Page 80 of Stitches
Levi started forward as the monkey, more skittish now with all the strangeness happening around it, leapt back up into the trees and hurried away.
“I think that was our test,” Levi said and stepped across the barrier boldly.
The same ripple occurred, and Levi’s skin faded to a pale peach, his eyes becoming blue instead of violet as he turned back with a smile and extended his hand, beckoning for Ashmedai to follow.
Levi was the strong one, of that Ashmedai had been certain for some time, but he knew he couldn’t cower in his castle anymore when the chance for freedom was finally before him. Taking a breath, Ashmedai grasped Levi’s hand and allowed himself to be pulled from the lands he had ruled over for a thousand years into the snow.
The whiteness of Ashmedai’s skin also became peach-colored, his ears remaining long, though he felt his teeth lose their sharpness, and his claws became dull, blunt nails. He couldn’t see his own eyes, but he imagined them now being a benign brown.
“You’re not really an elf though,” Levi said with a sly grin.
“True, but I’ve always been able to bring out my real form. This was the version of me that was lost.”
Levi shivered, and Ashmedai pulled him closer with a chuckle. It was colder on this side, where the winter season was more normal, and snowlittered the ground around them. The temptation to explore was strong, but they agreed it would be safer and smarter to wait until more of the citizens had been informed and could join them, especially if more highwaymen lurked.
They returned to the Shadows Lands. Like with the glider monkey, they didn’t immediately transform back. It seemed that had to be a conscious choice.
“To be honest,” Ashmedai said, marveling at Levi’s cream skin, “I think I might miss the blue.”
“I think I’d miss your ridges.” Levi alighted his fingers on Ashmedai’s smooth clavicle, bared from the open collar of his red silk tunic. “And your claws. And your eyes. And your fangs.”
Ashmedai laughed, and together, they returned themselves to the way they had been.
“I guess everyone can choose what they want,” Levi said. “In a way, the barrier is still with us, but the people can be whoever they wish, even leave if they desire.”
“I have a feeling most will want to stay exactly as they’ve been for a thousand years, or the way the newer ones were born. But now they have a choice. Imagine being able to travel again, to have visitors again. I just wish….” Ashmedai looked through the trees toward where he knew the tower resided. “I wish Brax….”
Levi hugged Ashmedai when no more words left him. “I know.”
“He wasn’t himself in the end. He wasn’t. And I can’t help blaming myself for that too. He was right about one thing. I wasn’t there for him. I was so lonely for so long, but I was selfish, because I didn’t see how lonely my friend was too.”
Within their embrace, Levi lifted his hands to hold Ashmedai’s face. “Everything can be better now, and we can make certain that every sacrifice was worth getting here.”
He drew Ashmedai closer and kissed him.
This kiss was different than any before it, because Ashmedai was suddenly aware of how Levi’s lips felt without stitches. As bittersweet as this victory was, he decided that nothing had ever felt so right.
Levi
Back inside the tower, in the abandoned workshop, while Braxton’s body was still and empty and would remain so, the Onyx gemstone pulsed faintly at its core with one last hidden spark of light.
Oflife.
And within that impenetrable prison, the real Levi screamed.
Chapter 11
Levi
“Thiscan’tbereal.I have to be dreaming,” Levi said to an empty, terrifying echo.
There was nothing but blackness immediately around him, with the faint glow of violet light. He couldn’t move. His voice, he supposed, was more something he wanted to hear, thoughts not words, because he had no mouth to speak.
Braxton had accomplished exactly what he wanted, and Ashmedai didn’t know, because Braxton had taken Levi’s body. He’d set them up, positioned everything perfectly, and now Levi was alone.
Levi could see outside the Onyx, but only the barren workshop it resided in, still dark. Braxton’s body was sprawled on the floor, back to a normal humanlike figure, though Levi knew now how much that too had been a lie.
Unable to tell the passage of time, the wait for something, anything to happen, was maddening. What did Braxton want? What was he doing with Ashmedai? What did he plan to do with Levi? Would he force Levi to stay like this and slowly lose himself to the isolation?
