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He reached for her.

She let herself fall backward into the darkness.

Indigo wool fabric whipped in the wind as the world rushed past her. Someone screamed her name, but it was too late. Hewn stone walls of the castle exterior turned to rough, jagged cliffs.

And then the impact came.

Maggie jerked awake,the sensation of falling making her thrash momentarily. Algernon lifted his head from where he had been sleeping on the pillow beside her, his whiskers wriggling in concern.

“I’m all right. Sorry.” She reached up and scratched his head. He nibbled on her finger before curling back up, but somehow, she knew he was still watching her. “Bad dream. No, not really bad, just…weird. Very weird.”

It was still dark outside, and she yawned. Curling back up on her side, facing Algernon, she laid her hand beside him. He snuggled into her fingers, stretching out to rest his head over her thumb. It made her smile.

She wasn’t alone. At least she had that.

* * *

Maggie wokeup a second time in just as an unexpected, if entirely more pleasant way.

With a giant, shaggy dog jumping onto the bed.

“Gah!” Before she could even process what was happening, she was being licked to smithereens. Laughing, she rolled over onto her back to put her hands between her face and the dog that was standing over her, gleefully wagging her tail.

“Sorry for the wakeup call,” Gideon said from the doorway. She looked up blearily to see him standing there, leaning against the jamb, a smile across his face. He was wearing a black button-down tucked into black pants. It was casual for him. “But she wouldn’t stop scratching at the door.”

Mephisto sat, the curly mop of hair that dominated her head falling in front of her eyes. She was more fluff than dog, and she was a lot of dog.

Reaching up, she scratched the dog’s ears, ruffling them much to the creature’s joy. “It’s all right. I’ll take this kind of rude wakeup any day.”

“Good to know. If you aren’t careful, she’ll start sleeping on the bed with you.”

“Worse things in life than a big doofus sharing the bed.” She sat up and stretched. “Not sure if it can fit two big doofuses, though. You might have to fight over it.”

Gideon blinked, caught off-guard by her tease, and she watched his neck turn a darker shade as he clearly fought back a blush. “I—well—”

Still too easy and still too much fun. “I’m sure you sleep in a king size bed, though. It’ll be fine.” She grinned at his unease, and she went back to petting the dog who was very clearly asking for attention.

He coughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I mean, yes…but…”

Ask Gideon if he kept the rings.The voice of her own reflected self in her dreams came back to her. She wanted to. But she also knew that was going to open a very large and very ugly can of worms, and she was enjoying the moment. “You’re too easy to rile up.”

“I would prefer you teasing me over the other options, so, I’ll take it.” He smiled at her, almost shyly. There was such a dark deviousness in his eyes, but it was as though he was holding it back on a leash. Like he was afraid he was going to scare her away.

Honestly, it made her want to provoke him into setting it free. She wanted to see what he was really like when he wasn’t handling her with kid gloves. As if he were constantly terrified she’d either start throwing things at his head or fall apart into a million pieces. I know for a fact I’ve done both. She couldn’t blame him.

He cleared his throat again nervously. “Breakfast?”

“Hell, yes.” She ruffled Mephisto’s ears again. “What do you think, hm? Are you allowed to have bits of human food?”

“She’s been dead for a hundred and some-odd years. It’s not like it’s going to hurt her.” He chuckled. “And I can’t say no to that face when it’s asking for scraps.”

“Something tells me Mister Scary Lichy-McNecromancer is better with pets than he is with people,” she said to the dog as she scratched the animal’s chest. Mephisto’s tongue rolled out of her mouth as she panted, grinning wide at the attention. Maggie grinned. “I bet he’s secretly a big ol’ softie for the fluffers and woofers, huh?”

“Doctor Scary Lichy-McNecromancer, if you please.” Gideon was smiling, happiness glittering in his silver eyes, as he turned to walk from the room. “I’ll have breakfast ready shortly.”

“Great. I’m going to shower and change. I still smell like smoke from the Vatican.” She wrinkled her nose.

Mephisto let out a “worf!” and jumped from the bed, starting to run after her owner, before remembering something. She turned around, licked Algernon once, and then bolted after Gideon. Maggie cringed as she heard the dog fly down the stairs, and waited for the crash, but none came.

Algernon wiggled his whiskers in annoyance and began to clean himself, attempting to get the slobber out of his dried fur.

Maggie laughed.

She didn’t know what was coming. She didn’t know what was going to happen to her. The road before her and behind her was shrouded in a deep, impenetrable fog. And all she wanted was for it to burn away in the sunlight.

But where she was, right there in the middle of the path, wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t so bad at all.