Page 51 of Office of the Lost

“You love me.”This time it was said with more force.The color came back into Leo’s cheeks.

“Don’t go.We miss?—”

“Quiet!”Leo’s whole being shuddered.His body firmed up, drawing the mists back in.“If we do this, we do it my way.”He glared at the thousands of other Leos that surrounded him.

Crispin stared at his Leo.“What’s… what’s happening?”

Leo met Crispin’s gaze, and this time Crispin felt as though he was the one who was melting.Leo was himself again, the lovable dolt Crispin had fallen for.“I love you too, you hidebound idiot,” Leo said as he knelt and picked Crispin’s heart off the floor—apparently this was quite aliteralplace—and gently pushed it back into his chest.

It started to beat again, and Crispin’s world lit up.He loves me too.

No matter what happened next, that was enough.It filled him with wonder.

Leo frowned.“I have to deal with my… siblings.”He turned away, and it should have been like the sun setting, but instead a steady warmth popped and crackled inside Crispin like a cheery fire.“On my terms, not theirs.”

Leo spread his arms.“I miss you,” he said, his words creating a fog in the air.“Don’t go.”

The thousands of Leos around them began to shudder, to lose cohesion.One by one they evaporated into gray smoke once more, but their essences—sparkling like a technicolor rainbow—drifted in streams toward Leo.He held up his arms as the first of the essences transfixed him like a spear, his hair rising into the air and filling with golden sparks.

Crispin stared.

The influx intensified.The other Leos fed their energy into him, and his whole body shifted, sometimes having antlers, sometimes wings, sometimes becoming something else entirely.But he was always recognizably Leo.

Then even the walls melted away, the whole world shuddering and fizzing and bubbling around them as it rushed to become part of Leo.Soon they were in a blank white space.Or maybe it was black, or gray?It was impossible to tell.

As the last of the essences slipped into him, Leo shivered and then collapsed, his eyes closed.

“Leo!”Crispin leapt forward, or whatever happened.Motion in an empty place was as uncertain as color.He was at Leo’s side, cradling his head in his hands.“Leo, are you all right?”

He looked like Leo.He smelled like Leo.But what if he wasn’t really Leo anymore?

Leo remained stubbornly unconscious, a bit of drool slipping down his chin.

He’s not dead, is he?Crispin felt for a pulse.There was none.“He’s… gone.”He killed himself, for me.

His heart shattered in a million pieces.Leo was gone.Chaos was gone.He was trapped in this awful, empty place and Leo was gone and Chaos was gone and he had probably just destroyed everything and Leo was gone?—

“Hello?”

Crispin’s heart raced at that single word.He’s alive!

Leo’s eyes opened wide.But now they sparkled with rainbow hues instead of the dull gray that had come before.His eyes fixed on Crispin.“Who are you?”

Crispin’s heart threatened to drop out of his chest again.“You… don’t remember me?”

A grin spread across Leo’s face.“Of course I do.I was just messing with you.”

“But how?You were dead.I checked your pulse?—”

“This place isn’t real, remember?”He reached up and rested his fingertips on Crispin’s neck.“You don’t have one either.”

Crispin touched his own neck, and sure enough, he seemed as dead as Leo.He grinned.

Leo pulled Crispin’s face to his.

This time, there were no fireworks.

In any case, they didn’t need them.As Crispin discovered over the next few… minutes?Hours?Time seemed meaningless here.He and his love became one in a way far more meaningful and beautiful than whatever had transpired with the Chaos creature moments before.And it was better than momentary pyrotechnics.

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