Chapter 46 #2
She let go of the cat so that he could twirl through the air around her shoulders. With a shrug, she said, “Let’s see.” She reached out and flicked my forehead. The stinging tap against my skull made me jump lightly. She placed her hands on her hips. “Guess you’re not.”
My legs finally gave out, and I slumped to the bridge floor while staring up at Kendyll with wide eyes. “K-Kendyll?”
She squatted in front of me. “In the flesh. Well …” She pursed her lips and held a hand out next to us, which a couple walking by promptly passed through. Grinning, she waved her fingers at me. “In the spectral flesh, I should say.”
I reached out and gingerly pressed my hand to hers. When I met solid form, I took in a shaky breath and tested dragging my hand down her palm and along her forearm where her ghost tattoo was inked in. This was real. She was real.
I quickly grabbed her and pulled her into my tight embrace. I didn’t give a damn how crazy I looked to anyone passing by, hugging and talking to what would appear to them as nothing more than open air. She was here. I could fucking touch her.
“Kendyll,” I cried, burying my now tear-streaked face into her neck.
She hugged me back, and I felt her place a kiss on my temple. “Xander.”
“I don’t understand,” I faltered.
“I don’t, either,” she said as she pulled back to look at me. “Why did you release my soul?”
I shook my head feebly and tried to remember how to form words that made sense. “Because I-I love you. Keeping you trapped as my ghost was only hurting you.” My explanation probably made little sense as my mind worked overtime to figure out how she was here right now.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “You’re such a stupid demon sometimes, Xander.”
“What—”
She cut my words off with a quick yank on my coat and covering of my mouth with hers. It was a quick kiss, but it conveyed so much within the press of lips. She pulled back but didn’t let go of my shirt as she fixed her vibrant, lively eyes on me.
“I love you,” she declared. “I’ve always loved you.
In life. In death. As a human, and as a ghost. My heart, my soul, Xander, has always been yours.
If you had told me your plan before you opened up our connection to sever, which made me go all loopy, I would’ve stopped you and saved you from hurting all this time. ”
She shook her head with a sad laugh before reaching out to place her hand over my cheek.
“I never felt trapped or chained by you. Xander, you have always been freedom. You’ve always been my choice, even when it seemed the opposite.
I spent a stupid amount of time running, because I thought that would keep us both safe.
Me, safe from losing you forever and you, safe from the darkness I carried. ”
She smiled. “It may be too late to matter, but I’m done running.
I’m done letting fear control my happiness.
I’m taking my power back. I want you. I’ve always wanted you.
My poor choice of words when I didn’t realize I was already dead, paired with my habit of running away, made you think otherwise.
I’m so sorry for that, and I’m sorry that it took me five months to come back to you. ”
There was so much I wanted to latch onto in what she’d said, but one word stood out. “Back?” I asked stupidly yet hopefully.
She scratched at her chin sheepishly. “Yeah. Do you remember when I was moving on in my afterlife the first time and said I heard someone calling me? That was apparently your boss. You know. Him.”
The Prince of Darkness. Lucifer, Himself.
Things finally clicked into place. Kendyll was gifted with the Devil’s Eye, His mark.
Humans with His touch went to Him when they died, not as punishment but as a sort of privileged death where they got to choose what happened to them with added perks.
They could become one of His special underlings, reincarnate as a being with more special abilities or high standing within the mortal realm, or even remain as a ghost with an infinite energy supply.
I knew immediately Kendyll had chosen the latter and had also been restored to an appearance free of her fatal wound.
“He was apparently a bit peeved that you kept me from going to Him when I died,” Kendyll continued.
“So as a sort of punishment for you, He made me wait to come back to you. He was actually going to let me come back sooner, but Coldin told Him that you were coming to this festival. He thought today would make it a better surprise.”
I stared at her, studying her face that appeared as vibrant and healthy as though she were still alive. I covered my mouth with a shaking hand and whispered disbelievingly, “It’s really you? You’re really back?”
Her smile softened, and she wrapped her arms around my neck. “I’m really back, Xander. For good this time. As long as you’re okay having a ghost for a partner.”
In answer, I yanked her into my arms once more and held her tightly. Finally, my heart beat again. Life pumped into my veins anew. The cracks in my soul filled in with the love of hers.
My ghost had returned to me.
“I need you to know,” she whispered, burying her face into the crook of my neck, “that what happened that day wasn’t your fault. You’ve blamed yourself for what happened to me, but that blame was never yours to carry, Xander.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and squeezed her tightly.
I couldn’t find the words to respond. A knot had taken up residency in my throat, blocking all the apologies and feelings I wanted to get out.
I did blame myself. I wanted to keep her safe, but a bastard took that ability away from me.
A single monster stole my reason for breathing.
But she was back now.
“Also, Lucifer let me watch a replay of what you did to that bastard. I have to say, I really enjoyed that.” She pulled back to grin wickedly.
Despite all of the emotions darting around rapid fire inside of me, I let out a small, almost sheepish laugh. “I wanted to punish him more, believe me. But I wasn’t in the best thinking space and ended it too quickly.”
“Don’t worry about that,” she waved dismissively. “He’s being punished just fine down there. I even got to participate while I waited to come back to you. That was also very liberating.”
I could only imagine what the Prince of Darkness was doing to the man who’d harmed one of His gifted souls. I wished I could’ve been a fly on the wall while Kendyll enacted her own revenge.
“You once said you didn’t mind being lost with me,” she whispered.
“I said you deserved to be found instead, because you were always the one doing the finding.” She pulled back to kiss the tip of my nose.
“Well, I found you this time, and instead of being lost, we’re exactly where we should be.
Together. There is no being lost when I’m with you. ”
For the first time in so long, I cracked a real smile. “I love you.”
She mirrored my expression and placed a quick kiss on my lips again. “I know. I love you, too.” She stood and offered me her hand. “Now, keep your promise and show me around the festival. I think we should start with wherever you got that delicious-looking stick you dropped in the water.”
I squeezed her hand and turned us in that direction with Catsper now happily hopping through the air alongside us. “Even though ghosts can’t eat outside of Hell?”
“I can’t eat outside of Hell,” she confirmed before resting her cheek on my arm and smirking devilishly up at me. “But I can taste it on your lips, can’t I?”
Blood rushed through my body and landed heavily in my groin. “Fuck. Five months with the Devil, and He’s got you talking dirty to me. Maybe you should keep hanging out with Him from time to time.”
She threw her head back on a laugh, and the sound nearly made me float into the air with the lanterns around us. As families, friends, and couples reigned in the new year around us, I finally rejoiced along with them.
This was a perfect start to the new year, a perfect start to our story. Because this wasn’t a happy ending. It was our very own happily haunted beginning.