Page 68 of Monsters' Manor

My boast to her doesn’t feel empty as I swing open the door to the set Ren and I share, and look around at the room that’s changed so much.

I’m the star of the scene this year.

Lucifer’s Parlor has become a witch’s workshop, with a pentagram stenciled in blood-red paint on the floor and a cauldron bubbling over in the corner. It’s a little scene we came up with together, and as Ren strides into the room a few moments later and swings me into an embrace, I’m more than ready for a season grand finale with my demon.

“Ready for this?” he asks after taking my mouth in a swift, breath-stealing kiss.

“Always.”

It’s hours later when our last group of guests for the evening has filed into the room. The candles burn low, and magick seeps through the air like a living darkness.

“Let’s see what we can summon,” I croon, reveling in their fear and delight.

Murmuring some Latin nonsense over the pentagram, I send a ring of flames to burn harmlessly around its edge. A few cries of surprise break from the crowd, and the response makes my wicked grin spread even wider.

“Do you feel that?” I ask, lowering my voice until it’s little more than a whisper. “My portal to hell has been opened.”

A flash of flame lights all the guests’ faces in a shock of vivid red before the room is plunged into darkness and screams.

“You know not what ancient horror you’ve unleashed, witch.”

I almost break my composure at Ren’s deep, thundering tone and the answering yelps and gasps from the crowd. In the pitch darkness, they can’t see him yet. I light the flames around the pentagram again, raising them higher and higher to reveal the demon standing in its center.

It’s my turn to put on an expression of fright and horror as my demon rounds on me with dark mirth dancing in his eyes.

“I thank you, witch, for cursing this world with the chaos I’ll unleash.”

“I’ll send you back to hell where you belong, demon.”

I send a column of heatless flame toward him, and he bats it away with a swing of his bare, muscled arm.

“You’re going to have to do better than that.”

We go back and forth for a few minutes, trading taunts and insults, moving around the room in a dance of flames and magick that has the guests eating our performance up.

Finally, Ren grabs me and pulls me to the hard wall of his chest where he’s standing in the middle of the pentagram.

“Or maybe I’ll bring you back to hell with me,” he says, his voice a low, sinister threat. “And keep you as my prisoner for eternity.”

With that, he moves us both into a pocket realm, and I bathe the room in a final burst of flame as we disappear. Through the hazy barrier of the realm, we watch the guests leave, chattering excitedly as they’re escorted out of the room.

As soon as they’re gone, we step back into the mortal realm and I turn to face Ren with a grin splitting my face. Before I can lunge for him, though, a movement in the shadows at the corner of the room catches my eye.

“That was brilliant, both of you.”

“Silas!” I cry in surprise, eyes widening as he materializes back into his corporeal form.

“I had to see it at least once,” he says with a rueful grin. “After hearing so many good things about the show you two have been putting on this season.”

Silas has been busy this past year, both with his continued duties as the eyes and ears for the Acres, and with discovering all the delights and irritations of having a physical body to contend with.

I throw my arms around his neck. “And did it live up to your high expectations?”

“Of course it did,” he chuckles, kissing my cheek. “The two of you are magnificent together.”

“Come on,” Ren says, voice unexpectedly thick with emotion. “We’ve got a bonfire to get to.”

Both Silas and I smirk at him before reaching out together to tug him into our embrace.

Later, when we’re all lit with the flames of the Samhain celebration, surrounded by witches and monsters and magick, I pull my two lovers to me again. We dance under the moonlight and revel in the joy of it all.

It reminds me again how endlessly grateful I am.

For this place, for the magick I’ve learned to embrace, for Ren and Silas and the life we’ve built together.

For my monsters and the improbable, impossible love I’ve found with them.

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