Damaged Gods by K.C. Cross, J.A. Huss

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - PELL

I see it all from across the upper hall—the gun, the moths, the man, the girl, the dragon boy, my hands coming up to slam the door closed with a finality of an eternal curse—and I don’t understand a single second of it.

But Pie is unconscious.

I rush over to her, not wanting to step on the lifeless bodies of the beautiful wood nymph moths, but unable to help myself.

A groan from deep below the sanctuary reverberates up from the floor and I know that is Tomas. Spent. Hurting from his fire display. He will need time to recover from this. Lots of time.

But Pie also did magic, and she is spent too.

Tomas—I can’t do anything for him. I can’t even get close to him. He is not himself down there. But I can help Pie.

I pick her up in my arms and carefully carry her down the hallway near the stairs to the steam cave. Once inside, I remove her clothes, then step into the water with her in my arms and hold her as the mineral water brings her back to life.

She is not dead. It doesn’t literally bring her back to life. But this spring is special, and soon she is squirming in my arms.

“What happened?” Her voice is weak and shaky.

“Magic,” I say. It’s the only answer I have.

She sighs, turning her body in to me. And I settle on a rock ledge, leaning back and letting the moment just exist.

She’s still and quiet for a little bit. But then, slowly, she comes awake again. “Pell. Where’s Tomas?”

“Don’t worry about him. He’ll be OK. It’ll take a few days, maybe. But he’ll be OK.”

“What will happen to us? Will the sheriff come back? Will he bring others? He can let them all in!”

“Shhh,” I tell her. “Don’t worry about it. I think your spell and my door lock will hold for a little bit.”

“What spell?” She struggles to sit up. And even though I don’t want to allow this, she doesn’t give me a choice. She sits in my lap with her head on my shoulder. “I didn’t do a spell.”

“Oh, you did. You most certainly did. Don’t you remember all those moths?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t do that. They just appeared from my hands. I wasn’t in control—”

“Pie, you need to face facts. You’re… well, I don’t know what you are, but you’re not human. Not completely, anyway. You did do a spell. I have a feeling it was a warding. To keep him out. And it seems to have worked. At least with all three of us participating. You bound him up, Tomas pushed him back, and I closed him out. It should hold. For a little bit. But we’re gonna have to come up with something better than that. Grant’s wards were strong. Very strong. But they’re obviously wearing off. We need to do them again.”

“How?”

“That’s a talk for tomorrow. You need to rest. And eat. We all need to rest after that. We were stuck in the magic all day. Hell, maybe longer than a day. That’s enough to give us a hangover. But getting rid of the sheriff will have pushed us to our limits. We need to recover first.”

I can tell she wants to fight me on this, but she’s too weak. So she can’t. She knows I’m right.

We stay there for a while, just leaning on each other. Every once in a while, I can hear Tomas’s groans from below. He breathed fire. I have never seen him do that before and I don’t think it’s good for him. In fact, I think his dragon magic is a very, very bad thing for all of us.

Eventually, Pie is awake enough to get out and put her clothes back on. I want to carry her back down to the cottage, but she insists on walking. She does lean heavily on me as we make our way down the hill.

Once inside, I make a fire while she rests on the couch, then go through all the food we have and come up with cans of soup that can be easily warmed up on the wood stove. We don’t sit at the table. We just hold our bowls in our hands and eat on the couch.

“I would give anything to be able to go out to eat right now,” Pie says.

“You can.” I blow on my soup and then take a bite. “You don’t need to worry about me. Regardless of how I came off that first day, I can take care of myself.”

“I don’t want to go alone. And before you take that the wrong way, I didn’t go out to eat before I came here, either. Pia and I would just get something from a drive-through. Eat it in the car. But it would be nice to sit down at a restaurant and have someone serve me, ya know?” She blows on her soup too, then slurps it down.

I think about her statement. How nice it feels to be taken care of. I don’t disagree. I like being fed. I liked the horn massage she did. And when she took it to my back, fuck. I wanted to die, it felt so good.

“One day,” Pie says, “I’m gonna take you out to eat.”

“Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

“OK. You can take me.”

“We will have to wait a whole year for that. Next Halloween. When people might accept the idea that a satyr chimera is eating in the booth next to them.”

“Or I can just learn that spell. You know, the one to make you look human. The way Grant did.”

