Chapter 33 #2
My heart drops, and I shift back. This is when the hurt starts.
“I—” I carefully look back at the manor and the fields beyond that I can never pass. Is this my torture? To be stuck in this manor with a man who hates my existence.
I take another step back and, for the first time, notice the change—everywhere.
This is wrong. I—I feel. Everything is vivid. The world isn’t so muted. The bite of wind hits my skin, rather than going through me. I can feel the uneven ground beneath my feet and see my hair dancing to the will of the storm.
“Am I still there?” I’m not a passenger in my own mind. Every movement seems to be my own.
Lynx’s nostrils flare with an inhale, and, hesitantly, he shakes his head, eyeing me carefully. “It doesn’t… smell like it.”
I jolt when something hits my cheek. It happens again—the tip of my nose this time. I touch the cool liquid and smear rainwater along my skin as more droplets begin to batter down and soak my hair.
Like I’m real.
My gaze drops to the ground where I stand, following the foot-shaped imprints in the grass. I’m leaving a trace. I’m making sounds and taking up space.
I exist.
A laugh starts to bubble up my throat because I’m not a ghost. It’s swiftly cut off by a dawning realization.
“I shouldn’t be here.”
A panicked expression crosses Lynx’s face. It shifts to confusion just as quickly. “I’m meant to be a demon right now—in Hell.” He glances around as if double-checking we aren’t surrounded by fire.
I shake my head. “No, I gave the Devil my soul for yours. Y-you’re free.” Free to spend the rest of your life hating me.
“What?” He takes a step toward me. His face gives nothing away. “You did that for me?”
There’s too much to unpack in the way his eyes start swirling, so I open my mouth and let it all come out. “Please, Lynx. I swear to you. You have to know that I had nothing to do with that dagger or cursing you, and I—”
“I know.”
That stops me for only a second. “And I understand why you paid for your freedom with my soul because of what you thought I—”
The wrinkles in Lynx’s forehead deepen. “You thought I sold you out?”
I return his frown. “Satan told me—”
He scoffs, curling his lips in displeasure. “It lied.”
My heart feels too heavy for my body. “What?” But Lynx… He thought…
“I agreed to give my soul to him for the rest of eternity in exchange for your freedom.” He runs his hands through his hair, and glares at something in the distance. I can practically hear the gears turning in his head.
Could this still be Hell? No, it can’t be. It all feels real. It’s nothing like when I was being tortured. I’m corporeal. The rain is literally hitting my skin. This doesn’t seem like a mirage, or like I’m a passenger in my body.
“Then why did It let us go? We both agreed to be stuck there for an eternity.” Unless this is a trick.
His head snaps toward me… and he almost looks happy despite the rain soaking us.
“You were dragged to Hell by a Tor’Oth as a spirit with unfinished business.
You weren’t a human who sold your soul to a demon.
The fates decided your spirit should stay on Earth before passing through the veil…
The Devil had no right to keep you when you don’t belong in Hell. ”
Lynx pauses to think, and I try not to get too excited at the prospect of freedom without knowing what he’s going to say next.
Bright blue eyes land back on me, and they’re—God, they’re twinkling. “And you agreed to set me free, and he can’t keep me because my curse, which your family cast, has been broken and I’m no longer a demon. This way, It gets both of us once we pass. It’s a cunt, but It is fair.”
Lynx closes the distance to hold my face in both his hands, pressing his forehead to mine. He smiles down at me—a real, genuine, beaming smile that makes me feel weightless. I grasp his wrists, and I can hardly breathe from the elation of feeling real skin on skin.
“We’re free, Sable. We—You’re warm.” His lips part as his eyes dart over me to check for something.
It’s my turn to smile at him and put every single ounce of my emotions into the curve of my lips.
“I’m human, Lynx.”
He’s frozen for a moment. Then his lips come crashing down on mine, frantic and demanding, like this kiss encapsulates every word we’ve shared since I found him in the field. The tears that start pricking my eyes are happy ones. They stream down my face, mixing with the rainwater.
“I fucking love you, Sable,” he says without breaking our kiss, pushing his hand beneath my top to feel his skin right against my back.
He loves me.
Lynx loves me.
How long have I been waiting to hear those words said to me?
“I love you too, Lynx.”
Being held in his arms like this, I know I made the right decision. The Devil was right. I need to make peace with my sister’s passing and focus on the future.
And my future is with Lynx, if he’ll have me.
My tears bleed into the space where our lips meet. Their salty taste is dull compared to the light that feels like it could be beaming from my chest.
I curl my fingers behind his head to pull him closer—if that’s even possible. His hands grope my flesh and use my hair as leverage to deepen the kiss. Each touch is intensified, unlike all the other heated exchanges we’ve had.
I pull back to get air. “I thought you’d leave me for good.”
A muscle ticks in his jaw. “I almost did.”
“Why did you come back?” My throat tightens as I remember the seething hatred on his face.
He stiffens beneath my hands. “Tony—He—”
“What happened to Tony, Lynx?” My voice wavers.
Lynx wraps his arms around me, holding me against his chest so I can’t see his face. “He… he had to stay behind. He was never meant to leave Hell.”
Oh. I guess I thought… I don’t know what I expected. Tony only came here because I accidentally summoned him—it’d make sense for the Devil to herd Its sheep back into Its den. Guilt weighs down on me for not including him in my bargain, but something tells me it wouldn’t have worked anyway.
Unsure what to do, I rub his back, reveling in the way his saturated top feels against my hands. We stay standing there, in front of a manor we’ve both been stuck in and may finally be free to leave, letting the rain pelt onto us, and for a moment, I think Lynx’s chest might be shaking.
Movement out the corner of my eye has us separating to watch a dog trot out of the forest toward the manor with something that looks concerningly like a severed human arm in its mouth.
It shakes its coat once it reaches the dry area beneath the porch, nudges the door wider with its nose, and walks in like it owns the place, hitting the wall with what is most definitely a male hand.
I shift my eyes up to Lynx’s. “Holy shit, it looks like a mini Tidus! Can we keep it?”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “I can’t get rid of the fucker.”