wasn’t perfect. She had so many flaws, and yet gypsy healers were revered because of their innate goodness. What was it that made them good? What set them apart from the rest? Was it the empathy they felt for others, even their enemies?
She thought about Tenia and the look in her eyes when Alston had been berating her. Sally didn’t know the female fae’s story or how she’d come to be working for the Order, but Sally did feel something for the woman. She felt something for all of those who had bought into the lies that the Order had fed them. Was she angry? Absolutely, but there was still a part of her that wished they could be saved. She wanted them to see their wrong doings and feel remorse. “Great Luna help me,” she said very softly.
“You see what I see in people.” The Great Luna’s voice filled Sally’s mind as the worry and sadness left her, leaving only peace. “You see through their darkness to the person they could be if they chose to not give in to their selfish desires. Focus on that, Sally, my gentle healer. Focus on the fact that the darkness that holds them trapped in this place doesn’t have complete control over all of them, not yet. There are still those like Tenia who have light left in them.”
“Why is the light not winning in her?”
“Because bitterness and pain have taken root in her, and every time the light tries to grow, that bitterness pushes it back. She needs people like you to see the light in her. She needs to know that she isn’t lost yet,” the Great Luna answered.
Sally thought about the men who’d brought them food and things for Titus to do. Not all of them had seemed completely evil. Some of them even looked at Titus with kindness, even if that kindness didn’t extend to Costin or Sally.
“Seek out every ounce of light in the building. It’s there,” the goddess said, pulling Sally’s attention back. “Focus on that light and pull it toward you. Imagine it flowing into you. Imagine it filling you from the very tips of your toes until it runs up and out of the top of your head. It’s bursting forth from every pore in your skin until it can no longer be contained.”
Sally thought about the way she sent her light into the wolves when she healed them. She thought about how she would command it to seek out the damage within, and she did the same with her light now. She sent her power into the building, pursuing the light in those who were in the Order but were not fully controlled, not yet. One by one, she found the slivers of light and began drawing them to her. Like the palest rays of sunlight, they traveled through the space toward her. Then she saw several very bright lights and realized they were Thia, Slate, and Titus. The children who had yet to be corrupted by the world. They were still so full of innocence and saw the best of life. She pulled that light to her. She saw the light that was in Costin, though there was darkness as well. The longer they were together, the more the light inside of him grew. She pulled that in and felt him pushing it to her, helping her. She saw the light in Jacque and Jen, both of which had been connected to her for so long that they seemed to naturally sense what was needed and pushed their own power to her. Jacque’s seemed to have an extra boost, and Sally guessed that was because she was now the alpha female.
Sally’s hand was still wrapped around the locket, and she could feel it heating up. Her body felt as if she stood out under the noonday sun with its warmth radiating onto her skin. Every ounce of coldness that had taken root from simply being in this dark place, and from what Alston had tried to do, was overtaken by the warmth of the light.
“The locket is meant to amplify the light,” the Great Luna said. “It will take all that you’ve gathered and multiply it. You cannot contain the full light of my being. I am a Creator, and you are the created. The locket was designed to hold some of my essence, and it can channel the amount of light you need for this. Keep pulling it in. Keep seeking