Chapter Fifteen
“Ican do this.” I crack my neck and stare across the dark surface of Teapot Lake.
Water isn’t a demon’s favorite thing. We prefer a dry heat, mountains with seismic activity, maybe a beach if there’s plenty of sun. It’s not that I can’t swim. I can. I can swim this lake quite well, in fact.
Well . . . I could. I doggy paddled this distance as a snot-nosed kid more times than I can count, just not in the dark. Alone. Powered by my rather large and slightly out of shape physique. If nothing else, I know I float.
I shake my head and snort, rubbing my temples up to the base of my horns. “I can do this.”
I take off my nylon drawstring backpack and set it on the ground. It’s stuffed with a change of clothes and some toiletries in several gallon-size plastic bags. I send down a prayer that they’re truly as watertight as the packaging implies. Besides the contents of my backpack, the rest of my belongings will stay at the cabin until the roads are clear.
After a five-hour hike, I have to catch my breath. My phone conversation with Noelle was a total shitshow. Hopefully, she at least caught my repeated reassurances that I was fine and that I’d see her tonight, and if I didn’t show up to the festival by midnight, she should send search and rescue to the lake. I was joking when I said that part, but watching the sunset fade from sherbet pink to a darker shade of violet, the nerves are setting in.
That’s a big ass lake, and true dark is coming quick.
I’d love to jump in and start swimming now, but I’ve been hiking all day already and feel a little weak. I have a quarter gallon of water left and a decent meal of jerky, nuts, and dried fruit to eat. My body will need all the rest, hydration, and fuel it can get. Plus, when the sun disappears, it’s Silent Hour, demonkind’s most sacred feast. The last meal before the new year. I’m not really religious or anything, but like most demons, I’m superstitious enough to honor Mother Darkness. You know, just in case. Because it was this day, this night, that she promised when tomorrow comes, each new day would be brighter.
That’s all I want. To watch the sun rise tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow with my best friend.
I tap my phone, but there’s no service here. Figures. The sky is fading to a deeper indigo. I flick on my mini flashlight and start to eat.
It’s been a pretty wild day. After hiking to Frostwing Lookout this morning and suffering through the emergency operator’s wishy-washy update that the roads should be clear within the next 12-36 hours, I knew there was only one way off this mountain. The same one Noelle almost took days ago. The route that sent me into a panic.
My thoughts are clearer now.
The mountain is a monster and a mother. I just needed to treat her with respect. The first step in that was learning.
The trail map Noelle gave me days ago was goddess-sent. I studied it and ended up choosing the safest route. It also happened to be the longest and furthest from Winter Bliss. No lava pits or magma rivers or bear dens for me, thanks.
It’s almost 10:00 pm by the time I’ve had a meal and run myself through a heaping dose of affirmations. I stand on a rocky overhang. The water is deep here and a straight shot to town. I’ve done this before.
“I can do this.” I tighten the straps of my bag, clicking the buckle across my bare chest. My hand goes to my nose to readjust eyeglasses that aren’t there. I switched to contact lenses. Better than losing my $300 custom prescriptions at the bottom of the lake. Thankfully, vacation-minded Rom of two weeks ago also packed swim shorts, thinking he’d find a nice hotel with a pool.
Oh, how differently this trip has turned out. After surviving an avalanche, I’m about to swim alone across a deep, dark lake in the middle of the night. And I wouldn’t change a thing.
Light dances across the water’s surface from the moon, thousands of multi-colored fireflies, and the twinkling town of Winter Bliss on the opposite shoreline.
Can I really do this?
I imagine Noelle waiting for me at the town square on New Year’s Eve, just like she must have fourteen years ago when everything went to shit.
”Fuck it.”
I dive in.
The water isn’t a shock at all. It feels good. Great, actually, like a hot tub that hasn’t quite reached maximum temperature. A nice, warm bath.
I swim for a while and monitor my heartrate as I go. When I get tired, I turn on my back to catch my breath, watching my chest heave. Slow and steady wins the race.