I don’t say anything to that. I can’t blame her for wanting me to be a certain way. It’s not her fault.

I mean, I want her a certain way as well.

I want her to be my wood nymph. I want to take her back upstairs and get lost in that forest with her forever. I want her to have horns, and hooves, and fur.

I want her to be like me, the same way she wants me to be like her.

“What are you thinking about?” she asks.

When I glance over at her, she’s smiling. Big. Happy. Rejuvenated, I think. Maybe it was the hot spring? Maybe it was the soup? “Our day.” The words come out as a sigh.

“It was definitely one for the books. And I’m super worried that the sheriff will come back tonight. Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“Not the sheriff. I don’t care much about the sheriff. I’m talking about earlier.”

“Should I apologize for kissing Tomas? You did dare me.”

“Not that, Pie. I’m not talking about that. I don’t care about the kiss.”

“Was it hot?” She waggles her eyebrows at me. “Did you like watching?”

I smile. Can’t help it. But I’m getting frustrated. “No. I mean, yes. I did like it. It was hot. I’m sure Tomas will never forget that kiss. But that’s not what I’m talking about, Pie. I’m talking about us.”

She nods solemnly.

I can tell this isn’t the time for this talk. I can read a room. I just usually end up not caring. But I can’t let this go. I can’t stop thinking about it. “Why didn’t you just leave?”

“Leave?”

“You had that sheriff right where you needed him. All you had to do was drop the ring and walk out. And it would be over for you.”

“Yeah.” She sighs. “Yeah, I know.”

“So. Why didn’t you?”

She shakes her head at me. “I have nowhere to go, Pell. And I’m not just saying that. I don’t have anywhere to go. I don’t have a single relative—”

“Well, that’s debatable,” I cut her off. “Since the good sheriff of Granite Springs seems to be your kin, as they say around these parts.”

“Maybe.” And now she is really sending me I-do-not-want-to-talk-about-this signals.

“There’s no maybe. If he can come through the door, he is bloodline. And we already know you’re bloodline. So.” I shrug. “There it is. He, and whoever he has in that town, those are your people. But all that bloodline stuff aside, do you have an answer for me?”

“About why I stayed?”

I nod.

She looks away from me. “I mean, I think I already said it. I don’t know what you’re looking for here, Pell. I don’t have anywhere to go. My bird, my Pia—she’s still here. I can’t just walk out and forget she ever existed.” She must read the disappointment on my face, because she continues. “It’s nothing against you. You know that, right? I like you. A lot. You’re not a bad boss.”

Boss? Did she just call me her boss?

“And yes, I’m staying because of you. And Tomas. This whole place, really. I feel like I belong here. With you, of course.”

“And Tomas,” I add.

“And Tomas. Yes.”

I don’t know what I expected her to admit to after one romp in the hallways. Well, to be fair to myself, it was two romps. But. Whatever. I just expected… more.

And for whatever reason, she’s not going to give me what I want. Not tonight, at least. So I decide to drop it. “Do you want to know what we’ll need to do in order to ward this place again?”

“For sure. We need to do something to keep the villagers from pitchforking us.”

“There’s a book inside a tomb up there. It’s a powerful one.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s inside my friend’s tomb. Tarq is his name. It’s not his book. He’s a monster like me. But I know it’s in there and I know who it belongs to, and I know it’s what we need.”

“OK.”

I chance a side-eye glance at her. She’s not even looking at me. She’s looking out the window at the tombs up the hill. “So you’re the only one who can go in there and get it. You’re the only one who can see the doors.”

“Oh, man.” Her voice is whiny and kinda cute. “I hate those tombs. They’re so creepy.”

“Yeah, but this is just Tarq. He’s not a bad guy. He’ll probably love the company. And you will have me in common with him. You could bring me news back. Of him. I talk to him all the time. I’m dying to know if he can hear me.”

Her sigh tells me she’s not convinced, but I don’t dwell on this. It’s Tarq. She will be fine. “I would not send you in there if I thought you were in danger, Pie.”

“I’m not thinking that.”

“Then what are you sighing about?”

“I just think those tombs are creepy.”

“That book is important. You don’t need to stay in there long. Just fill Tarq in, ask him nicely for the book—tell him it’s a favor to me—and then leave.”

“What if he wants something in return? Like… what if he wants me to get him out of the tomb?”

I shrug. “Tell him yeah.”

