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Ulrich lifted his remaining arm to wind around Zel’s shoulders. “Whatever comes next, we can take what joys we please and maybe even do some good from the shadows.”
“Do some good?” Zel tilted his head at Ulrich. “Hm, I wonder what that would be like.”
“As do I.” On the chaise, in quiet repose, at least for now, Ulrich captured Zel’s lips once more.
Epilogue
ZEL
“Zel!” Ulrich called, while seizing one of the thieves they had been contracted to stop.
Already sensing the third thief’s approach after finishing incapacitating the second, Zel needed no warning. With a quick pivot and lurch of the dagger from the second thief’s shoulder, Zel lashed out toward the third with a graceful spin.
The dagger plunged between the third thief’s ribs. Not a clean kill, but Zel had been avoiding vital areas on purpose. These were the worst kind of thieves, for they had been stealing food meant to be rationed and distributed fairly, a necessity as theGreat Famine continued to worsen. They deserved for their final moments to be slow agony.
Zel looked down the alley as Ulrich drank the last few wisps of life force from the first thief. After feeding in such a way, there was always a flush of his old, more powerful aura, added sparkles in his hair and bright glowing galaxies in his violet eyes.
Souls no longer fed his immortality, nor were they required to ease any pain. Devouring them was simply efficient and a good deterrent by leaving behind husks. It also kept Ulrich’s magic stores from depleting, and while that might not extend his life indefinitely, it helped ensure a healthier and longer mortal lifespan, and Zel wanted Ulrich around for a good long while.
“That one can live.” Zel nodded at the second thief unconscious against the wall.
The third, still skewered on Zel’s blade, struggled to pull free of it or to at least turn and see what approached him from behind. Too late. Ulrich was already there, and when the thief tilted his head back, Ulrich loomed over him to claim his soul too.
Ulrich looked rather fetching in his own assassin garb to match Zel’s. Zel had kept the outfit made with the magical loom, complete now with a skirt-like tunic to add a feminine edge to otherwise masculine clothing. All of Zel’s outfits were thus now. A mix of both. For everyone finally knew the truth of Zel’s birth.
Thatthey—Zel—was a mix of both too.
As the husk of the third thief dropped, Zel pulled their dagger free from the desiccated ribs. Ulrich bent down to meet Zel’s slighter height and shared the final swallows of the thief’s life force with a kiss.
Zel drank it down as eagerly as they enjoyed Ulrich’s tongue and lips and embrace. Zel’s right hand might still hold a dagger, but the left clutched Ulrich, wrapping around the metal bicep of Ulrich’s false arm.
His right, that had once been cursed, was gone now, replaced with one made from metal, like a steel skeletal arm from just past the curve of his shoulder to equally skeletal fingers, covered in a long sleeve and a glove. Zel could feel its distinctness beneath their grip. Ulrich had crafted it using a forge from the treasure room similar to the magical loom.
He had also used the forge to craft the bands he and Zel wore on the fourth fingers of their left hands, twisted gold like the plaiting of Zel’s braids.
Ulrich had begun to use more of his magical items as another way to conserve what power remained in him. Because of the loss of his immortality, his garden was not as potent as it once was. If a woman with child ate therapunzelnow, her babe would not be magic born, but the garden still produced the most robust of produce and continued to grow even in the depths of autumn, as if springtime remained forever around the tower.
Zel licked their lips as the kiss ended. Sharing the stolen life forces did not make them feel as powerful or as untouchable as drinking Ulrich’s magic during the ritual, but like they might live two or three times the length of a mortal, which was fine by Zel so long as that life was lived with Ulrich.
“Are we done here?” Ulrich asked.
The second thief was starting to rouse. Then he was very much awake when he registered the nearby husks of his companions.
“Do not be in too much of a rush to join them,” Ulrich warned the man. “Run along now. So says the Queen.”
The unsanctioned thief skittered away as told.
The thieves and assassins from the Thieves Guild still answered the evil Queen’s summons and carried out missions, but they were much more than her lackeys now.
Zel cleaned their dagger and sheathed it while Ulrich retrieved the sack they had been hauling for their next destination.
“You don’t mind still carrying out the Queen’s dirty work?” Ulrich asked.
“Not if the targets deserve it, and stealing from the hungry counts as deserving in my book.”
“Agreed.”
Occasionally targets who did not deserve death or brutal warnings disappeared in other ways, so the Queen never knew they had not been dispatched. Also occasionally, assassinations she hadn’t authorized were carried out and blamed on those she did want killed. It was a gamble, but a life well lived required risks.
