The Voodoo Queen of Greater Moscow

[Ashavari]

The relief was palpable with every step away from the room and the people within it, and a huge puff of breath left her lungs as the distance diminished her gift. Her sense of Tobias filtered out the fresh clamour of the cafe’s patrons; she could feel the lingering of his discomfort even with escape in their grasp. The reason she’d been in the cafe was the furthest thing from her mind the last few minutes. 

“I felt your reaction, and I trust your instincts. He was an angry one too.” Her conscience shifted uneasily for those left in the room above, but it was not like they were without warning. Rowan’s parting words swirled. Utterly blind. So righteous! El wouldn’t have thought twice about abandoning them. Asha wasn’t so easily soothed, but she did know how to survive. She squeezed Tobias’s hand, grateful for the concern of a stranger.

“It was probably a long shot actually. The meeting, I mean. And certainly not a conversation I’d want to have with, uh--” She glanced back the way they’d come. Sea monsters. And a trail that led back a channeler. She had no intention of betraying Elias, even inadvertently. The potential lead just wasn’t worth it.

“So nope. Either they already stood me up, or I’ll be doing the standing up. Come on.”