Page 62 of Let Me Win You

“I don’t need the ward breaker,” I assured him. “I’ll find a way to get the potion to Nic without it.” I enclosed him in a quick hug, my chest warming with genuine gratitude. “Thank you, brother.”

“Alright, alright.” He patted my back before releasing me from the embrace. “Go, free your woman.”

“Oh, speaking about freeing…” I uncoiled my tail, ready to head back down the mountain. “Could you let Lux out of your basement, please? I almost forgot about him.”

Avar’s jaw dropped.

“Lux? What is he doing in my basement?” His voice dropped to a threatening rumble. “Invi, what did you do this time? What the fuck happened here in my absence?”

A lot of things, but I had no time to recount them all.

“You know how irresistible Lux can be when he wants something. I didn’t need him to further complicate things that were complicated enough already. I put the basement key back under that tall sharp rock by the lilac bush. Just keep in mind, he’s probably pretty angry by now. He’s spent a few days locked in there.”

The cat sauntered down the path, licking his whiskers.

“Can you believe it, Keeper?” Avar shook his head. “The scoundrel stole my basement key and locked up our brother. Do you ever feel ashamed, Invi?”

“Sometimes. A little.” I smirked. “Just the appropriate amount of shame for a mortal sin to feel. Oh, and about this cat…” I shook my rattle, making it vibrate before gently rubbing the cat’s neck with it. “I’ll need to borrow the horologe too.”

18

Nicole

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay a little longer?” Gul asked the last group of souls on their way out.

This never-ending party had taken three whole days, filling his house with music and chatter. Crowds moved through the rooms and the gardens day and night. I slept at odd hours whenever there was a bed or a couch available.

Souls didn’t need toilets, but Gul made one for me off the guest shower room. Except that every time I had to use it, I had to kick out groups and couples who wanted to make out in privacy, away from the main crowd.

It wasn’t all bad. There was plenty of good food and cocktails for everyone. Under different circumstances, I might’ve enjoyed some parts of this party more than I did. But since I was essentially a prisoner in Gul’s house, joy was hard to find. All I felt was the irritation from all the noise and the extreme exhaustion from the lack of sleep.

When the crowd finally receded, an overwhelming sense of relief washed over me.

Gul, however, seemed to get sadder and sadder with every guest departing.

“Stay the night,” he implored the last few souls. “We’ll make croissants for breakfast or poached eggs.”

“We promised Kindness to be there for her scones first thing in the morning,” one of the departing souls replied.

“And it’s almost morning already.” Another one gestured at the sky that lightened with the approaching sunrise.

“Yeah, we’ve been here for days,” the third one added. “Half of the souls I came with already got their Higher Judgement and left Purgatory.”

“That’s the problem,” Gul sighed as they all filed out from the house and closed the doors behind them. “No one really stays in Purgatory for long. I don’t even try to remember any of them because chances are in a week or two all of them will be gone.”

He sat on the couch next to me and clapped his hands to turn off the magical viewing box, which marked the end of the party. Without the TV, I felt the silence even more acutely after the days of the constant noise.

Gul glanced at me uneasily.

“You seem quiet. Are you sad too? Come.” He opened his burly arms wide. “A hug will do us both good.”

He’d been exceptionally nice to me after the last argument we’d had when he caught me looking at the green line of Invi’s forest on the horizon beyond the sunflower field.

“Go back in the house, cupcake,” Gul had said, shoving a glass of wine in my hand. “Or I’ll think you’re still pining after him.”

“I miss him,” I replied honestly.

“Why? Why do you care about him so much? What did he give you that I can’t give? Nothing. Invi has nothing, and what he does have, he doesn’t appreciate enough. That’s why he alwayswants what others have. That’s why he wants you too, you know? Because I have you, and he can’t.”

---