Page 80 of Sequel to the Easter Bunny

“You can stay with me. Here. Death can’t take you from my realm if I don’t want you to go.”

“I can’t stay. The Valley still needs too much help. I can’t abandon them. Especially with Jamus wreaking havoc.

Jack’s nose twitches, like he’s smelled something rotten. “I can’t fix the Valley’s problems, but I can handle him.”

His next words are in the old tongue and they boom through his domain.

The chill that washes over me makes me sit bolt upright and then scramble backward.

Standing between us and Jack’s throne, is a gnarled black skeleton. Shadows slide off it like smoke.

Death has come.

Jack places his hand on my knee, gently squeezing. “He’s not here for you.”

“Why have you summoned me, Jack?” The words sound decayed, as if they were spoken a hundred years ago and left to mould, only being brought out now, at their first need.

Jack leans close to me to whisper, “He’s not one for pleasantries or small talk.” before saying, “The one who used to rule the Valley—”

“Jamus.” Death says, confirming. “I have claimed the life of all of his forebears, to the point of his god pairing.”

“Claim him too.”

Death pauses, as if waiting for another command, and then dips his head. A moment later he swirls away, like smoke in the wind.

I blink at the place he had been. My mind catching up with the conversation I just witnessed, now that the gripping tendrils of fear have released their chokehold

“Did you just kill Jamus?”

“He threatens you. I would snap his neck myself if I could.”

So that was Death. The one god that can actually kill a person. The one whose punishment is at least swift.

The one who will come for me if I don’t beat Juun’s ridiculous game—a game I’ve already lost.

“Will you let me take your mind off what we can’t change right now?” He cuddles closer, drawing that blue sweater up my stomach, nuzzling my ear. “Let’s think about the far future. When I can have you for eternity and the mortal world no longer has any claim to you.”

I arch against his hand as it slips beneath those leggings. “When there will be no need to worry about what time of day it is, or even how many millennia have passed.”

I have to chuckle at the idea of that. “When I’m old and grey?”

“You’ll be as you are now, and I will too.”

I wiggle my way out of my sleeves, and a moment later, with a hungry grin, Jack waves his hand over me, finally getting rid of the last barrier between us.

“Were you teasing me?” I poke him in the chest.

“Can you blame me for liking it when you fight to get your clothes off yourself?”

Jack covers my body with his as his lips find my collar bones. His fingers trace over my breasts.

“One day, we’ll never have to leave this bed. One day,” his tongue trails down my sternum. “I will be able to devote eternity to your pleasure.”

I gasp when his fingers find their way to my already wet pussy.

If I didn’t love him, I’d be embarrassed by how ready I am for him.

“Do you know how much I crave you, Lily?” He settles between my legs, cock heavy against my mound. “When you’re gone, it’s like a hole is punched through my chest.

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