Page 49 of Kisses at the Crossroads

I already know what I’m going to do and walk up to the street sign. I take my needle and scratch in a heart with L & P Forever. As soon as I scratch in the r the ground shakes beneath us.

“Lark!” Pike shouts for me, but I wave for him to get out of the danger zone.

I hold on to the signpost for dear life as the street below me destroys itself. Gravel and pavement churns until it’s a mess that looks like a giant took a giant spoon and stirred the earth until it was chunky.

I yelp when a beam of light that looks like those threads of magic in the demon realm shoots up from the ground and reaches for the sky.

“Pike!” I leap from the signpost just as he gets sucked into the thread. It seals around him. The coin flies from my pocket. It hovers in front of my face with a short message before it gets sucked into the thread, too.

It’s been fun. Bye bye now.

“Pike!” The magic tosses and turns him and I wish it’d let me inside.

I swear all of eternity passes before the thread of magic sucks back into the earth and releases Pike. He drops to the ground with a sickening thud.

My heart drop and my stomach tumbles. Did I just kill him? Is that what really happens when someone destroys the curse? It takes all my strength to run to him. There’s some strange goo all over him, and he’s naked now like he’s reborn into a Pike.

“Pike?” I press my ear to his chest, hoping for his heartbeat. “Pike, are you okay?” Wake up. Please wake up. Tears sting my eyes and I brush them away. “I can’t lose you, I just found you.”

I press my lips to his forehead, his nose, his lips, his chest. When he gasps for breath, he reaches for me, pulling out a cry of relief.

“Are you okay, little Fae?”

“I am now. Are you? Do you feel any different?” I cup his cheeks and look into his eyes. They’re the same pretty brown as before, but brighter.

“My back hurts, like really hurts.”

I scramble off him, and when he stands, he’s even taller than he was before. He reaches back and groans. One leathery wing fans out, then another.

“Fuck.” He drops to his knees and I run to him.

“How can I help?”

Pike drops his head on my shoulder. “Just hold me right now.”

“Whatever you need. I’m here. Forever. Whatever you need.”

“You say that.” He grins and his eyes flash a deep red. “But I think I might be an incubus now.” He laughs. “What luck.”

“Just what you always wanted,” I chuckle as I take him in. He’s a bit thicker everywhere, even his cock that I was still getting used to the idea of riding. We’ve been going slow, but I think we’ll have to go even slower.

“You’re incredible, Lark.” He presses kiss after kiss to my lips and I drown in his love. Whatever Pike needs from me, it’s his.

“Way to go!” Wren pulls me out of our little ball of happy.

“Damn,” Van says as he materializes with Wick. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“We should celebrate,” Wren says.

“I don’t know how I feel about celebrating too many things in Hex.” I rub my throat where Drake bit me. I still don’t understand his obsession with me and I guess I never will. He probably wasn’t obsessed with me, just the power I gave him as a Fae.

Pike hugs me close. “I’m tired. After the whole rebirth thing. I think I can sleep for a hundred years.” He yawns, but pinches my bottom.

“Yeah, I’m sleepy, too.”

Wren eyes us. “I guess it is still late. We can celebrate some other time.”

Warwick looks at us with such a longing it almost breaks my heart. If his Ethan ever shows up again, I’ll be sure to tell him exactly how to set Wick free. Van may not want to be released from the curse, but I know Wick does.

---