Page 73 of Killer of the Bells
“Decades, Gareth. You punished me and the fae for decades for a single slight. What the hell is wrong with you?” Vale rubbed his forehead. “I think I need another nap.”
I motioned to my willing lap, and Vale leaned over to plant a kiss on my lips.
“You really pissed me off,” Gareth grumbled.
“If the fae ever found out it was you…” Vale warned.
“Let them. I’m more than capable of defending myself.” Gareth’s cocky nonchalance showed me he fully believed it.
After watching him strangle a god to death with his bare hands, I was inclined to believe it as well.
“We should do the bells together. All of us,” I told Vale again, so everyone else would know of our plan.
“Family bonding!” Baz chimed in from his dog pile. “Christmas is a bunch of bullshit anyway. We might as well ruin it for everyone else, right?”
“I think everyone in the town would consider it a gift if we took the bells out, Baz,” Vale said with his ghost smile.
“Way to ruin it for me, Vale,” Baz pouted. “Now I don’t know if I want to go.”
“You’re not invited anyway,” Vale informed him.
“Well, now I definitely have to go! Love, take us home so we can get Apple and Adam.”
“We aren’t taking Adam to a free-for-all,” Gareth said. “Apple would have kittens.”
“What if I promised to protect Adam the entire time?” Baz asked.
“Then we’d have to hold a funeral for both of you, and I’ve got better things to do with my time,” Vale said, taking my hand and kissing it.
“Gross. You’ve become as disgusting as everyone else, Vale! Now I only have Gareth on my side. At least he’ll still fuck me.” Baz folded his arms over his chest and flopped back down into his animal pile to pout.
I raised an eyebrow at Gareth. The collective was huge on bros helping bros, apparently.
“No more helping bros,” I reminded Vale.
He scoffed. “Why would I drive a rusty scooter when I could have a Rolls-Royce? There’s no comparison.”
Baz whistled. “Ouch. I’d say that was mean even for you, Vale, but you’ve set the bar impossibly high, so I can only give you an 8.5 for it.”
“So, we’re all going to do the bells?” I asked my new husband. Even though it was out of the , I found I quite liked having one.
It was nice to have Vale as a workaround for my verbal quirks. I didn’t know if it was the fae magic or if it was just Vale, but talking to him was as easy as breathing. Everyone else still got echoes or silence, but with Vale around, I could say what I needed to say. Maybe it was because Vale was safe to talk to.
I knew deep in my heart that, as catty as Vale seemed, he would never judge me. We were kindred souls who had gone through devastatingly painful bullshit in our lives. Now we got to live those lives together.
My heart let off a soft, warm glow at the thought. I touched my chest and focused on it to remind myself that I could feel good things.
Always pay attention when your heart feels good, friends. Burn the memory deep into your essence so you remember that it’s possible to feel that way when everything has gone to shit and you feel empty inside.
Because who knows? If you hold on a little longer, you might find something amazing waiting for you just around the corner. I know I certainly did.
“I still think we should do the bells on our own,” Vale began, but I gave him the puppy-eyes treatment, and he folded immediately and said, “But it wouldn’t be the end of the world if everyone else came.”
“Am I allowed to kill people in this game?” Baz sat up again and upset the animal pile so much that Trixie nipped at him.
“Only in self-defense,” Gareth said. “Excessive killing will forfeit the win.”
“I don’t remember this rule,” I told Vale.
