Page 51 of Heart Shaped Wreckage
I waited for something to change, but I felt no different.
“Did you do it?”
“It is done. Your essence was weak. You are now and forever only a mortal. You will one day die and go into your eternal resting place,” she wheezed. “You really are supposed to wait for me to agree before you use those damn scissors,” she slapped her throne. “Now go. Your future awaits you, and when you exit this realm, the mortals… er… the other mortals’ memories will be restored.
Kevin held the stones aloft and grinned.
“To our future.”
I took his hand and we stepped into the portal.
I will admit, I was scared that when he knew who he was, everything would change.
This was the last gasp. All I could do was hope. I hadn’t felt hopeful in a very long time.
But I was learning.
21
LANDON
The portal opened, and I took a deep breath.
What if I didn’t like who I was? What if I were a total fuck up? What if I had done bad things, and this was my punishment for causing someone else pain? A punishment that I inflicted on myself. Maybe I was a masochist? Maybe I hated myself? I might have deserved it.
I didn’t know how I knew – but I knew that it was me who took away my memory. Flashes of things had been coming back, but the flashes were just that. Nothing consequential, just quick glimpses into the past, and I knew that they were true. They felt true – It scared me.
Heath had made a choice, and I respected it. I understood it. I had done the same for him. To be given his grace back and then to choose to have it removed. It was brave. I hoped he didn’t regret it. But then to give up eternity – to be honest, I was very confused about all of that. I didn’t understand it, but I had a clue. He was without a body. At some point in time, Magnus had become bodiless, and his soul had found a home in a human host. I had a lot of questions there.
But…
Did it even matter anymore? No. He had given it all up to restore my memory.
He was mortal.
He was human.
He was mine.
The air rushed as we walked through, and the portal shut quietly behind us.
I knew where I was.
I looked at him, and my eyes filled with tears.
The pain I had felt so acutely came flooding back – but it was now dull, and it occupied a different place in my psyche.
He didn’t matter.
Myles felt like a past scar that had healed. Heath had done that. He had soothed the pain until it was just a small scar I might scratch one day and remember how I got it.
“Hi,” I turned to him sheepishly and laughed. “I’m Landon. Sometimes my friends call me Landy, but I think I don’t really care what you call me as long as I’m in your arms every night.”
“Landon,” he smiled. “It fits you. I’m still gonna call you Kevin, every now and then. Force of habit, you know.”
“I’ll always be Kevin. I liked Kevin a lot. Actually, it was because of Kevin that I found you.”
“I’m… It’s weird. I don’t feel that much different. I still feel the wolf inside me because that’s who Heath was.” He looked at me as if he were working something out. He would need time.
