Chapter 19 #2
"Just let go. The way you did in the farmers market when you almost tore reality apart. But this time, channel it into Horrace instead of outward."
She closed her eyes, her face a mask of concentration. The blue markings on her arm flared to life, glowing so brightly they illuminated the entire kitchen. Horrace's form began to pulse in rhythm with the markings, his own glow intensifying until it was painful to look at directly.
The Void Eater paused in its advance, seemingly wary of this new development. It shifted its form again, becoming more compact, more focused, as if gathering itself for a final assault.
"Whatever you're going to do," I told Winter and Horrace, "do it now!"
Winter's eyes snapped open, glowing with the same blue light as her markings. "Horrace, take what you need!"
Horrace made a sound unlike anything I'd heard before, a perfect, crystalline note that resonated through the pocket dimension. His form expanded, engulfing both Winter and me in a cocoon of blue light.
The entity lunged forward just as Horrace's power peaked. There was a sensation of being stretched, compressed, and then suddenly snapped back into place, like a rubber band pulled to its limit and then released.
We fell.
Not through void or chaos this time, but through normal space, landing hard on the kitchen floor of Winter's actual apartment. The impact knocked the wind out of me, and for a moment, all I could do was lie there, gasping.
When I finally managed to sit up, I saw Winter and Horrace beside me, both looking dazed but intact. The kitchen was normal, gravity working as it should, appliances in their proper places, no sign of the rift or the Void Eater.
"We... we made it," I coughed, tasting blood. "Horrace, you did it! Great job, buddy!"
Horrace made a weak trilling sound, his form dim and slightly unstable. He'd used a tremendous amount of energy to get us back.
Winter was already moving to my side, her face tight with worry. "Milo, your nose is still bleeding. And your eyes..."
I touched my face, feeling the warm wetness under my nose and, alarmingly, at the corners of my eyes as well. "Just a side effect of channeling too much unfamiliar energy," I tried to reassure her. "I'll be fine."
She didn't look convinced. "Let me get something to clean you up."
As she moved to get a towel, I slumped back against the cabinet, suddenly exhausted. The encounter with the Void Eater had taken more out of me than I wanted to admit. My head was pounding, my vision blurry at the edges, and I could still feel echoes of those false memories it had tried to implant.
But we were alive. We'd escaped. That was what mattered.
Winter returned with a damp cloth, kneeling beside me and gently wiping the blood from my face. Her touch was careful, tender in a way that made my heart do a little flip in my chest.
"You were amazing back there," her voice soft. "I've never seen you like that before. So serious, so powerful."
I laughed, wincing as the movement sent a spike of pain through my head. "I'm always amazing. Just usually in a more fun, skeleton-dance-party kind of way."
She smiled, but her eyes remained concerned as she continued cleaning my face. "You could have been killed, Milo. That thing, it was feeding on you, wasn't it? On your memories, your essence."
I couldn't deny it. "That's what Void Eaters do. They consume anomalies, paradoxes, things that shouldn't exist or be in places they don't belong. Like three inter-dimensional travelers in a pocket dimension created by a prophetic sneeze."
"Why did you put yourself between it and us?" Her voice was even more quiet now, her hand pausing in its gentle ministrations. "You could have tried to escape with us right away."
"Because that's my job," the answer simple. "To protect you. Both of you."
"Your job isn't to sacrifice yourself," she frowned.
"Sometimes it is," I met her eyes. "Winter, you're important. Not just because of the prophecy, but because you're you. And Horrace is connected to you now. If something happened to either of you..."
I trailed off, not sure how to express what I was feeling.
The truth was, in that moment facing the Void Eater, I hadn't been thinking about the prophecy or my duty as her protector.
I'd been thinking about Winter, her kindness, her strength, the way she treated my skeletons like they mattered, the way she'd accepted Horrace without hesitation.
The way she made me feel like I belonged.
"Besides," I added, trying to lighten the mood, "someone has to keep Jeffrey out of trouble. Can you imagine the chaos if he was left unsupervised?"
That earned me a small laugh, which I counted as a victory. Winter finished cleaning my face, her touch lingering longer than strictly necessary.
"Thank you. For protecting us. For being... you."
Something shifted between us in that moment. The air felt charged, electric with possibility. Winter was so close, her gray eyes soft with an emotion I couldn't quite name. Without thinking, I leaned forward and kissed her.
It was impulsive, probably stupid, definitely against Bureau protocols. But the moment my lips touched hers, I couldn't bring myself to care about any of that. To my surprise and delight, after a brief moment of shock, Winter responded, her arms wrapping around my neck as she deepened the kiss.
Time seemed to stop as we sat there on her kitchen floor, the world narrowing to just this moment, just us. I could taste the faint saltiness of blood still on my lips, could feel the warmth of her against me, could sense Horrace's amused musical trilling in the background.
Wait, Horrace?
I'd almost forgotten the manticore was there, watching us with all twelve of his eyes. The realization made me pull back slightly, though I kept my arms around Winter.
"Um," I felt a blush creeping up my neck, "I think we have an audience."
Winter glanced at Horrace, who was making what could only be described as the manticore equivalent of a wolf-whistle. She laughed, the sound warm and bright.
"I don't think he minds," she leaned in again.
This time when we kissed, it was slower, more deliberate.
I pulled her closer, one hand tangling in her hair as the other slid down to her waist. She made a soft sound against my lips that sent electricity down my spine.
Her fingers trailed up my neck, leaving goosebumps in their wake as she pressed against me with an urgency that matched my own growing need.
I could taste the faint mint of her toothpaste, feel the softness of her lips yielding against mine.
When her tongue brushed against my bottom lip, I opened to her, deepening our connection as heat pooled low in my body.
The kitchen floor was hard beneath us, but I barely noticed, lost in the way Winter's body fit perfectly against mine, how her breath quickened when I gently tugged her hair.
My thumb traced small circles at her hip, slipping just beneath the hem of her shirt to find warm skin. When she pulled back just enough to whisper my name against my mouth, the raw vulnerability in her voice undid something tightly wound inside me.
We were so caught up in each other that we didn't hear the apartment door opening. It wasn't until Horrace made a sharp, warning trill that we broke apart, looking up to find nothing. Horrace was staring at the empty doorway, all twelve eyes blinking in confusion.
Then I realized, Horrace wasn't warning us about someone coming in. He was warning us about Fenric, who was already in the apartment, standing just out of our line of sight, his attention focused on his tablet.
"According to my analysis," Fenric's voice made us both jump, "the inter-dimensional energy signature has stabilized, which suggests that—"
He looked up from his tablet, his words cutting off abruptly as he took in the scene: Winter and me on the kitchen floor, clearly having just broken apart from an embrace, both of us flushed and disheveled.
For a moment, no one spoke. Then Winter and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.
Fenric's eye began to twitch.
"I'll just," he backed toward the door, his tablet clutched to his chest like a shield, "file a report on this incident."
After he fled, Winter turned back to me, her eyes dancing with mischief and something warmer, something that made my heart race.
"Well," she giggled.
"Completely worth it," I finished for her, grinning despite the lingering pain in my head. "Though I'm pretty sure I just violated about fifty Bureau protocols."
"Only fifty?" she teased. "I'm disappointed, Milo. I thought you were more rebellious than that."
I laughed, pulling her close again. "Give me time. The day is still young."
As Winter nestled against me, her head resting on my shoulder, I caught sight of Horrace watching us with approval. His form had stabilized again, the glow returning to its normal intensity.