It may have been an assumption, but it was a fair one, Annabelle thought. To a degree, their well-being and fate was tied together. At least, that's what she'd taken away from that meeting with the alien. They were all in the same situation.
It was at that point that she realized Simon was not human. Even a reasonably bad human being would care about that, about their own mortality.
"I can't promise you that," Annabelle said.
"And I have nothing that I can really give you, unless you're particularly fond at oil paintings. I'm very good at those."
She waited a moment to see if perhaps that was the case. You never could tell.
Her eyebrow arched again, and Annabelle shut her eyes. "If you start teaching me, though, something will happen. There's a spirit. He's watching me. And I haven't seen him since this all started, but I'm fairly certain that he could be here, with me, too. He doesn't let me out of his sight."
Annabelle had gotten used to the feeling that there was someone just in the next room, watching. It was always there. She didn't like to talk about Lasher. But if you wanted entertainment, and interesting...
"If you teach me and turn me into the witch my family bred me to be, he'll give you all the interesting you can handle. That I can promise you."
She considered how much else to share about Lasher. If Simon really did help her, and she grew controlled and powerful enough to fight Lasher, the thing that killed her mother, well, that would be quite a sight. Not even Rowan had been able to fully take Lasher on.
This would be enough.
"He and I will fight until one of us is dead. I think that's more amusing than burning leaves."