signed_sabrina | (no subject)

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Sabrina locks the doors to Leviathan as quickly and carefully as she can manage without fumbling the key. Their hour of sunlight is already fading, and while she currently has all the supplies they'll need for magical defense (subject to an advance on her paycheck), time shouldn't be wasted.

She puts the keys in her coat pocket, giving Charlie a smile before she starts to pull her scarf up again. "I think if we're quick, we'll be fine," she says. All of it is strange and wrong and dangerous, but Sabrina can't help but feel like there's something more. What that could mean to her, about her, she doesn't want to think about.

Taking his hand, she glances up and down the street. It wouldn't be safe for Salem here, so easy to spot against the snow, but she misses his sense of hearing. She thinks she hears something, but the wind chooses that moment to pick up, and she winces, automatically turning into the shelter of Charlie's body for warmth.

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"Between the two of us, we can do a lot more than balance out," she says, her eyes bright. "I'll see what I can do. This first." Shakily, she reaches out for him again, wanting the touch as he heals her. She sets her jaw. "We'll figure it all out. This first," she repeats.

Nick concentrates, whispering words that he knows ought to work, and they do, after a fashion, leaving a raw, red mark behind but at least closing the sound.

"That's the best I can do," he says, feeling so utterly ashamed of himself.

Sabrina exhales with relief as the wound closes and most of the pain eases. His expression, however, sends a new and awful pain through her, and she wraps her arms around him. "It's enough, it's plenty, and you're going to get better and better," she says, as if there's no questioning it.

She leans up to kiss him. "It will come back," she whispers. "And I need your help now."

"Anything, Sabrina," he says, once the kiss breaks, still close enough that his lips brush against hers. "Anything in the world. You know that."

"I do know that," Sabrina says, warmth and affection and belief bleeding into her voice. "And I know you'd do this regardless. We need to go get them back, and I need you. We'll get Salem, and we go in together, and we do what we can do to bring it down to rubble, we get them back."

Nick nods, the set of his mouth grim as he studies her face. "I don't know how much use I'll be to you, Spellman. If my magic's not reliable." He frowns. "They had no interest in me, those things. They just wanted to go through me to get to Rosie."

"Having you with me is more than enough," she says. "And I've brought you into some dire situations before." She's quiet for a moment. "I know. They didn't want me either. I mean, as soon as I was pinned down, they just took Charlie and left. I mean, they're both mortals, so that could be it. But if that were the only criteria, then I think we'd see a lot more kidnappings, just everywhere."

"There's been a few," says Nick. "People are talking about it. But they really didn't want us. And if Charlie and Rosie were that easy, why didn't they get taken first?"

"I don't know," says Sabrina, though in that place inside of her that just never goes quite away, something begins to take shape. "Do we know for sure any names of people who were taken? Or of anyone who's in our situation?"

She frowns. "I wished I'd paid better attention to any kind of... divination. Why do creatures like that take people? When monsters are taking mortals, in stories at least, they--" She stops short, because she doesn't want to say it.

They kill them, eat them, use them.

Nick goes quiet for a moment, thinking it through.

"I've only ever seen it in books," he says. "We don't....nothing like it's ever happened in Greendale, but...I think I remember something to do with...light. Goodness." He makes a short, frustrated sound. "Hell, I wish I Had access to the Academy's library. I'd been able to find it there."

Sabrina stays quiet too, because it has the ring of truth in it.

"That makes sense," she says. "It's-- think about it. Both of them are so good. They shine. And we've got more ties to the Path of Night than we know what to do with." The corner of her mouth tugs up, and she rubs at her sore hand. "Not because there's anything wrong with us, but we hold darkness. But maybe that's helpful."

Nick leans in and presses a gentle kiss against the reddened palm of her hand.

"Might help us be able to raise a little hell," he says, the corner of his mouth tugging in a smile that doesn't quite touch his eyes.

She's so lucky, even when things look dire.

"I wouldn't know anything about that," she says, a bit loftily, but smiling now. "The perfectly demure and obedient picture of a good little witch."

There's still so much horror and anger and grief, but she can use it, she thinks.

It feels good to laugh, in that moment. Nick shakes his head.

"We both know that's not the case, Spellman," says Nick. "I probably know that better than everyone. Look at all the trouble you've gotten me into since I met you."

The smile turns a bit wry, and she leans in to kiss him once more. "Lucky for me, I think you're pretty into that, Nicholas."

She pulls back, and holds out her hand. "I think we ought to bandage it up anyway, if we're heading out to raise a little hell."

"I think you're probably right," he says, clicking open the box and rummaging until he finds a bandage. He starts to wrap her palm, carefully, taking his time to make sure he gets it right.

"We know that they're not going to be trying to take either of us," he says. "So maybe we'll be able to get in there unnoticed."

She softens slightly as she watches him, and every terrible part of the night she'd remembered everything is worth it, to have him here-- not only to love, but to be at her side in a situation like this.

"I think we have a good chance," she says. "I-- the goblin I burned outside, I don't know if it's the memories of what I can do, or if all of this is giving me a boost, but-- that's something that would be more... prophetically inclined power, if you know what I mean. It makes me wonder if I can somehow still reach the power without turning--"

She can't say it.

Nick finishes methodically bandaging her hand and then he stays on his knees, reaching up to cradle her face with his hands.

"Hey," he says, gently. "Listen to me, okay? Whatever happens here, Spellman, I'm going to be with you. I'm going to be with you, every step of the way. And if you stumble? That's when I'm going to catch you."

Sabrina nods.

She's knows it's true, after all.

"I believe you. And I believe in us. We're going to get them back, and I'm going to make whatever took them regret it." She leans forward, sealing this promise with a kiss, her fear faded away into determination.

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