To embrace someone and wonder if it will be the last time you will see them is heart-breaking, but to love someone and know beyond a doubt that they won't be there next time you look for them is soul destroying. Jinn had known that night that Eutopia was preparing herself to leave him. He knew that, whilst exploring each other, she was exorcising her wonder at how their lives could be if she'd had her wish to have someone else's soul, in any other time or place. And so Jinn let her search and discover, to wield the power of sensation over him and used it in turn against her. Quivering, flesh beneath flesh, the two had sought each other out in the dark, consuming and devouring like a fire tearing through timber. But he knew the whole time that it would be the last time he saw her because Jinn knew she had made her decision. Like the fire they felt for each other, Eutopia's choice would be destructive, which made Jinn sick to his stomach. Towering over Eutopia, Jinn could physically stop her if he wanted to. He had visions of barricading her in until she saw sense, but he loved her too much to force her to do something she didn't want to.
'I know she loves ye,' Theresa O'Mally had said firmly the next morning, her greying chignon shaking with the emphasis she spoke with and her lilting Irish accent softening the blow of her words as they sat together at breakfast. 'But you should know that if you love her back, you must let her be... She needs to get this all out of her system, then she'll find her way back to ye, so she will. She's a good girl really, our Topi. I won't believe what those, those inbreds have accused her of. You trust me and, God willing, she'll fall into your arms if you wait for her.' Jinn remembered smirking then at her turn of phrase, and saw that Mike grinned without humour into his cereal. Theresa had no idea of Jinn's angelic nature, never once mentioning his almost inhuman beauty or his hulking size which seemed even more out of place in her two-up, two-down semi, nestled on the outskirts of Peckham, now that Eutopia had gone. Mike, Eutopia's long-term friend, had known that she would go after her brother, once the last few pieces had fallen into place. Eutopia didn't seem to mind that Will was Nephilim, despite Jinn's insistence that the part-angel, part-human posed her great danger because she couldn't see past the fact that he was her half-brother. Mike just wanted to see Eutopia happy, so when he saw her slipping hesitantly down the stairs, shoes in hand so she wouldn't make a sound, Mike didn't stop her but carried on to the bathroom – though an inexplicable shadow settled around his heart.
'You're right, Theresa. Everything happens for a reason, sometimes you just have to let life play its course.' He drained his mug of tea, the china cup almost like a thimble in his large hand. His dark eyes twinkled gently as he smiled at the bird-like woman at his elbow, who looked like her own heart would break for him. When she reached out to pet his hand, her grip was surprisingly strong given her fragile-looking fingers.
'I'm so very sorry, Jinn. Sometimes though, all you can do is pick yourself up, brush off the dust and keep going.'
'You're right. Thank you, for everything you've done for Eutopia. It was great to meet you, she thinks very highly of you. Both of you.' Jinn let his gaze rest lightly on Mike's neatly clipped red head, which was dipped as he took another mouthful of cereal. The other man nodded, chewing slowly and flashing a thumbs up as Jinn cuffed him awkwardly on the shoulder on his way out.
Almost exactly three months later, Jinn was sprawled out on the brown Chester sofa in his living room, his eyes closed as he played back this last, somewhat awkward morning at the O'Malley's.
'To sleep, perchance to dream..' The voice was velvet-smooth, slipping like silk across the silence of Jinn's thoughts. But it was a voice he hadn't heard in an age. The shiver ran cold down his spine.
