Chapter 37

37

I don’t think I survived banishing The Hollow again. I mean, yes, I’m alive, but the panic and sobbing happening overhead makes me think I didn’t quite manage to get through that without dying.

I should probably tell them I’m ok. Darcy sounds like he’s about to kill someone, and I don’t think anyone here deserves that kind of—oooh, that sounded bad.

I blink my eyes open, catching the sight of Santanos’s heart beating in Darcy’s hand before the Avatar of evil rips his heart out of Darcy’s grip and shoves it back in his chest. “I’ve already had my heart carved out,” he hisses at my lover.

Darcy opens his mouth, but nothing good is about to come out of it, so I reach up and pull him by a necklace down to me. “Death doesn’t stick when you’re dealing with immortals,” I point out.

Darcy grabs my face, stark relief crashing over him. “Peach!”

I pull him in close. “I wonder how many people get to say ‘Killed by the creator of the multiverse’ on their resumes.”

Darcy shakes his head at me and presses his lips to mine briefly before pulling back to look at me again. “No one but you, Peach. Fuck.”

I smile up at him. “Kiss me again, and then take us home. It’s been a big day, and I deserve curry. I want red curry too. You know I love all the colors, but I need the red one right now.” I’m so hungry I could eat one of those 72oz challenge steaks at that place in Texas. I don’t even like meat that much.

Darcy huffs a relieved laugh and lingers in a soft kiss, barely brushing his tongue against mine. When he finally gets his fill, he pulls me up with him and stabilizes me until I’m solid on my feet again.

Glancing around, I realize that we’re already en route back to earth and that everyone else appears shocked and relieved all at once. I raise my hand to pat Edovard, who is still crying like he lost a brother, but stop as I realize that I’m clutching a rather heavy plate made from gold, it looks like. I turn it over in my hand, curious. “Where did this come from?”

“That would be yer Kroner. You can give that to anyone you choose and make them immortal.” Darcy explains.

“It’s meant to be used for your mate, but many immortals will use theirs on a dear friend if they have another way to immortalize their mate. Fox used his on me,” Bellamy adds, staring at it with something that looks like longing in his eyes.

Darcy grabs the Kroner and yanks, pulling me nearly off my feet. My grip on the coin doesn’t falter, and Darcy can’t take it from me. “Immortals are born with one in their hand. It will remain in your hand until you decide who to give it to.”

“I’m already down a whole foot. I don’t need to lose a hand to holding a coin the size of a salad plate.” That’s a rather inconvenient side effect of becoming immortal, but at least Darcy doesn’t have to worry about losing me now.

Bellamy holds up his hand, pointing to it with the other. A blink and a coin appears in his hand where there wasn’t one. “It will effectively banish itself to a different dimension until you are ready to use it.” Another blink and the Kroner disappears.

“Nice.”

I look at the coin in my hand, and it disappears. I can still feel the weight of it in my palm, but I’m able to flex my fingers and grab Darcy’s shirt, so I’m in no way hindered by the Kroner’s presence. I’m sure it’s something I’ll get used to. Probably like having breasts; the weight is there, but it’s just a part of you.

I turn to reassure Edovard, who definitely needs it, and once we’ve hugged out the trauma of losing a friend and getting him back an hour later, I lean against Darcy, watching the rhythmic jumps until we finally land in our sunroom. It’s the only room in our house big enough to accommodate our whole party.

As soon as we land, Darcy wipes away the array and points to our front door. “Kindly get the fuck out,” he demands with no malice.

“Hassan,” Santanos calls.

Hassan draws a doorway on the wall and a portal appears. It’s a murky thing, but Gregory marches through it confidently, followed by Edovard, who waves goodbye, and Santanos, who leaves with the words, “See you tomorrow” following him out.

The portal closes as Hawthorn steps into Bellamy’s personal space. “Join me for a rooftop swim and unlimited cocktails?”

Bellamy looks the guy up and down, and nods. “Yeah, I’m down for that.”

Hawthorn holds out his hand, Bellamy takes it, and the two disappear. Ethan follows without a word, leaving me and Darcy on our own.

“I am going to start gnawing on your arm if I don’t get curry soon,” I warn him. “And shouldn’t someone tell the space station there’s no need to evacuate?”

Darcy laughs, slipping his hand in mine and leading me through the house. “There’s curry in the dining room, Peach. Enough to fill an immortal who just came back to life. Resurrection is hungry work.”

Darcy’s not wrong. My insides are starting to consider cannibalism as a healthy option.

“And the gargoyles are all psychically linked. Faulkes knows that The Hollow has been banished.”

“That explains a lot,” I mutter, sniffing deeply as we enter the dining room.

The dining room table is covered in curry containers, and it smells amazing. I drop Darcy’s hand like a hot potato and grab the nearest container. It’s full of rice, and under any other circumstance, I’d put the lid back on, but Darcy hands me a container full of red curry with fried tofu, and I dump the curry on the rice, grabbing a spoon to start shoveling.

I groan in relief and pleasure—this is from my favorite food truck. I give in to a little happy dance, shoving the excellent curry into my face, enjoying the perfect flavor while also filling the cavern in my stomach demanding sustenance.

At the edge of my awareness, Darcy sits next to me, spooning green curry over rice. It’s nice sitting here with him. Weird too, because we’re cohabitating now, and although we have done a lot of things in the few days since we met, we also sort of barely know each other.

“Fated mates is intense.”

Darcy rumbles in agreement. “It’s as close to proof of the philosophy of predestination as a person can come, but since you’re perfectly capable of rejecting your fated mate, it’s also proof of freewill.”

“Nah, predestination ain’t a thing.” I remember becoming The Avatar . (It feels like it deserves capital letters.) “This universe is just as much a surprise to the person that created it as it is to us.”

Darcy narrows his smokey eyes at me. “The person that created it?”

Shrugging, I explain, “Yeah, the multiverse is a whole science experiment, or more like the science of magic, probably, and the experiment was designed and created by a person who doesn’t know what’s going to happen either. They’re just trying to keep the outside influences to a minimum.”

“Are you saying that you were inhabited by God with a capital G?” Darcy demands, agog.

I tip my non-spoon hand back and forth. “Sure, but I don’t think they would want anyone calling them ‘God’ in the way that humans usually mean the word. There isn’t a necessary religious undertone to them.”

Darcy shakes his head, staring at me wide eyed. “How about if we don’t mention this to anyone. I have a feeling that people knowing that you’ve been inhabited by the creator of the universe ain’t a good idea.”

“I can see how that might complicate our life,” I agree, turning back to my container to find it mostly empty.

Darcy shoves two more containers at me, and I dump more red curry onto rice and resume eating, smiling at Darcy’s muttered, “Ya think?”

“At least you don’t have to worry about me dying anymore,” I point out, because he was going to make me immortal one way or another, and now I am, and that has to be a huge relief.

Darcy reaches over, grabbing my chin to bring me face to face with him. “Peach, I’ve never been so scared in my life, and while I do appreciate that you’ve been made immortal, I’m also gonna say this again. Do. Not. Die.”

I smile and peck his pretty, plush lips. “I love you too.”

Darcy’s cheeks turn pink, and his grip on my chin tightens. “Me too.”