Page 74 of Gilded Lies

Not good? That’s all he had to say?

“Some people sleepwalk, so I guess you gilded in your sleep?”

“How can you be so calm about this?”

Jari held up his hands. “Aurelius, please don’t panic. It was an accident. Just because the salt makes you feel better doesn’t mean the ability went away. I’ve heard of fairies accidentally using magic in their sleep, and that’s what you did.”

“I didn’t tell you, but I’ve been having the urge to create a child. It still wants to spread.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought I could fight it, and maybe it would just be a side effect that I could be okay with salt, and-” Aurelius covered his face. “I don’t have that insane urge now, but this proves it’s not getting better. I fucking gilded four things in my sleep, and I had no idea. It doesn’t matter if I still feel okay now for the most part because-”

Jari kneeled by Aurelius’s legs. “Maybe it was just an accident. I’ve also heard of people getting up in their sleep and pissing on furniture because they thought it was the privy. Or they wander outside, or-this doesn’t necessarily have to be a big deal. It was an accident.”

“Jari, I could have gilded you. I could have turned you to pure gold in your sleep, and woken up next to a dead man. You came this close-” Aurelius held up his forefinger and thumb with barely any space between them, and his throat tightened at the thought of Jari being dead.

He’d rather die than turn the man he loved into the thing he hated most.

Jari shifted and took his hand. “Listen, here’s what we’ll do. If you have the urge to procreate, but you still feel okay, maybe you’ll have a few effects, and the salt is actually still working. Instead of us sleeping together, we’ll have separate rooms-”

“That’s not going to work. It’s too deep in me, and soon, I’m going to utterly snap. I’ll gild you and anyone nearby. I’ll be sobad, you won’t have a chance to stop me, and neither will anyone else. I’ll pass the curse down, and I’ll die while insane.”

“No, you won’t.”

It had to be done. This morning proved it. Aurelius pulled his hand away as he sat up and tried to stuff down all of the thingshewanted. Hope wasn’t for him. He’d never get a home with Jari, and he’d been a fucking idiot to ever think he could have that. He’d been fucked since he was first conceived with those other three he had the misfortune to call brothers.

“We’ve already spoken of this before. You know what has to be done.”

“I’m not killing you,” Jari practically snarled.

“You don’t have to.” Aurelius got out of the bed. “I’ll do it.”

“What the fuck? No, you-”

“Yes, I will-”

“I swear to Elira-”

“Do you want to die?” Aurelius turned to face him. “Do you want to be turned to gold while I go on a rampage after it gets so deep into my head that nothing works, and I’m entirely lost? Is that what you want? You saw me in David’s Hall. I’ll be worse than that.”

Jari’s face tightened. “You don’t know if that’s going to happen.”

“Yes, I do.” Aurelius started to dress, and Jari remained on the bed. “While the key was in for me so long, I wasn’t going mad or anything all those years, but that and touching all of the items allowed me to do something that Eurig couldn’t. Mammon is so attached that anything to stop him will merely work for a bit before it fails, and when he gets past it, he’ll be worse.” He pointed at the ceiling. “That proves it, and this is why I have to end it, permanently.”

The pained expression on Jari’s face clawed at his chest. Aurelius snatched a pair of clean drawers. Dear Elira, he’d hopedto avoid this. It wasn’t just losing everything he wanted, it was hurting Jari. He’d tried to spare him the worry by not saying anything, but of course, the worst possible thing had to fucking happen.

“After everything we’ve been through, you expect me to let youdie-”

“Jari-”

“You didn’t even tell me anything had changed!”

“I didn’t want it to be true.” Aurelius’s throat tightened.

“You should have said something-” started Jari.

Aurelius shrugged himself into a shirt, turned, and rubbed his cheek even though he knew the muscle wouldn’t stop twitching. “Listen to me. This was partially my plan from the start when we met at the Palace.”

---