Page 35 of The Scattered Bones

“Wife,” Kaid groaned as he found his release. I gasped at the sensation, and it drew out my euphoria until my entire body was almost too sensitive to touch. “We cannot be undone now.” He moved lazily as we enjoyed the aftershocks of our climaxes. “We wed in the eyes of the gods, and these vows cannot be broken. You are mine, my goddess, but more importantly, I am yours.”

“I love you, husband.” I propped myself up on his chest, my thumb finding its way to his scar, and I caressed it adoringly.

“I don’t love you, my wife,” he answered, and I smirked at his declaration. “For what I feel is more than love. There are no words to describe my devotion to you.”

“Three days,” I said as Kaid traced lazy circles on my back. “I have to survive three more days, then I can have you for the rest of our lives.”

“It will be a good life, Sellah.” His rough fingertips contrasted my soft skin, and I loved how different we were. At first glance, we made no sense, but when fit together like puzzle pieces, we became whole, each one complimenting the other. “You believe me, right?” he continued. “I’ll do everything within my power to give you a good life.”

“I do.” I reverently kissed his scar. “If we spend every day together and each night like this, I’ll be happy.”

He laughed, and the sound was so beautiful it hurt my chest. “I’m yours for as long as you want me.”

“I’ll want you until the day I die.”

“I’ll want you even in death, Sellah. There’s no afterlife, but that doesn’t matter. I’ll love you until I’m dead in the dirt, then I’ll love you until my body is nothing but bones. And when my bones fade to dust coating the earth, I’ll still want you.”

Eleven

The grass grows taller than a man here, and exhaustion poisons my limbs as I stare at the rippling fortress of greenery. Who knows what hides within the grasslands of the Mitte Midagi, waiting for unsuspecting prey to wander until they’re lost?

My leg aches with such ferocity that I worry it’s a punishment for my sins. His scattered bones were supposed to be left untouched, unfound, unwanted, but I disobeyed the gods. I’ve found all but an arm and his head, and the pain in my thigh reminds me of his severed body. The Stranger stitched my flesh closed with skill, but the misery of climbing down the Verdens Kant and then walking endlessly to the Mitte Midagi pulled the stitching raw and ugly. The scar will be brutal, but I don’t complain. His scars are worse, for he is in pieces.

I never open the chest unless it’s to add another piece of him, but this new exhaustion, this new wariness of The Stranger, has me unlocking the chains. I lift the lid and stare uncomfortably at the severed limbs and torso that used to be my breathing husband. I detest seeing him this way, but my warm fingers find his cold ones and lace together with their stiffness. For a few seconds, I linger against his skin, ignoring the curse’s bite. The last time I felt his hands, he made me his wife. It’s been well over a cycle since our wedding, since I’ve seen his eyes or heard his voice. I’m so close to the end of my quest, so close to finishing this journey, yet I feel so far from his love. I am no longer the beauty he married. I’m too thin, too bruised, too scarred. My hair is dull. My skin is cracked and dry. My mind is spiraling. What if he returns and cannot love the broken girl I’ve become? What if he never returns, and this madness was for nothing?

That’s my greatest fear, and it’s why my wariness of the Stranger has increased now that only two severed parts remain. Ever since he claimed me on the Verdens Kant, I cannot ignore the realization that I pledged my faith to someone dark enough to claim he can return the dead. No one can do that, not even the gods. There’s no afterlife, not after Hreinasta banished Death. There’s this painful existence, and then nothing. The Stranger is either lying, or he’s a darkness I should have no part in, and I cannot decipher which I fear more. That his lies sent me to suffer these quests in the most treacherous parts of the realm for nothing, or that I willingly opened my soul to evil? I always knew his promise was dangerous, but my desperation clung to hope. I refuse to live in a world without Kaid. I don’t want to survive for decades knowing our marriage lasted only a night. I need The Stranger’s promise to ring true, but I dread what it means.

“You should go before you lose the light,” The Stranger says in my mind. “The grass is tall. It will blot out the sun, but you do not want to see nightfall in the Mitte Midagi.”

“I know.” I clutch his poisoned fingers harder until the pain of the black magic makes me forget the ache in my stitched thigh.

“Do not lose faith now, my child,” The Stranger says.

“I can’t remember his voice. Yours is the only one I hear.”

“Are you doubting? Have you lost hope that you’ll hear it again?”

I say nothing. What can I say? That I need Kaid, but I fear what the end of this journey means? I don’t know The Stranger. What price will he extract from me to perform the impossible?

“It pains me to see your despair,” he continues. “I thought you were different, Sellah. I hoped you would have faith when no one else would. I have not forsaken you.”

“I’m afraid.”

“You should be… but not of me.” His voice sounds so close that I can almost imagine him behind me. “I’ve grown fond of you, my child. You should fear your task at hand, but never me.”

I lock the chains around the trunk and peer at the towering grass.

“Everyone I’ve trusted betrayed me,” I say. “My parents. The priestesses. Hreinasta.”

“But not him. Not me.”

“When this is over, will you abandon me?”

“You are mine, child. I do not suffer what is mine.”

“I want to believe you.”

“So, believe.”

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