Convergence

[Raffe]

Sterling was on the edge of a freak-out. Raffe glanced up from the phone as he slid a thumb over the contacts, aware of the swelling tension but not sure what to do about it. He didn’t doubt Nox’s words. He didn’t doubt the danger. But Nox couldn’t very well bundle the kid up like he had out of the hospital. “Can’t hurt to speak to Juliana though, right?” He cocked his head, trying to catch Sterling’s gaze, but her attention was transfixed at a point behind his shoulder. He blinked and twisted as the horrified words hissed out, then flinched as flame spouted and Nox began a string of expletives. Though his blood ran utterly cold, his first instinct was to try and pull Sterling back from the fire. Why wasn’t she moving?

Then steam hissed, the flames doused, and suddenly it was like her limbs unjammed.

Nox grinned like this was all perfectly ordinary. There was a strange reassurance in his calm, and Raffe’s gaze returned to the man with the weapon pointed right at them with a surreal sense of disbelief. Menace weighted the air around them, pounding like a fist on his skull, demanding entry. It was strangely still. Nox was a channeler. A gun was nothing, right? Yet he was still inclined to be the broker of peace, which was why he moved to push himself in front of the other man. The phone still grasped in one hand, but the other made a calming gesture. “You maybe want to put that down?”