Disclaimers: grief, death, trauma
You bloody idiot.
Don’t you smirk at me. Don’t you realise what you’ve done?!
Don’t give me that ‘sacrifice’ bullshit. You’ve traumatised the poor guy. He won’t cast a damn thing! Won’t touch a cauldron. He’s almost as useless as Broof is now…
He was my chance, my one real chance at having someone who could help me synthesise a cure and now he won’t even boil a kettle.
Are you happy?
If you think this will make me give up though, you can sod right off. This time I know exactly where to start.
And this time you can’t stop me.
Don’t look at me like that. They’ll be fine without me. Besides, I’m not responsible for any of them.
OK, fine! I guess I am responsible. Indirectly. I did raise the moron.
He’s the only reason I’m here.
Well, other than wanting to be sure you were actually dead, of course.
I’m kidding. Old habits… it doesn’t matter.
I know you can’t tell me what I came here to ask. I know this is bloody stupid of me.
I know no one gives a skinny rat’s backside about him, but I need to know what happened to my brother.
Sage. Broof and Moon and all the goddamn books you owned tell me that he wouldn’t have survived such a huge dose of magic.
I can’t find evidence to confirm or contradict that.
Not a hair, not a scent, not a trace. I can’t find him anywhere.
…Is that because there’s nothing to find?
Oh my word… it is, isn’t it?
There’s nothing to find.
“Open your eyes again, baby. Look at me.”
“Do not close your eyes. Stay awake, baby. Stay.”
“Stay with me. Good boy. Hush, it is all right. It is all right. I am not here to harm you. Relax… relax…”
“Relax…”
“Oh, poor baby. Poor boy. I know it hurts. It is all right. Hush. It will all be all right.”
“Here, baby, take my hand. Good boy, hold on to me. Hold me tightly. I have you.”
“I have you, Caleb.”
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Almost Eternal 
Me: I will not cry at another chapter again in this story, I will not. I know these characters are going to hurt me and I am immune, I tell you! IMMUNE.
Also me: incoherent sobbing.
This is such a strange reaction to have because, listen, Caleb is a monster and I was relieved when he got cast out. But my goodness, I’m not sure I would wish this fate on anyone. Even Caleb.
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Sorry this reply is so delayed. I’ve been ignoring my blog/discord/everything for a short while for a little brain vacation. But I have returned I am and ready to climb back into my tangled web to weave some more nonsense, so what do we have here…
Oh no! Sorry for bringing you to tears. I didn’t wanna write a whole load of chapters where characters were openly grieving, but needed to show some of it for obvious reasons. If it’s any consolation, we now have a time jump before the next book so we can bypass a lot of the raw emotion (not that they had any – the room was ‘nicely decorated’ so they all started grinning 2 minutes after Sage died) and get back into the meat of the story. Everyone will once again be totally fine and not simply patching over more cracks with even more bad decisions.
Unless all your sobbing is for Caleb. Which is a strange reaction! Everyone wanted him gone, far away from April, and he’s gone so what’s the prob… oh, no, wait, I’ve done that thing again, haven’t I? Given you exactly what you wanted but in the worst way possible?
Or have I? 😇
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haha I’ve been hiatus too so i totally understand. You always give me what I want in the worst possible way when I didn’t know I was asking for it so I’ll just so please, can I have some more?
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Oh, Wyatt. Losing his mother in a traumatic way like that is horrifying enough but now he also blames herself for her death. That’s backwards – he was a hero saving Melinda and April from Caleb, and Sage rescued him in turn – but he can’t see it that way. That’s just heartbreaking.
Lilith is pushing down her grief behind anger, isn’t she? And her worry for Caleb. I think she’s hurting, too. Their relationship was both long-lived and very complicated, but if she truly didn’t care, she wouldn’t have showed up. Where did Caleb go, indeed. I’d joke about him still flying around on the magic rocket, bum-naked, but I’m actually very curious, too.
Oh, heck. Bob found him. Now that is going to be very interesting. In all kinds of horrific ways, I’m sure. And she knew his name, too. Oh wait, she was the cat that Caleb fed for ages, that makes sense. I wonder if she genuinely cares for Caleb? She seems genuinely worried. Oh man, this cannot end well. Or who knows, maybe it will. Maybe Bob with Caleb is not nearly as horrific as what we’ve seem from Bob with Seth.
Book four is going to be one heck of a ride again, isn’t it? I’ll go get my popcorn, potatoes and tear bucket ready.
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Ooh a sneaky comment that didn’t trigger a notification. How did you manage that?
No, he can’t see it that way and, unfortunately, Wyatt has a very specific way of dealing with loss…
Lilith pushes a lot down behind anger. She’s probably really nice underneath all the rage, but we’ll never see it because “the whole damn world is so bloody infuriating!” Where is Caleb? Flying through the cosmos? Burned up to ash?
Oh, there he is, in some silent and semi-conscious format. ‘Interesting yet horrific’ I see you have high hopes! She did know his name, yes, they are familiar from many a long night together, curled up on that cliffside in Forgotten Hollow, consuming human body parts. Aww, so sweet. It could end well – Caleb called that cat his only friend and Kitty has had many, many years to think about what she did.
What kind of potato? I realise there are more important quest— nope, scratch that, there aren’t any questions more important than WHAT KIND OF POTATO?! Boiled? Fried? Exploding?
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Magic! or the same way that there was no notification on your comment to my comment. Maybe WordPress is borked again.
What was it again… drinking, drugs and sleeping around? Hoo boy. And now his mum isn’t around anymore to help him cope. Sage 😢
I’m going to step into this new book all positive, that’s what I’ll do! Positivity! Bob is actually really caring for Caleb, and the two of them will think about their life choices and go join a talking group or something, and Caleb absolutely will not go on some get-all-the-pretty-blonde-girls murderous rampage because he can’t get to April anymore. Has he ever had a toy of his outright taken away? wait, no, positive, positiiiiiive. All the bright!
There is no more important question than what kind of potato. I’ll keep that one a surprise, though. Gotta entertain you some way. 😗
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Is WordPress ever not borked?
Yay! POSITIVITY. That’s the spirit! See you on the other side.
“Has he ever had a toy of his outright taken away?” has he ever had a toy of his own?
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