Damage Control

Chapter Six

They gave both Josie and Hope a few minutes to recover before they discussed what went on. Josie was busy chugging a bottle of water, throat raw and burning from all the vomiting. "Why are you here aunt Freya?" Hope's voice sounded as raw as Josie's felt.

Freya cast a look at Josie, she stopped drinking long enough to answer her silent question. "I didn't really have time to explain, there was a dragon."

"A dragon?" Her father asked, his voice higher than usual, always worrying.

Freya waved her hand at him. "Later." She turned back to Hope. "When they could not figure a way out to wake you up, Josie thought it would be a good idea to call me." She shot a glare at Josie's dad, like she knew he didn't want her to come. "Since I helped Josie with the last black magic spell that had to do with you."

Hope looked over at Josie quickly, a small smile on her lips. They didn't really talk about it afterwards, but she was sure Freya had explained it to Hope when she came to meet her. "So you discovered I was still trapped in Josie's subconscious." Hope confirmed.

Freya nodded. "After some people opposed." She glared at Josie's dad. "We put Josie back into her subconscious to bring you out, and it worked so..." She shrugged.

"Why don't you tell us what happened in there." Josie's dad encouraged.

Hope and Joise looked at each other, Josie motioned for her to start, considering she had been in there longer. Hope launched into her journey to the light at the end of the tunnel, finding the room with the dragon and then Joise falling from the sky. Then they took turns retelling the events that followed until Josie slayed the dragon. Hope tried her best not to roll her eyes over Josie's movie references as she told them about the yellow brick road and ruby slippers.

Freya rested a hand on Hope's knee. "Well that seems like quite the adventure."

Hope shrugged. "It wasn't too bad actually, I am surprised I made it out without singing." She laughed at her own joke but Josie smiled. "So what happened out here while I was asleep?"

Josie felt a sharp pain in her lip as she bit down on it, she really wasn't looking forward to telling Hope about Landon. Her father decided it was his job to catch her up on all the events of the Necromancer. Hope shot Lizzie a look when he got to the funeral part. "Really Lizzie, do I even want to know what you said as me?"

Lizzie shrugged. "Nothing you wouldn't have said." But the sinister smile on her lips said otherwise.

Finally she was told about Landon, Josie's heart dropped as Hope's face did. She stood quickly, causing her to almost fall back down but Freya caught her. "You need to rest more Hope." She said as she guided her back down. "As bad as it sounds, he is fine, he is healing." She said soothingly.

"I should have been here to protect him." She snarled to herself.

Josie sat forward in her chair a bit, close enough to touch Hope but she didn't. "He was with Raf, Hope, who else could you trust more than Raf?"

Hope made a face like she knew that but she still was going to beat herself up over it. "Listen here Hope." Lizzie called her attention. "Do not get all 'I should be able to save everyone because I am the almighty tribrid' on us." She sat forward in her chair, pointing her glare. "No one could have known this was going to happen, it is freaking Raf. He is one of us, there is no way any of us could have known this was going to happen, so if you blame yourself you blame us all." She pointed at all of the people in the room. "So snap out of the emo Hope talk and start thinking of ways we can help."

Everyone just stared at Lizzie in awe. Hope's face relaxed a bit but she still seemed like she was on the train of blame. "Why don't I go take you to see him?" Freya offered. "It will give us a chance to talk before I leave." Hope nodded.