you hear?"

"Oh, nothing." She flicked at her ear, crooked grin spread nearly wide enough to reach the extremity. "Eike spoke far too softly to catch anything more than a murmur. But I most certainly saw something."

Suspense lingered in the pause she left, potent enough that Micah could taste it on his tongue. Lilith's voice speared it. "What?"

The edge of impatience shaved her tone. Jinx shot the human scientist a pointed glance, her smile fading before brightening again as she continued. "He went up to the statue." With a twitching hand, she touched a spot on her chest, fingers gliding over the single white-dusted sleeve of her tunic where it curved out to cover the rest of her torso. "Right up to here, and pressed his hand into something. A sensor, maybe. The gold split, and a hatch opened up. I think you can guess what was inside."

Micah frowned, finding his mind oddly blank. The words slipped over one another without meaning. Lilith's hand rested on his shoulder, pulling him out before the emptiness could drag him down. "The real Heart?" she asked, the syllables rushing into each other in a tumultuous mix of curiosity and anxious haste. "So our's is a fake?"

A fake. On top of the muddied nature of his thoughts, the dissonant tones the word rang in his ears echoed with blurry confusion. Hadn't he held the Heart? Seen the glitter of its silver markings, felt the hum of magic stir at his soul and tingle on his skin? Could that be faked so easily?

Jinx's bouncing nod only deepened the storming feelings. He opened his mouth soundlessly, closed it, then wrenched out his voice. "Are you sure?"

"It does seem odd," Lilith said, sitting back a little, brows knitting together. "The radiation it -- and Micah -- emitted is unlike anything that should be possible, without the addition of magic. You're telling me that was artificial?"

The same concern he had, twisted in her own way. Jinx looked rather affronted at the argument. "I'm very sure. There's no way what I saw wasn't his Heart. It's just -- I just knew." Her wings twitched, tense even as she refolded them. "I was confused too, though. That's why I waited for Eike to leave, then went to inspect myself. I couldn't doubt it then. The aura it holds... It's unlike anything else. It's incredible." A kind of awe he'd never expect to hear from her tremored the final word, so pure and potent, leaving nothing but raw honesty shimmering in her gaze. She blinked, but it hardly dimmed.

"The moment my fingertips brushed its surface," she said, "the world shifted, and suddenly I was here. Or, well, standing on that path outside." Her tongue flicked over her lips. "I knew you'd be inside, somehow, so I went in and... and now I'm here." She shrugged, a pinched grin accompanying her head tilt. "Funny to think that you fell all this way when I got here in a heartbeat."

"You did cause quite the commotion, though," Rivo chipped in, cracking the door open as he peered through it. It clicked closed with his gentle push. Turning, he waved a glass container at them, liquid sloshing inside. "This might be antiseptic?"

Lilith jabbed a finger in his direction, leaning over. "Worth a shot." She tugged the bottle from his outstretched hand, throwing a glance of her own at the door. "It is a wonder no-one's followed us."

The pistol held at Rivo's side twitched. "I'm sure they're waiting."

"We'll figure it out." She set about unscrewing the container's lid, gaze drifting back to Jinx. "Fascinating as that is, it still doesn't explain why I was able to track the fake Heart."

Jinx shrugged. "I'm just telling you what I know." Her hand curled around Micah's arm, tugging for his attention. He jolted. Though he heard every word spoken, his focus was becoming watery, trickling between his fingers and splashing in indecipherable stains amongst his thoughts. He did his best to scoop it close.

It was enough to wrap around her next bubbling whisper. "It doesn't matter, anyway. You do realise what this means, Micah?"

"I..." He swallowed. His throat was dry. "No?"

"It means you can come home." Her wings fluttered, rapid as the sparkle in her eyes.

He merely blinked back at her. "But... but Eike said the Heart would take me home. If it's not here--"

"It'll still reach us. Trust me, okay? Asariel will help us." Her grip tightened. "He'll take us back, and then we can confront Eike. Maybe there's more he's been hiding." She sat up higher on her knees. "We'll be the first to break his lies. The others will welcome us back as heroes."

Heroes. Micah might have echoed the word did it not already form such a lump in his throat. He pressed his lips together, looking down. Everything about this felt wrong. Perhaps the mask of pain had settled over his mind, twisting it all into a mangled kind of maze, but still he couldn't shake the feeling. He hadn't earned any of this. He had no right to be helped.

"I'm not a hero," he said, squeezing his wound harder with the cloth. It hurt. Tears ached behind his eyes.

"Fine." Jinx poked him in the arm. "If the hero thing isn't your deal, then think of it this way. We're going to cause so much trouble for Eike. And imagine what we could do now we know where--"

"Stop it." He didn't mean to snap, but it came out harsh, emotion sticking the words together. She stiffened, shock pulling at her expression, and guilt flooded his chest. He sucked in a sharp breath. "I can't go home, Jinx. I... I still made a mistake. I deserved this punishment. I shouldn't cheat my way out of it."

Her smile drooped along with her wings. Hesitance tripped her voice, her gaze darting to the bloodstained cloth. "Haven't you been punished enough?"

"I haven't fixed things yet." Clarity sharpened his tongue, as if someone had dragged him up out of the haze, the pain shoved out of his awareness. He felt for a grip on the wall behind. "I need to find Corinne, and... and..."

And what? Tell her that all they'd worked towards was a lie? That the object she'd taken from him was nothing magical at all? Would it make her angry? He winced, his teeth digging into his lip as if he could will back the unwelcome bite of fear. Perhaps he had even more to apologise for.