Fireflies flit around me, several landing on my nose and belly, then shoot off in a swirling vortex that dips and flows from the water’s surface to the cooler air and back again. They kind of remind me of a flock of starlings, how thousands of them move as if of one mind.
I can’t wait to tell Noelle about this, even if she’s seen it a hundred times. My childhood memories are pleasant enough, but re-experiencing Winter Bliss as an adult has been so special. Despite the mountain’s treacherous inclines and other natural hazards, it really lives up to its name tonight. The terrain is dangerous in a way I understand, its ferocity carved into my skin. The scars are like the rivers of lava themselves. They aren”t embarrassing. They remind me I survived. I’m alive. And every time I venture out and face my fears, I”m brave.
Dark water surrounds me in a comforting embrace, warmed by the heat of the very earth below. Darkness is a demon’s home. This place is my home, where I’m meant to be.
With that thought in mind, I get back to the task at hand, a brisk freestyle, and keep the glow of the town in front of me. The shoreline isn’t just the yellow and blue lights of houses and businesses. The fire altars are being lit near the city hall. Flames and smoke pump into the starlit sky like a signal to the gods.
Excitement builds in my gut. I’m so close I can feel it. The collective energy of some powerful demon fire-magic is beginning. Mount Winter Bliss is about to erupt with controlled lava flows that will keep the mountain, the town, and the entire region safe for another year.
My feet hit the muddy bottom. I made it! The first thing I do is pull out the bag holding my phone.
11:40pm. My legs are like jelly, but I make my way toward the town square by following the streetlights, then the flames. Torches light the way as a dark group of half-naked fire-conjurers march past.
This is cool as shit. I never got to see it as a kid, since only adults could attend the midnight ritual and after party.
Someone hands me a torch and just like that, I’m swept up in the procession of the Devout. Male members of the religious demon sect wear black loincloths while the women don simple two pieces. Everyone is soaking wet from head to toe to repel fire catching on their clothes or hair. I can understand the confusion considering I’m also still wet and wearing small black swim shorts.
A priest-looking guy paints blue symbols all over my body before I can even react. Weird, but okay, because rather than push him away and hand back the torch, I march alongside them. The entire town will be paying attention to the procession. It’s the best vantage point to find Noelle. The Devout light each fire altar in our path with their torches, while I search the crowds lining the street.
Redheads stick out, but she’s nowhere to be found.
Then, I’m out of time. We’ve reached the town square.
The Devout dump their torches in a giant bonfire and circle up. Before I can slip away, my neighbors grab my hands. It’s a perfect circle of a couple dozen serious, fire-magic demons and me, a random dude in swim briefs.
“And now the time for our truths. Speak now or hold your secrets in silent shame.”
It’s Old Ethel.
Gobsmacked, I had no idea she was a practitioner of the ancient rites. No one steps forward, but the two hands clasping mine start to heat up. Shit. The magic is starting?
“Jaromar!” Old Ethel’s hand sweeps to me. “You have something to share.”
I stumble forward, more worried about fucking up the magic than figuring out why she called my name. Her other hand sweeps to the crowd. “Noelle!”
Between two burly young demons, the redheaded beauty I traversed a mountain and swam across a lake and marched through the streets to find steps into the circle. Mother Below, she’s beautiful. Just perfect in every way wearing a glittering yellow-gold dress. Her eyes are wide but not afraid. No, she’s lost in a state of total wonder. Noelle sees Old Ethel first.
“Me?” She presses a hand to her chest as she moves forward on her roller skates, twirling to glance at the circle of the Devout. “I . . . what . . .”
Our eyes meet. She blinks several times, looking me over from head to toe. Almost . . . confused. Like an out-of-body experience, I see myself through her eyes. I’m in nothing more than the tightest swim shorts with my hair knotted back. In public. Nothing hides my face or my chest, not even my glasses.
I’m tired of hiding.
I stand before her and all of demonkind just as I am, covered in scars with half an ear and a misshapen nose only a mother could love. Well, maybe Noelle too, if I’m lucky. If I’m honest with her first.
