Fallon gave her a “well, duh” look.
Ari tilted her head in curiosity. “Do you remember anything after that? Did you go somewhere?”
“Seriously? You want to question me about the afterlife before you explain yourself?”
“A little bit, yeah.”
Fallon sighed heavily and shrugged, her arms falling at her sides. “I don’t know. All I know is, one minute that bitch jinn was there and the next, everything was dark. But not … not like you imagine dark. It was just … peaceful. There was nothing to worry about, to think about. I existed in this warmth. I imagine it’s a bit like being in the womb again,” she snorted. “That sounds creepy. It wasn’t creepy. It was beautiful.” Her eyes dimmed. “But there was no sense of time. One minute it was dark and cozy, and the next I’m in my bedroom screaming the house down. All these images kept colliding and fighting in my memory. It was … well, I’ll admit I was really scared. It’s taken me a couple of days to sort them into the right order. To sort them into what’s real for me and what’s real for this new reality or whatever.”
Ari took a step toward her, eyebrows knitted together. “I never wanted to cause you pain or confusion. I just wanted to fix things. After what happened to you, Charlie went nuts. He had in his possession Mount Qaf emerald and it was making him darker and darker. He killed the labartu and then disappeared off our radar for a couple of months. Your dad, the Guild—our Guild—was given the task of hunting him. I was given the task of hunting him.”
Fallon’s eyes softened. “But you couldn’t.”
“Would you have been able to? Even after …”
“Even after having my neck broken by the bitch he was obsessively hunting?” Fallon asked, her eyebrows rising at the suggestion. “I walked into that, Ari. Charlie didn’t want me there. He tried to protect me. But I love him. I thought …” She shook her head, laughing bitterly. “I thought he needed me to protect him.”
Feeling tears sting her nose, Ari pushed the emotion back, knowing Fallon didn’t need that kind of sympathy right now. “He did need you. Your death really broke him up.” Ari silenced to let her meaning sink in. She saw gratitude shine in the hunter’s eyes, so she took a second before destroying the moment. “Charlie decided to blackmail me. He wanted me to keep the Guild off his back, so he hooked up with Pazuzu and a ghulah I’d used the seal against. He said he was going to lead them to me if I didn’t help him. So we used it against him. We killed the ghulah but Pazuzu escaped. We got Charlie, though.” Ari tried to control her emotions as she remembered those horrible weeks and their heartbreaking conclusion. “I dried him out.”
Fallon took a step toward her. “Did it work?”
“Yes. But I was too late. He’d broken down about everything—about us, about you, and then your dad and the Guild came for him.” Fallon’s eyes narrowed at that piece of information and Ari held up a beseeching hand. “Fallon, your dad was doing his job. He was trying to protect the only family he had left. You have no idea what your death did to him and Caroline.”
And just like that, the anger melted from her expression. “I can imagine,” she whispered and then heaved another sigh. “So what happened?”
Ari shrugged. “I couldn’t let Charlie die. You know that. So … I called in my favor with Azazil. As long as things existed as they did, the Guild wasn’t safe. Jai and Trey weren’t safe. None of us were … not from Pazuzu. Charlie was going to die, which meant that in total, I’d inadvertently killed my adoptive father, my best friend, my best friend’s girlfriend, and his little brother. So I changed it.”
Fallon nodded. “You had Azazil make it so you were never involved in your dad’s life. But … I don’t get how that means you’re standing here. With Jai and everything still the same for you.”
“I asked Azazil to keep my reality the same. In effect, I don’t have another past. It was an incredibly complex thing I asked him to do, and it literally drained him.”
“It also means that Charlie doesn’t know who you are.” Fallon’s eyes dropped to the floor. “He doesn’t know me anymore.”
“I’m so sorry. It was the only way I could think to save you all. And you should see him. He’s himself again and Mikey’s alive and it’s … wonderful.”
Fallon’s head jerked up. “You’ve seen him?”
Trepidation froze Ari in place. She answered carefully. “I hid in the Cloak.” She shook her head slowly. “Fallon, you can’t see Charlie ever again. I did what I did to keep him out of this life.”