Page 35 of Sequel to the Easter Bunny

The elevator takes me directly to Juun this time.

I can see her smug smile before the doors have fully opened.

“Have you come to beg for mercy?” Her gaze travels down me until it reaches the bag at my hip and the thing lets out a long squawk.

She stares at it frozen.

“That’s impossible.” She’s so still, I think I may have broken her. “You couldn’t know how to find it.”

I ignore the blatant admission she’d set me up to fail.“You never said I couldn’t have help.” I look down at the thing. “I was lucky enough I know someone who was able to point me in the right direction.”

Juun’s gaze is fixed on the bird.

Her face twitches, flickering between joy and rage, as if what I’m seeing is on a glitching screen.

“I brought you what you wanted.” I look from her to the peacock and stroke the bird’s neck.

“Stop that!” Juun’s bark draws my attention back to her, where she shivers, brushing at her arms as though a chill has brushed over her skin.

“My task is complete,” I say, meeting her eyes. “Correct?”

“Yes.”

I set the bag down on the ground and unwrap the thing, bouncing back before I make it mangle its tail feathers.

As soon as it’s free, it shakes out its feathers and then flutters to Juun.

The god of summer holds out her hands and….

It transforms the moment it touches her.

I blink at the jade coloured cock in her hand. From here, it looks like stone and then I remember the shiver when I stroked—

“Ew.”

I manage not to say that out loud. Unknowingly touching my mother-in-law’s cock is one thing, being dragged before Death because I’ve pissed her off is another.

But maybe, if that was the reason Jack was the only child the two of them had…..

It’s a ridiculous thought. Juun isn’t going to let me be free of this bargain with anything less than five complete tasks.

“What must I do next?”

The god has softened, the fire in her eyes is cooler, but I’ve no doubt she still wants me dead and gone.

When she looks at me this time, I’d almost call it trepidation.

“You’re good at collecting things I want, but haven’t been able to get on my own…. Bring me Diyo’s flute.”

Bargains & Bacchanals

It doesn’t sound hard.

Which is what makes me think it’s going to be a pain in the ass.

And I know there’s no way I can do this task on my own, either. Nothing Juun gives me is going to be something I can handle on my own.

I pause, just inside Babel to dump the sand out of my shoes. The white grains scatter across the black floor, bouncing and multiplying against the reflection.

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