Epilogue
Ipush away the nose of the goat at my side. “Quit eating my garden, Ollie! I mean it!”
The goat gives me an indignant screaming “maaaah” in my ear and butts my arm, nearly knocking me over.
He leans over my shoulder and deliberately eats another leaf of nightshade.
I roll my eyes and push him aside again.
At least he’s eating the leaves and not the berries.
His sister is being awfully quiet, though, and when I look over, Belladonna (Bella for short) is eating the very berries I was just thinking about.
I sigh, giving up. “You’re both lucky you’re immortal pets and not real goats, or you’d be hurting right now.”
Ollie just prances away, thinking my tone means it’s playtime.
Because I’m a sucker, I get up and throw the deflated leather ball he loves to chase after and bring back.
Goats are a lot like dogs, really. They love to play and follow you about…
and eat everything they shouldn’t. Belladonna and Oleander are my pets, given to me by Kalos when I’d confessed how much I missed Dingle.
He’d offered to kill Dingle and bring his spirit to me, but I vetoed that. I’m happy to wait for my beloved pet to live out his natural life with Omos. He can come to us when he’s done with the mortal realm.
I play ball with Ollie a bit more and give both goats a good brushing.
I try to add ribbons into their shaggy manes, but as soon as I tie the first, Bella pulls it free from Ollie’s head.
I make a frustrated sound at their cute antics because now is not the time.
“You two need to look nice. We’re going to have company shortly. Kalos’s brother is coming.”
Ollie just nibbles on the hem of my dress and I sigh.
This is what I get for not letting Kalos handle everything with a wave of his hand.
As a god, he can manipulate anything and everything in his realm with a mere thought.
I’m a more tactile person, though. I want to have a garden—a poison garden, to keep on brand—and a place for the goats to play and graze.
Some of the swamp at the edge of the temple has been cleared away for my requests, but I won’t let Kalos touch my gardens.
I want to grow things on my own. I want to learn everything I can about poisons, and I want to start a medicine garden, too.
Gardens have livened up the Plane of Vultures a bit, but it’s still kind of dismal. I figure it’s a process, and I don’t mind making small changes over time, considering we now have forever.
Being with Kalos isn’t perfect—he’s still spoiled and a bit selfish.
He still doesn’t see the need to help people out when a perfectly good plague will wipe away any problems. He still struggles with Apathy’s lingering effects, and some days he’s not present at all.
I just wait by his side, tending to small things and playing with the goats nearby.
I stay in the same area as him so he’s not alone.
Like I said, it’s a process.
With the goats at my side, I finish gathering flowers—irises, jasmine, crocus—to decorate the temple that’s now my home.
Kalos doesn’t need to sleep or eat—I don’t either, now that I’m dead—so we don’t need a normal house with a kitchen and bedrooms. The bone-covered temple suits me fine, but I did request that Kalos add some homey pieces so we could welcome his brother Rhagos and his partner as they come to visit.
My gardening apron now full of flowers, I carry my cargo back across the fields and return to my lover.
Kalos is sprawled in his favorite chair, as usual, his scrying cauldron at his feet. He looks up with a possessive smile when I enter. “Sunshine.”
I move to his side and press a kiss to his face, like we’re an old married couple. I can’t explain how right it feels that we’re together. It’s like we were always meant to be together, and being with him feels so easy and natural. “What are you doing?”
“Overseeing my temple in Narshire. I’m sending suggestions to the head priest.” His mouth twists. “The fool’s got terrible taste in decorating.”
“Says the man who lives in a bone-covered temple.”
“It creates the right ambiance.”
“If you say so. When is Jemet arriving?” The compassionate priestess from the swamps of Farneath has been designated as “chosen by Kalos” and is traveling to the new temple to serve there.
It’s a great honor and well deserved, because she saved our butts back when Kalos and I fled. We haven’t forgotten her kindness.
“Soon, I hope, before that fool decorates the entire temple with statues of my face.”
“The horrors,” I tease. Then, I gesture at the wealth of flowers in my hands. “Speaking of decorations, can you magic me up some vases or containers for these?”
Immediately, a series of long tables assemble out of bones, along with multiple ornate glass vases. I move to the first table and unload my flowers, then begin to pluck a few out of the bushel. One drops to the floor, immediately snatched up by Bella.
“These goats have no sense of self-preservation,” Kalos comments. He gets to his feet, and the scrying pool disappears as he moves to my side, his arms going around my waist.
“I noticed. They’re making it impossible to grow anything.”
“Want me to kill them?”
“They’re immortal, and no.” I make a face at him. “We both know you wouldn’t do it anyhow.”
He grunts, resting his head on my shoulder as I work. “Why the flowers?”
“I’m decorating for your brother’s visit. Speaking of, you were going to make this place cozier.” I wave a purple iris at the exact same surroundings despite me spending several hours in my gardens. “More welcoming.”
“I added a few more vultures to the roof. That’s all Rhagos gets from me.”
That’s not exactly making the Plane of Vultures warm and friendly. It’s making it, well, more vulture-y. “Did we need more?”
