Wings Of Fire As Humans ~ 3 ~ {GLORYBRINGER}

[21] Better Than Nothing

~Glory~

We managed to rent an apartment with what we had left. It wasn't much and the apartment was small, but it was better than nothing. The kids were all asleep and I woke up to see that Deathbringer wasn't beside me. It was still in the middle of the night, but I still pushed myself off the bed and walked out of the room.

Deathbringer was sitting at the small dining table shirtless, a bunch of papers scattered everywhere and it seemed as though he was making a lot of phone calls.

"Deathbringer?" I whispered. He looked up and saw me.

"Sorry," he apologized. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"What are you doing up so early?" I asked, walking forward and sitting down beside him. I glanced down at the papers and realized he was trying to get his job back.

"Go back to bed," Deathbringer gently said. "You'll need all the sleep you can get."

"So will you," I replied, resting a hand on his shoulder. I looked down at the bandage wrapping around his stomach where the wound was. "You need it more than I do if you want to heal quicker."

"I appreciate that you worry for me," Deathbringer said, "but we need a job more." He sighed. "And I need to get Lilly's medicine tomorrow morning. Did I mention that I'm also searching for Winter and Lynx?"

"You know, you could do all of that way better with rest," I said. "And we can go out with the babies tomorrow together while the kids are at school."

Deathbringer cast me a weary glance. "You want to send the kids back to school?"

"Well, yeah," I said. "The teachers will not stop emailing me. Also, they'll be somewhat protected by the school, right? Besides, pop quizzes and homework might distract them from everything that's been going on."

Deathbringer seemed doubtful. "It's just... what if they talk?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, they've seen a lot of things," he explained. "Especially Python. And he's so young, he could open up to anyone if they asked. Do you know how chaotic information like that would be? That could spread worldwide confusion, curiosity, and panic. Do you realize how panicked people would be if they found out there were people out there who have actually magic that could do whatever they desired? People would start thinking the worst, and try to imprison animus people, which could end in more people dead, which could start a war between The Animus and the rest of the world. If that wasn't enough, if people find out about all the trauma they've been through, the is no way they'd let us keep our kids."

I stared at him, realizing how right he was. "Alright," I said quietly. "So, what do you suggest we do?"

"*"

"We're sorry to wake you up so early," I said gently as we all sat circled in the small living room. "But we have something very important to talk about."

I could see the exhaustion in their eyes as Jade pulled her legs close to her chest. We didn't wake up Clover and Lilly mostly because they'd throw a fit, but also because neither of them would remember anything at all in a few days, at most.

Python had his head resting on the couch, and even Ember was too tired to make a sarcastic remark about how she didn't at all realize that they had something important to talk about.

"You guys are going to school in a few hours, but we need to make a few ground rules if you guys don't want to be... taken away," I continued in a quiet whisper.

That caught Python's attention. "Taken away?" he squeaked. "Like... again?"

I winced.

"But this time," Deathbringer said, "for good."