Page 44 of Mischief Maker
Behind us, Terano shakes his head. “Lucia,” he chides. “Always playing your games, even with your children.”
“Hmph.” She waves him off. “It worked, didn’t it? Now Kireth.” She puts one hand on each of my shoulders. “After this, you will walk through these doors and never return. When you die, you will go to the place all mortals do. We won’t see you again.”
I think that perhaps there are even some unshed tears in her eyes.
With a nod, I say, “I understand.”
Lucia tilts her head back and begins to hum. The air vibrates around us. I feel a sudden slackening in my muscles, as if the energy is being drained out of them. Faela gasps and rushes to my side as I fall over, boneless. It’s as if my spirit is being drawn out through my mouth.
“Kireth!” Faela cries out.
My mother holds up her hand, and in it, there is a small, swirling ball of light. She blows on it, as if sending off a dandelion seed, and the light winks out.
Already, I can feel the creep of death on me—but it doesn’t frighten me the way I thought it would. When I look down, my skin is no longer the gray of stone, but a light brown, full of flesh and blood.
“Are you all right?” Faela asks, helping me back to my feet.
“I’m fine now.” I smile fully at her, at the girl I’ve chosen and who was chosen for me. “Let’s go home.”
I give my mother a kiss on the hand, and my father slaps my shoulder.
“I’m glad I got to see you before the end,” Terano says. “Now go. Live your mortal life.”
“Oh, I will.” I anticipate with glee all the things I can do with it.
When I pull on the door handles, they open wide for us. Taking Faela’s hand in mine, I tug her over the threshold.
The moment we step through, the doors fall shut behind us with a resounding clang! Then, all of oblivion disappears behind us.
We are free.
Faela
My immortal has chosen a life with an expiration date—for me. I don’t think there’s ever been such a declaration of love as that.
He has changed, too. His skin is a bright bronze, his hair as dark as before, but the ends are now tipped with sunlight. His horns and tail remain.
It’s a long way back the way I came. I just hope that Lucia was right, and we’ll return to the mortal plane where I came from.
At the bottom of the mountain, the farm and the village are gone. We walk through the endless yellow grasses, taking our time, relishing being together again. After much teasing and giggling, Kireth rolls me up in his arms and we fall to the ground together, our tongues dancing, our limbs exploring each other as if we’ve been separated for years. He pulls up my dress and pleasures me with his mouth, then slides his cock inside me like it was meant to fit there. I moan his name and he clutches me close, taking his time, prying one climax from my body after another.
We fall asleep like that, lying in the cloud-soft grasses, curled around each other.
When I wake up, it’s because a wet tongue is swiping across my face.
“Petal?”
The dog’s tail frantically wags as I sit up and wipe my cheek. Kireth’s eyes open, and he rubs them with both fists.
We’re lying in the sheep field, just down the hill from the house. The sky is darkening, and I’m relieved to see the sun moving across the sky after my short stay in the house that wasn’t mine, with the mother that wasn’t mine, either.
“We’re home,” I breathe. “Lucia brought me back like she promised.”
“She might be a little naughty, but she never lies.” Kireth stretches his arms like a cat, as if we’ve just woken from a most relaxing nap. His smile grows as he surveys the land around us. “Just like you left it.”
It looks like less than a day on the farm has passed since I “died” and came back to life. Quickly, we feed the animals, who are restless after being cooped up, and attend to the crops. We’re exhausted from playing catch-up by the time night falls, and Kireth grumbles at how much faster he gets tired.
Under the starry sky that night, Kireth and I sit together on the front steps of our home.
