Page 75 of Sequel to the Easter Bunny

Before Jack, I might have considered it. Now….

Stepping out, I adjust the sweater that sits too snugly across my breasts. Ari sits on the small cot looking out the window set high in the wall.

“We’ve only known each other for a month, and you know…” I wave my hand vaguely over my stomach. “I’m pregnant.”

Her head tilts to the side and her lips purse. “Maybe in a hundred more years, I’ve mellowed. That wouldn’t normally stop me.”

“Well, when I see you again, tomorrow, none of these circumstances will change.”

“Of course they won’t… And you love Jack don’t you?”

“I do.”

She hums and nods as if she’s having a conversation with herself in her head. “I loved Heim once, too. They were everything to me….”

A far off look steals her focus. “And yet more than one hundred years have passed since I was banished, and instead of doing anything to get me back, all they’ve done is changed the way they look and pout about their loss.”

I swear I hear her mutter “spineless” under her breath.

“I hope your god loves you the way you deserve, Lily. Truly I do.” Studying me, she nods as though I’ve passed judgement. “Let’s go see what Cupid has to say.”

The shoes she gave me squeak on the tiles as she hurries us down a long, dimly lit hall. I pray the faint light in the high windows doesn’t mean that more time has passed than I think.

Stopping in front of a pair of enormous double doors, Ari turns back to me, giving the clothes another long once over, she nods.

“It’ll have to do.”

Ari throws open the doors to a room filled with people. “It is time to be judged.”

The Ace of Hearts

Despite the high windows, the room is dim enough, I can’t see the edges. The glass above is jewel tones filtering the sun. I can see the bright source against the glass, so I know it’s near midday. I let myself feel a little relief at that.

In the shadows, Cupid lounges sideways on their throne. They are vaguely human shaped, but their wings fan out behind them in a strange splay, and when they turn to me, their gaze touches me with eight eyes, the surface of which is silver-slick, like mercury.

They have no nose, but their mouth is wide and supple.

The oddity of their beauty is painful enough, I have to look down to the steps leading up to them, blinking several times before my eyes adjust.

When Ari leads the way to the base of their throne, I follow.

I can only assume the words she speaks in the old gods’ tongue are an introduction.

“Look up, child.” Cupid says, their booming voice holds no command, but I do as bid, anyway.

“Which sin are you here to appeal for?” They ask, head lolling on their shoulders. “What did my misguided brethren do this time?”

“This time?”

“We have too many faults and failings to count, sweet child.”

“Juun sent me to bring you back to the old gods’ realm. Ester misses you, and Juun wants to see her happy.”

“Juun wants to gain her favour. There is a difference.”

They pull their long, too-many fingered hands over their face. “I have told every one of Juun’s messengers the same thing: I will not go back.”

“There were others?” Ari looks up at them, confused.

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