We move together like magnets. Old Ethel joins our hands and melds back into the circle.
The Devout begin to whisper, words so quiet I can’t make them out, but each demon’s mouth is completely in sync. Fireballs circle their joined hands, swirling with unholy light.
“We were chosen.” Noelle’s eyes dart around. “I don’t understand. The people chosen for the conjuring have to share something with each other.” She locks eyes with me, silent for a beat before her eyes widen. “A hard truth we’re holding secret.”
“What if it’s not hard?” I ask.
“Mine is.” She shifts on her skates. It’s nice she’s a little taller in them, almost eye level with me now. “I mean, maybe not.”
I clasp her hands in mine, hoping my fingers don’t burn her from all the chaotic energy zinging around inside me. Her hard truth can’t be that bad. It’s Noelle. She’s pure goodness. She’d never hurt me. I have to be brave and face it, whatever it is.
I have to tell her my truth, the one I kept safe in my heart all these years. The one I half confessed to in the cave but held back the hard part because I was scared.
I’m not scared anymore.
I don’t want to hide anything from her.
“Let’s both say it together.” My forehead leans down against hers.
“On the count of three?” She gives me a little smile. Nervous but ready.
“The count of three.” I squeeze her hand.
“Three,” we say together. The demons shoot fireballs toward the ground.
“Two.” Flames catch and race along a pattern that surrounds us.
“One.” Intricate shapes alight. It’s a blazing sigil. The sight distracts us until it flares in a brief, hot burst.
We lock eyes.
“I love you,” we say at the same time, followed by a twin reaction. “Really?”
The fiery lines surrounding us grow tall, dancing like living spirits, and the Devout begin chanting. I grasp her tight on a surprised laugh. We watch from the center of the entire town, enraptured and hypnotized by the ritual. The flames morph from red to orange to yellow to white gold. The demons surrounding us are dark silhouettes, hands held high and ablaze as their multi-layered song echoes through my bones.
I feel light and heavy at the same time. Infinite.
”You love me?” I ask, sneaking a glance back to her. It doesn”t seem real.
”And you love me.” She pulls my face down and peppers it with kisses.
I can’t stop smiling between kissing her back, getting as close as I possibly can until a flash of heat has us and the crowd gasping.
The eyes of every Devout member are white gold and swirling, their hands clasped high. Fire is everywhere, tall and fierce but contained.
Then, the dancing flames seep into the ground. As the firelight recedes, the earth itself begins to glow. Every head swivels to Mount Winter Bliss, a looming monolith against a violet sky. The tip of the mountain erupts in a spray of orange and gold.
Boom!
The crowd cheers in a cacophonous roar. Bright wavy rivers of lava flow down the mountain into channels the first demons to live in this valley dug into the rock ages ago.
Noelle’s eyes reflect the bonfires around us and the stars above. This is her town, her mountain, but I want it to be mine again too.
“I want to stay,” I say, not even sure she can hear me over all the noise.
She turns, eyebrows up and speechless. Her arms loop around my neck, and she jumps. I catch her easily and we’re nose to nose, forehead to forehead.
“I want you to stay,” she says. “But are you sure this little town is enough for you? I’m okay with long-distance. I’ll do whatev—”
“I’m not okay with any distance.” I squeeze her tighter, so she’s pressed against every inch of my bare chest, and my hand is in her beautiful hair, keeping her face close too. Right where she needs to be. Right where I belong. “You’re everything to me. My past and my future. There’s nowhere else I want to be than with you.”
Tears stream down her face, catching the light of a hundred fires. As we kiss and kiss, the exhales of her laughter and salt of her happy tears takes me higher, makes me hungry for more. She’s my forever and my right now. I’m so lost in the moment; there’s no one else but me and her.
“Oof, sorry.” A shirtless demon covered in body paint with streamers tied to his tall horns bumps into me. With the ritual over, the Devout dispersed, and I guess we’re standing in the middle of what”s now the dance floor. A live band is starting up some drum-heavy folk music.
