451
Adrik
I was concerned about Sephie and the Wonder Twins. They’d been very quiet both on the way hack to the penthouse and since we’d been back. Sephie refused to show me what they’d all seen. Stephen, to his credit, seemed to be handling it better than those three.
Sephie managed to learn a new trick, where she shut me out completely. I could barely feel her and I couldn’t see anything in her head. I couldn’t
even talk to her.
“Okay, I won’t look. I promise. Just please stop whatever it is you’re doing to shut me out,” I said to her as we were all in the kitchen. She still wouldn’t look at me, but she at least let me feel what she was feeling again.
“How did you do that, princess? You’ve never been able to turn everything else off before,” Ivan asked.
“She doesn’t want you knowing what we saw,” Andrei said. Even he looked incredibly troubled. Misha hadn’t said a word in over an hour either. It was likely a record for him.
“I’m not being a s*it. You don’t need to see any of it. Trust me,” she said. She looked at Andrei, asking, “what was your idea at the hotel again? We need help getting rid of this. I’m not gonna be able to handle this for very long and you two aren’t either.”
I could feel her anxiety slowly increasing, but I could also feel all of her emotions were just completely out of control. She was fighting hard to keep it as contained as possible, but this was not a battle she would be able to keep up for very long. I pulled her to me, surprised to feel her body shaking. I looked at Andrei, hoping he had a solution for this.
“Please tell me you figured out a solution. We just got rid of the shaking and now it’s back,” I said, my hands rubbing her back lightly, trying to help keep her calm.
Andrei glanced at Viktor, then to Stephen. “I think Viktor is here to help us as much as he is to help other people. If we’re going to be a witness to all the atrocities in the world, we’re going to need help. I think Stephen can help us get rid of it, Viktor can help us heal from it and make sure we’re not vulnerable. I think Stephen gets the worst of it out of all of us, especially if we dump everything on him to get rid of, so I think Viktor needs to concentrate on him first.”
“How did you help Misha get rid of his anger, Stephen? What do you do with it if you don’t send it back to the person?” Ivan asked.
Stephen laughed quietly. “It’s a bit of a process, but I think I can get faster at it. You might think I’m crazy if I explain it in detail.”
“Try us,” I said.
He looked at me, somewhat skeptically, but started to explain. “Emotions are just energy, right? Some of the time, when we struggle with emotions, it’s because they’re stuck in our body. This is why acupuncture works so well, especially for Sephie. It opens all the channels so her emotions can flow freely. It’s what helped her master her control. If your emotions are flowing, you’re feeling them the way you should be feeling them. They’re meant to come and go, not stay. We’re all so used to being stuck, whether it’s in anger, sadness, trauma, whatever, that we feel Sephie and we’re suddenly overwhelmed because her emotions are doing what ours should be. Once again, she’s showing us what we should be doing, instead of what we are doing. She lets her emotions flow through her like water. Just like any body of water, you want to keep it moving. When it stagnates, that’s where the issues come in. When I took Misha’s anger, it wasn’t as much about removing the anger altogether. It was more about removing what was blocking it so it could flow through him once more.” He paused, looking at all of us like he was unsure if he should continue. He inhaled deeply, deciding to continue. “There’s a little more to this level up than any of us realized. I’m not sure if it’s ever going to work with anyone else outside this room, but I just had to touch Misha to figure out why he was struggling with his anger toward Giana. Remove that, everything flows again.”
Sephie, who had her head leaned against my chest, stood up and turned toward Stephen. “Misha saw the younger version of himself that was quick to judge people in Giana and it irritated him.” She immediately looked at Misha, apologizing. “Sometimes I can’t control my mouth.”
He grinned at her. “It’s okay, gazelle. You’re 100% right. Stephen didn’t even have to tell me anything when it happened. Whatever he did, I had the
451
“I think I have a theory on that one, too. And I think Andrei is correct in that this is where Viktor comes in for all of us. Because of the subject matter that none of us were expecting today, you three instinctively tried to protect yourselves and Sephie tried to protect everyone since we’re all connected to her. Essentially, you shut yourselves down to try and feel safe. It’s completely understandable and it’s a completely normal response. I lived that way for years, to be quite honest, I think you’re still shut down, still trying to protect yourselves which is why you feel like s*it and why Sephie doesn’t want us to feel her and doesn’t want anyone in her head right now. The dam needs to be broken, if you will. Then Viktor can repair what was damaged today. I also think before we do this again, you three need a tune up from him before we go. I think that’ll help next time,” Stephen said.
“What about you, though? Did you see everything we gave you today?” Sephie asked.
“I did. I see it each time, but I also think I can recognize that it’s not mine: It might be easier for me since I’m already concentrating on sending everything back to the person. I don’t get stuck like you three have. I think that’s where the problem lies,” Stephen said.
“I think Viktor should fix you anyway,” Sephie said. “You’re not going to be everyone’s dumping grounds.”
Viktor, who had been quiet until this point finally spoke up. “I think Stephen and Andrei are both right. If you’re going to be seeing the worst side of humanity all the time, you’re going to need help. Just like it doesn’t make sense that Stephen would break half the world’s population, I don’t think it makes sense for me to go around fixing half the world’s population either. I don’t like people that much. I think you guys are there for the heavy lifting. I’m there to make sure you’re in top shape to do the heavy lifting.”
Sephie and Stephen looked at each other, then both looked at Viktor. “You still have your own issues that you need Stephen’s help with, too. If you help us, he helps you,” Sephie said, sternly. She was starting to feel grumpy the longer she carried around whatever it was she got from Battista’s associate today.
Thankfully, Viktor didn’t protest.
“Good. Let’s do this now, then. I’m not happy that she feels like she wants to shut me out. Someone make that go away before I get angry,” I said, pulling her against me once more.
King of the Underworld