“Will I be lying?”

“You got a problem with freeing Tarq?”

“I don’t know Tarq.”

“He’s a pretty cool guy.”

“Monster.”

“Right. Same thing.”

She sighs again.

“What?”

“It’s just… I’m already outnumbered, ya know? Adding another monster is—”

“Hey.” I laugh. “If you want to go find another magic girl for us, I won’t complain.”

“Oh, really?”

“What’s that look for?”

“You know what? I’m tired. I’m going to bed. You can sleep on the couch if you want, but you can leave if you’d prefer to go home.” She shrugs. “It’s up to you, I guess.”

“What did I say?”

“Go get another girl?”

“It was a joke, Pie. There are no other girls out there. You know this.”

“So that’s the only reason? Because there aren’t any available? Otherwise, you’d be all for me grabbing another one to satisfy your pleasure needs? And that’s not even true. If Russ Roth is kin then there’s more of them, right? And that means there’s more girls out there for you.”

“What?” I actually laugh. That’s how funny that is.

She gets up, ready to storm up the stairs, but I grab her wrist and pull her into my lap. She struggles against me, but I’m far too strong for her to win that battle. Finally, when she is straddling me, facing me, I place my hands on her cheeks and make her look at me. “It was a joke. I’m not looking for a harem, Pie Vita. I’m just fine with the way things are. So if you don’t want another monster around, then lie to Tarq if that’s what he asks for. Get what we need, and none of us will ever say another word about it again. It’s me. And you. And Tomas.” I shrug. “We can’t get rid of him. He’s kind of the landlord.”

“I don’t really understand that.”

“I know. But soon enough, you will. I’m tired. You have to be tired. There’s nothing more we can do tonight, so we’re going to bed. And I’m not leaving you here alone. I’m sleeping with you.”

“Are you?”

I can’t tell if that’s a serious question or just a complicated challenge. “Yes. I’m staying. And we’re sleeping in the same bed. I’ll stay on my side.” This remark makes her frown. “Tomorrow, Pie. Save all that for tomorrow.”

I watch her give in and it’s satisfying. Not the actual giving in, but the trust. And the upcoming obedience. It’s a hesitant trust and the obedience will come with conditions, I’m sure. But I’ll take it.

She sighs heavily, then shrugs. I’m still holding her face. But she backs out of it now and starts for the stairs.

I follow her up and she excuses herself to the bathroom with a small pile of bed clothes in her hands. I am my usual naked self, so I just pull the covers back and get in on the same side I settled on last night. I have a side, I realize. We have sides.

There is no way for me to hide the grin that emerges. And when Pie comes out of the bathroom, that grin is still there.

She lowers the lamp light until the tiny flame is gone, then walks over to the bed like an apparition in a short white nightgown and when she slips under the covers next to me, I don’t wait for her to settle or grant me permission, I just tug her close and hold her tight.

She wriggles against my embrace immediately, but I keep hold. “Pell,” she complains. “Let go.”

“No. Not yet.”

I wait for the battle, but my effort pays off. Or maybe I’ve just worn her down. Because she gives in with a long yawn. And then, without another word, she just drifts off to another place.

A place without me. Perhaps that dream world she claims she saw?

It’s weird how she could describe the woods around the forest temple in detail. Right down to the color of the leaves and the tree trunks.

Was she there?

I mean, that’s a dumb question. We were in the hallway fantasy rooms. That’s all it was, just another room.

But it didn’t act like another room. I didn’t go with her, for one. And it was in the middle of us having sex. All of that is confusing enough. But there’s more.

Much more.

Things I haven’t told anyone.

Things I haven’t even thought about since… well, since I was a child. Since Tarq and I used to run in those forests. Things like what Ostanes did to me. How she made me.

What she turned me into.

I think about this for hours. Because I know there’s something there. And not only that, something has changed around here since Pie came.

Of course, I felt this change immediately. And at first I thought, Well, Grant’s gone. That’s what’s different. But that’s not it.

It’s Pie.

I didn’t lose something, I gained.

I just haven’t figured out what it means yet. That’s why I need that book in Tarq’s tomb. I know it’s in there. It has to be in there. He was Saturn’s chimera. Who else could have it but him?

It has to be there. And Pie will be fine inside his tomb.

If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t let her go.

I would forbid it.

Wouldn’t I?