Page 26

Chapter 26

Snake Bite

GERRIT - ONE YEAR LATER

“N ope!” Briar shouts, running away from me and laughing. “I refuse!”

“Get back here, you little witch!” I growl, chasing her around the clearing.

It’s time for us to try to get her out of the fairy circle again, but Briar refuses.

She says she likes it here now that we’ve replaced all the bad memories with good ones. We have spent the past year rewriting every bad memory with ones of our love.

And made this prison a home brimming with joy and happiness.

Flint, Hans, and I can leave the circle, but Briar is still trapped. We’ve been trying to determine what keeps her here, but we have been unsuccessful as of yet. I believe we need to find fairies to assist us now.

Honestly, I don’t think she’s trying that hard to get free.

“Father would like to have dinner with you!” I say, snagging her arm and pulling her to my chest. “You’re the future Duchess of Greenbell. The people need to know you.”

“The people would riot if they knew their Duchess was an immortal demon succubus. I propose Flint be the Duchess.” She slips out of my arms again, taking off across the clearing. “Besides, we know none of us age in the circle. What if I leave, and I start to age rapidly and die?”

“You’ve left before!” Hans shouts from the porch. “And you didn’t age then.”

“Well, sure,” she calls back dismissively, “but what if every year is like a hundred, and then you’re stuck bonded to some red-eyed, half-blind old crone? What if I mess up and shove you in the oven instead of the mincemeat?” She skips around the clearing, pulling up flowers as she goes. “Better not risk it.”

“Is that truly your concern?” I ask softly. I’m no longer following her. She looks up, sees my serious expression, and stops moving. “Are you afraid of your aging or of ours?”

“Yours,” she whispers. “Here, in the fairy circle, we can be together forever. If we live out there, I’ll watch you die eventually. You’ll die, and I’ll be alone.”

“You’re truly immortal, aren’t you?” I ask her. “Not just fairy circle immortal.”

“I think so.” She clears the distance between us and throws herself in my arms. “It seems to be the case based on my readings.”

Hans has left several times to travel around the land and locate books on succubae. I knew she had been reading them, but I didn’t realize this was one of the results.

I’ve never thought about immortality. I’ve always known I was going to die. Mages like Hans tend to live an extra twenty or twenty-five years, but I’m a human. I expected to die well before him.

Neither of us expected to fall in love with an immortal being, that’s for sure.

The idea of leaving her behind to mourn us makes my chest ache. I can’t do that to her.

“Okay,” I say gently, taking her face in my hand. “We’ll live here. But we will still visit the village and be with the people when possible.”

Her face lights up, and she smacks my lips with a kiss. “You mean it?”

Hans comes up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Do you think we’d leave you? You’re everything to us, Briar.”

Tears rim her beautiful red eyes. “I love you both so much,” she whispers. “What was once my prison has become my favorite place in the world.”