Page 88 of Styx & Stones

A slow smile creeps across her full lips. “What took you so long?”

I shake my head, wiping away the tears that sting my eyes with the back of my hand. I reach out and touch her face.Real. She’s real. “What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you.” She kisses my lips and I kiss her back. Fireworks burst overhead, showering us with starlight. “You should see your face.”

“Am I asleep? Is this a dream?” My breaths are short and sharp, labored. “Oh fuck. I’m dead, aren’t I?”

She studies me with a wistful smile. “Do you feel dead?”

I frown, and stare at my hands on her face. They’re no longer emaciated. I check in mentally with my body. I don’t feel pain, or the morphine clouding my mind. I don’t feel anything but warm and content.Happy. It’s fucking weird. “I don’t know. What am I supposed to feel?”

“I think the term you’re looking for is ... at peace.”

A glimmer of panic slips through me for my parents, for everyone who fought so hard to keep me alive these past few months, and then as quickly as it came, it’s gone again.

“I’m not gonna wake up again, right?”

Stones’ soft smile is mesmerizing. “Right.”

“And you’re really real. You’re really here?”

She grabs my hand and presses it against her chest, over her heartbeat, that’s as strong and steady as it ever was when she was alive. “You tell me.”

My eyes widen. “How is that possible?”

“How is any of this possible?” She throws her arms wide and flings her head back, staring up at the fireworks. They glitter over her skin, shimmering, showering us both with sparks that should hurt, but don’t.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I whisper, trailing my fingers over her collarbone, between her breasts just to feel her heartbeat again. An errant strand of her hair tickles my fingers and I gently tug on it. “Your hair grew back.”

She nods. “So did yours.”

I slide my hand over my scalp, expecting skin and finding hair, lots of it, so much that my fingers get tangled.

She laughs. “Come on.” Stones tugs my hand and begins walking, leading me toward the castle. I dig my heels into the pavement. She glances back, her brow furrowed in confusion.

I don’t want to leave. What if this is all a dream, and moving from this spot means I lose her again?

My hand grips hers like a lifeline. I yank her back to me, wrapping my arm around her waist. I press a kiss to her forehead.Please don’t let this be another nightmare.

“We’re gonna be late,” Stones whispers.

“Late for what?”

She grins and presses her lips to mine. “Forever.”

The End