Noelle seems to know the guy and his companion, and even when I set her down, she keeps a stranglehold hug on my waist. My girl is a sucker for chit chat. That is not my forte, so I nod and smile along, still feeling like an absolute king for having her in my arms.
Something tickles in my mind though, like I can feel eyes burning in the back of my head. Turning around, the only person I recognize is Old Ethel, but she’s not looking at me. She’s not looking at me so intently, it’s like she was looking at me and is trying really hard not to anymore.
I kiss Noelle on the cheek. “Be right back, goddess. Don’t skate off anywhere.”
She pats my ass as I stroll over to the demoness who owes me $500.
“Jaromar.” She looks me up and down in that caustic, assessing way she did the first day, the way that pricked my insecurities. Despite being bare-chested with all my scars on display, I don’t feel that same reaction anymore. Her fingers fan out toward me, flames flickering on each tip for a beat. “You have my keys? I assume you’re checking out early.”
I smile. She’s hoping I forgot about our little wager.
“I still have two and a half days. I’ll need to go up and get my things once the road is clear. It’s a lovely cabin, by the way. Five stars.”
“They cleared the road hours ago.” She scoffs and shrugs. “And thanks, I guess.”
“Turns out Noelle is pretty fond of me,” I say, leaning closer to her, waiting for her to catch on. “I guess I’ll be sticking around.”
Her blood-red, glowing eyes slide back to me. “So you’re a local now?”
I puff up my chest, smug that I managed to get the town’s pretty librarian to fall for me. “Looks like it.”
The demoness’s grin blooms, a half-moon shape full of sharp teeth. She sticks out her hand again with the same flourish, the golden flames slightly brighter. “That’ll be $500.”
“What?” I sputter. “You owe me!”
“We bet on whether Noelle would or wouldn”t date an outsider, didn’t we?” Her expression morphs to mock innocence in a flash that would earn her an Academy Award.
“We bet on whether she would or wouldn’t date me!” I point at my chest.
“When you were an outsider.” Her brows furrow, looking at me like I’m slow in the head. “That was the only detail I remember specifying.”
Her fingers crook, as if waiting for her money and annoyed I haven’t coughed it up yet. This is some shady fine print finagling. These old demonesses, I swear. They can talk a man out of his underwear in two seconds flat. As it happens, that’s all I’m down to.
“It’s a draw,” I say, mostly bluffing, hoping I get out of this with nothing lost.
Her open hand snaps closed as she clicks her fingers, pulling a cigarette from her front pocket and lighting it. She studies me for a moment with the ghost of a smile before waving it at me dismissively. “Seems fair.”
I back away slowly, a little stunned. I think she just talked me out of the $500 she owed me and made me feel grateful about it.
I find Noelle and hug her from behind. She’s chatting with a short human lady who looks familiar. I whisper in her ear, “Remind me never to make a bet with Old Ethel again.”
“Silly goose.” Noelle looks back at me with an amused grin, patting my forearm. “No one gets anything over on her. She never makes a bet she won’t win.”
I glance back at the old demoness, now standing with a group of other Devout. Her eyes glow the same shade as the end of her lit cigarette, and she watches me and Noelle with a soft expression I don’t think I’ve ever seen, definitely not when I was a little shit stealing candy from her on my way to the library after school.
Candy I’d always give to Noelle. Did she know, even back then?
She nods her head at me, like she’s not upset in the least that I stole her candy, that I made a dumb wager with her, or that Noelle and I ended up together. Almost like she saw it coming all along.
Surely not. I narrow my eyes but give her a slight nod in return. It”s always best to be respectful where demonesses are involved.
I kiss a path down Noelle’s neck. “Happy New Year, love.”
”The happiest,” she sighs.
This is our new beginning. No more taking stock of the years that separated us, the days flying by, or the hours and minutes to make a final countdown.
Our future starts now. There are no timelines to a love story, only the next chapter.