"Micah."

It took him a moment to recognise Lilith's voice, paired with her gentle hand resting on his. Her eyes were stern behind her smudged glasses. "You're not going anywhere." Carefully, she hooked a couple fingers under the scrap of her shirt pinned to his chest, peeling it back. "Just let me--"

"No." He shifted back, a sudden panic overtaking him. His focus flicked to the window. It pooled light into the dingy room, the afternoon rays cheerful and oblivious, their bright nature settling over him like a glowing skin. "What if she's in trouble? I can't just..."

His feet gained purchase on the floorboards, and he shoved upwards, clinging to the wall. The cloth slipped from his loose grip, landing on his foot. It tickled. Lilith scrambled to stand, making a grab for him, and he nearly tripped over it as he ducked away. "I can't just leave her. I-if the Heart is fake, then she can't... it can't protect her, and she's alone, and..." His words tripped over each other, hardly registering in his ears. All he could see was Corinne's dark hazel eyes, the shadows that had swarmed them when she'd spoken of control, the way they'd lit in reflection of the false Heart's golden surface when she clutched it in her hands.

The echoed agony of a knife driven into his flesh grated through him, and he clapped a hand to his middle, a gasp hissing out between his teeth. Raksey. What if Raksey found her?

"Micah," Lilith said again, but her voice sounded distant. The questions and fears crowded into his mind in an aching mass. He could only extract that thread of panic, the one that latched around his ankles and yanked him towards the window, leaning heavily on the wall as he stumbled forward. His injured wing dragged over the ground, limp and useless. The moment he reached the windowsill, he collapsed into it, arms shaking as his nails dug into the place where stone met dirtied glass. It smudged red at his touch.

He cast a wild glance across the street outside, then another when he realised he'd taken nothing in. It all seemed dizzyingly complex from in here: the jagged rise and fall of tiled rooftops, the puzzle of grey bricks pressed into the form of walls, the glass of windows carved into them glaring back at him. Each one blurred when he tried to squint at it. His heart thudded in his chest.

His tunic's strapped sleeve jerked sharply. Lilith clung to it, the silken material bunching in her fist as she tugged at him. Her jaw was clenched. "Hey. You need to calm down. I don't think incoherent mumbling about your crush is a good sign."

Micah shook his head, a jumble of silver strands striping his vision. He looked from her back to the window. "There's no-one there, right?"

Without releasing him, she leaned in. "No, there isn't. See--"

"Corinne said there would be someone there." He forced himself to stand a little straighter, one hand drifting to his head as if he were afraid it would float away. His right wing stretched out to steady him. "Watching us. What if... if they saw her, and they went after her instead? She's in trouble. I need to--"

"Stop." Lilith pulled him closer, her demeanour shifting into something oddly serious. "You're in no state to do anything." Her eyes flicked down. "I think... Jinx is right. You should go home. We can deal with this."

"Listen to your human friend," Jinx chimed in, hopping a step nearer. Her hands clasped before her. "Please, come home. You're acting weird, Micah. You can't be thinking straight."

"No, I am." He locked onto her form over Lilith's shoulder. His nails curled into the granite windowsill. "I am thinking straight. Straighter than I've ever..." His fingers slid over the rough surface, and he sucked in a breath, hoping the room would cease its swaying sometime soon. "I'm not leaving."

Jinx studied him a moment longer. Confusion was scrawled into every feature, though her eyes were clear and wide. "You really did fall in love," she breathed.

Even if the world hadn't already been spinning, those simple words would have dragged him into a bewildering series of whirls regardless. This was all too much. All of it. He leaned harder on the windowsill, crimson painting the path his trembling fingers arced across the glass, the granite pricking bare skin as it pressed against the tears in his tunic. His wing throbbed. His legs shook. He could do little more than stand there, battling the urge to sink to the ground again, to close his eyes.

He wasn't thinking straight. He wasn't thinking at all. It was too hard, too buried beneath everything else. But the image of Corinne's face lingered.

A shout cut across the room, thrusting a gasp into his lungs. Fear spiked strong enough to twist him around, ice pumping through his veins. It cooled further when he made out the shadow in the doorway.

Rivo wrenched Raksey forward, flinging him into the wall. A shot pinged into the ground. Raksey's arm was pinned against the wall, his pistol limp in his hand. The barrel of Rivo's own weapon bit into his ribs. And yet he laughed, the pistol rocking up and down with his shaking chest, a grin splitting his face. Fresh agony speared Micah's chest. He stumbled into the corner, wishing the wall would close around him and block that grin from view.

Metal flashed, and then Raksey was flicking a knife at Rivo's throat with his free hand, the tip lingering a hair's breadth from cutting skin. His eyes slid from it as if the blade no longer interested him.

They sparked as they landed on Micah. He flinched.

"Good to see you again," Raksey said all too cheerfully, trickling a shiver down Micah's spine. His knife twitched, then edged down to tap the pistol. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. I think you'll find the blood debt my colleagues deliver is rather more painful than a little fun."

Rivo didn't budge. In front of Micah, Lilith stepped back, arm held out in a hesitant shield.

"Suit yourself." Raksey moved the knife back to rest against Rivo's throat, a warped kind of excitement painting his expression in glitter. "Mistress Rajan will see you now."

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How is this chapter 3k words pfft--

Oh yeah!! The Heart was fake all along. RIP. Why'd Eike do that, I wonder :iminnocent:

But mostly I just. Poor bby Micah ;-; Who let me hurt him. He doesn't deserve this D:

- Pup