Page 77 of Sequel to the Easter Bunny

Cupid stands, stretching and spreading their wings wide, the joints hid how big they were when they sat on their throne.

Now… I tip my head back to look up to where they almost reach the ceiling.

“Impressive, isn’t it,” Ari says with a chuckle.

“Don’t forget about me, okay?” I offer her a soft smile. “I’m going to need your help three days ago and also in like… a hundred years.”

Laughing, Ari nods, and then, her smile sours. “I’ve lied to you. I’ve omitted something rather huge…. And you still trust me?”

“I probably shouldn’t… but, like you said, you had to have had your reasons. And I don’t tell you everything.” It’s not like I’m about to tell her what happened with her son.

“I hope I know what they are by the time we meet again.” She hugs me and for a moment, I can forget she’s not my Ari yet.

I squeeze her a little more tightly than I need to.

“I suppose I’ll see you later. Though,” they look out the window as if it might show her the future. “It won’t be for a long time…”

“I hope. I’ll see you much sooner.”

Cupid holds their arms out to me. “May I carry you?”

“Unless you can make me sprout wings, I think you’re going to have to.”

A smile slants their lips, and they scoop me up, holding me in front of them, and I clasp my hands around their neck.

“Do us a favour? Close your eyes for this first part.” They look up and I imagine us crashing through the window.

“Okay.”

When I do, my stomach sinks, and then, I feel weightless. Wind rushes over me and I gasp when I can’t stop myself from drawing my eyes wide.

“I just didn’t want you to scream when we went through the ceiling.” There’s a laugh in Cupid’s voice.

I’m too stunned to speak.

Everything laid out before me is a wonder.

The city is so much smaller. The Valley seems wider.

“The forests are younger, they haven’t crept toward the city’s outer boundary, and it hasn’t expanded to them either.”

“How do you know what it looks like in my time, if that hasn’t happened yet?”

They look at me, their silver-slicked eyes slowly blinking, all out of sync. “Everything exists all at once for me, Lily. I can see the Valley now, in your time, another hundred years beyond that.

“I have seen the birth and death of this place and all in it. I have seen your beginning and your end. This world is far too simple, and you mortals are all too complex.”

“Is that why you saved Ari?”

“I saved her because she should not have had to die. Punishment ought to fit the crime, and hers did not.”

Giving birth to a god doesn’t sound like any crime at all.

“I cannot look at the other gods without seeing their lack of remorse. I see that they would do it again, no matter the cost. No matter the mortal.”

I don’t like how fragile that makes me feel and I change the subject to try to drive that away.

“Who rules the Valley now?” I ask, looking to the tower that hasn’t changed—at least on the outside—from what I know.

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