“One can always have more.” He leans in, kissing my neck. “Why does my brother need flowers? He’s the god of death. Are you trying to intimidate him by destroying your garden? Demonstrating how many poisons we have on hand?”
“Flowers lighten up a room,” I say, chuckling. “It’s not anything other than me wanting to make the place more welcoming.”
“I don’t want to welcome him. We’ve been estranged for millennia and that suits me just fine.”
I snort and add a few more bright yellow daffodils to the bouquet I’m making.
It’s really incredible how many beautiful plants are wildly deadly.
“He requested to meet. Max—his Anchor—wants to get to know us, and it’s a good idea for the two of you to speak about the whole Seth situation.
I agree. We need to have a united front against that prick. ”
Kalos grunts, as if he doesn’t quite believe it. “More likely that Rhagos wants something from me.”
“Like a relationship with his brother?”
“Unlikely.” He brushes my hair aside with his fingers and kisses my neck again. “You smell delightful, my maiden. Forget the flowers and come to bed with me.”
I pause, tempted. I do like the idea of lounging in bed, kissing each other all over, but Rhagos and his consort will be here soon. “I want to, but then the goats will eat all my freshly grown flowers.”
“I’ll grow you more.”
“It’s not the same.” I smile. “Your way is cheating.”
“It’s not cheating. I’m a god. This entire domain is mine to do with as I please.”
So he says. “Then why do we still have bone walls?”
“Because I’m still collecting enough scabs for your throne, my sweet.” He nips at my earlobe.
A peal of laughter escapes me, and I collapse against him, forgetting all about flowers and company.
I turn in his arms, lifting my face to his for more kisses.
Kalos’s mouth devours mine, and I gasp as he blatantly licks my parted mouth.
My entire body hums with excitement, and I slide my hand, flowers still clutched tight, to his hip. He—
A goat—Ollie—rips the flowers out of my grasp and races away with his prize. Bella bleats and races after him, their hooves clattering on the bone flooring.
We watch them go, and I let out a snort of amusement. “I swear, those goats have a death wish.”
“I won’t let them die,” Kalos tells me with a kiss to the tip of my nose. His mouth curls into a lazy smile. “Speaking of goats…you should see the statue of me they’re erecting in the temple in Narshire.”
My eyes widen. “What about it?”
“It’s a very impressive statue of me seated, with a vulture on my shoulder. I look quite regal. At my feet,” he continues, and lifts his hand. He indicates size by holding his thumb and first finger apart by about an inch, “is a very tiny maiden holding a goat.”
I’m genuinely surprised. “Me?”
“Aye, the Maiden of Medicine.” He gives me an amused smile, then tugs my dress collar down so he can kiss my shoulder. “Metta is making quite a few noises about how your plant books are saving lives.”
“They weren’t my books—”
“Semantics. You’re considered my helper now. I’m afraid it’s been cast into stone. Cruel, inflexible Kalos who only pauses in his evil deeds to humor his Maiden.”
He sounds perfectly amused, but I’m no longer laughing. I pull back, frowning as I gaze up at him. “You’re not cruel and inflexible.”
“I don’t care what they think, sunshine—”
“I do. I’ll have a talk with Metta.” I’m sure I can send her a message somehow. A weird dream, a vision burnt onto a piece of toast, something.
He shakes his head. “Don’t bother. They’ll be full of obsequious words and ready to praise me the next time I cast a plague upon them.”
Turning, I grab the short lock of hair that brushes over his forehead.
Since I returned, he cut his hair short again, and I love touching it and running my fingers through the waves.
Today I give it a tweak. “We haven’t decided on the plague yet.
You said you’d talk it over with me before doing anything. ”
He is perfectly unruffled. “What better way to get our disciples to test their newfound knowledge?”
“Why do we have to test anyone?”
Kalos throws his head back and laughs. “Sunshine, I’m the god of disease. Testing mortals with sickness and plague is what I fucking do!”
“Hmph. We’ll see.”
He just laughs harder and cups my face in his hands. He kisses my frown away. “None of this ‘we’ll see.’ I’m the god of disease.”
“I’m your Maiden of Medicine!”
“You weren’t very maidenly last night when I had my head between your thighs and a finger up your—”
I hold his lips shut with a pinch of my fingers, but his green eyes dance merrily. “You’re supposed to be Apathy. I think no one wants a plague for a very long while.”
“The bad news is that very little of me is apathetic when I am around you,” Kalos murmurs, his hands sliding to cup my ass through my clothing. “The good news is that I can be easily distracted.”
The press of his hard cock is evident against my belly, and it’s sending furls of delicious heat through my body. “What sort of distraction did you have in mind? We’d have to be quick, we don’t know when the god of death is arriving.”
“He can wait.” Kalos’s hands hitch my skirts up to my hips, and the table with the vases is suddenly hitting my backside. He pushes me up onto it, stepping between my thighs. “I think you’d love to make the god of death wait for a while, my sunshine. Consider it part of your duty.”
“I am very dutiful,” I pant, spreading my legs wider.
In the end, we make the god of death and his consort wait for a very long while.
The End