Plenty of spirits screamed at Khalida, but not today and not in the way that Issac was talking about.
"Mama Bear doesn't hate you," Khalida assured him, wishing it was as easy as just stroking his hair to soothe him into sleep. Khalida would have found it impossible to hate Issac. She'd watched him grow from tormented boy into tormented man, growing up beside her own daughter. She loved him dearly, but that didn't mean she wasn't made uncomfortable by him, by the way he could get inside her head. Khalida hated that. It made her squirm and twist for anyone to see the things she had been through and the ways she hated herself. She was so good at looking put together, but Issac could see right though it. "Mama Bear loves you, and so does Hafsa."
As he started to attack himself again, Khalida grabbed for his hands to stop him. "No," she said firmly, a mother telling off her misbehaving child who was going to get himself in trouble. "Stop that. We're not going to do that anymore."