My demons: Healing (book 3)

Symbols

Aisha was sat on her bed, alone after she finally managed to convince Nathan to go take care of his own needs. She was very busy thinking about absolutely nothing when a knock on the door startled her. "It's me," she heard Sky's voice from the other side of the door. Well that was unexpected.

"Come in," she sighed, rolling her eyes. The door opened and Sky entered, grinning like a child who had just been told Christmas was coming early.

"What?" Aisha inquired curtly.

"You're starting to like me," Sky shrugged, plopping herself down on Aisha's bed.

"You're starting to annoy me."

That earned the brunette a quirked brow and a smirk before Sky relented. "Anyway, I just came here to tell you something."

It was Aisha's turn to quirk an eyebrow. "I figured as much. What I cannot fathom is why you are taking so long."

Sky rolled her eyes so far back that for a second she thought they might not come back to the front. "Aren't you a delight to talk to," she groaned before straightening up again. "Seriously now, Claire asked me to come get you. We have been going through the files Rose had recovered and the photo she found and apparently, it has something to do with you."

"And it can't wait?" Aisha asked with a sigh, making Sky roll her eyes. "You are fine. Get up and stop whining."

"I have been shot!" Aisha grumbled incredulously but still stood up, leaving Sky the only sitting participant of the conversation as she went to take a sip of water from the glass Nathan had left for her. 

"So?" Sky shrugged, quirking a perfectly sculpted brow. "I know it doesn't hurt you anymore so don't bother trying to score any pity points with me."

The gaze she was met with would make a grown man cower but she withstood it with ease, defiantly staring back at the brunette, who put down the glass with more force than necessary, making some of the water spill over the edge. Neither of them paid it any attention.

Aisha growled angrily and grabbed Sky's shirt to yank her up from the bed. A moment later she found herself sprawled out on the floor instead. 

"The meeting room in five minutes, don't make me come back here," Sky commanded picking up Aisha's glass of water and taking a lengthy sip. "Oh, and if you try that one more time, I will end you."

She stepped over the brunette and exited the room, leaving the door open behind her. Aisha cursed under her breath before begrudgingly lifting herself off the floor, trailing after the blonde, careful to leave a considerable gap between them.

"What took you so long?" Claire turned to the pair once they finally entered the meeting room one after the other. If she noticed the gap, she decided to ignore it. 

Her wife shrugged in turn of an answer before assuming her rightful position on Claire's left side, placing a gentle kiss on her shoulder. 

When Aisha realised the blonde won't reply, she opted out of worsening the situation. "Sorry," she murmured instead, stopping next to Rose at the side of the table opposite to the couple. 

Claire quirked a brow but didn't inquire further, focusing on more urgent matters. She wordlessly pushed the picture towards the brunette, turning it to face her. The man on the picture stared up at her and Aisha could do nothing but stare back. All she could do was stare and stare and stare while the invisible force squeezed her internal organs painfully one by one. 

"Dad?" she whispered.

It felt surreal. The photo did the man no justice but then again, it had been taken years before Aisha had been born. Regardless, the same small pupils were still filled with the agony Aisha had always recognised swirling in their depths throughout her life but had attributed it to his wife's disappearance, the same tight lips were forming the same, ever present frown and the same slightly too long, lanky arms were dangling uselessly against his sides as they tended to do many years later. The same arms that ended your mother's life, her demons were quick to remind her, and she had to screw her eyes shut as the pain shot through her. "Why did they have his photo?" she asked, eyes back on the man who had raised her.

"No idea," Claire shook her head but placed the file in front of the brunette. "They had a file on him as well, can you read it?"

Aisha flipped through the pages for a few moments, face growing more confused by the second. "Is that Ancient Greek?" she asked, lifting her gaze to meet Claire's, who nodded in confirmation. "Shouldn't you know how to read it?"

Claire chuckled in response. "I'm not that old, Ai."

"Well then, no one can read those so they are useless to us, might as well just burn them," Jade deadpanned. 

"We can't just burn them!" Rose exclaimed, scandalised. "I risked my life retrieving those!"

"So what do you suggest we do, genius?" Jade grumbled, turning to the affronted blonde.

"Why don't we google it?" Rose shrugged.

"You don't need to be a genius to come up with that. Any normal person could." Aisha quipped.

"Did you come up with it?"

The small brunette hesitated before answering, "No."

"Then one either needs to be a genius or you're dumber than a normal person," Rose declared.

"Rude!" Aisha pouted, crossing her arms.

"No, I just beat you with logic."

"Well I'll beat you with violence!"

"Enough," Claire commanded, lifting her hand. Immediately, all eyes were on her, no sound coming from any of the occupants of the room. "I know a person. They are a big fan of ancient languages. Fluent in Hieroglyphs, read Latin for fun, pretty sure they were using Sumerian language to encrypt messages before. If anyone, they can read those."

"So what's the problem?" Jade asked reluctantly, already sensing the incoming 'but'.

"They live on the shadows' main territory."