Page 69 of A Cursed Heart
They were hidden in the pockets of my pants.Yes, though it is useless now. I can feel trace amounts of magic there. Like an echo.
It’s part of our story. We need to keep it.
Though I had a complicated past with the heart ruby, it hurt to see it so damaged. The color was all but gone, leaving behind something akin to moonstone with flecks of gray all over it. It was also in pieces, no longer resembling a heart. Still, I agreed with Ryan, it was part of us, of how we came to be, so it had to be preserved.
It was morning by the time everyone cleared out of Ryan’s apartment. We were given time to pack some things to stay in a hotel, allowing the investigators to properly document the scene. Lydia had called several times because Freya was upset. Waking up somewhere completely different from where she had fallen asleep was going to set her back, I could tell.
“Want to vanish to her once we get a little away from the apartment?” Ryan asked when we were in the car.
“Ryan—”
“What’s wrong?” He immediately pulled the car over to give me his complete attention.
“My magic… I am no longer a demon.” Finally, I could put into words what I felt. I barely remembered the last line Dagda spoke to me. The talk with him felt like a dream now that I was back where I belonged.
“Huh? But you did the link earlier.”
“Which I had to end sooner because it took so much of my remaining magic. I don’t know how it replenishes while I’m like this. I just know this is what I am meant to be now. Human, like you. Dagda told me so.”
“Dagda? Your brother?”
I explained the dreamlike state, that moment where I thought I was dead. Ryan’s face went through a cycle of emotions from fear, then anger, to grief. “He loved you.”
“Yes. He did. It was easy for me to forgive him for what he had done. It was not out of malice. My brother wanted me to be the best version of myself. My imprisonment was not supposed to last that long. Though if it had not, I would not have met you. It feels like fate.”
“Fate?”
I reached for him and cupped his face. My smile trembled. We had come so close to losing each other. “Yes. Like I was supposed to be waiting for you. Only then could I be free.”
Ryan leaned into my touch, his eyes soft. Even with the cuts and bruises all over his face, he was still beautiful to me. “What happens now?”
“We live our lives together.”
“Together,” he echoed with a smile.
The state of Ryan shocked Lydia and Freya. Though he assured them he was okay, Lydia fussed while Freya clung to Ryan and cried. Neither of us liked seeing the usually happy little girl be so upset. Unable to tell her the truth, we went with an accident as the excuse for the injury. Then, instead of going to a hotel like we planned, we took Freya away to the beach for a few days while the apartment was fixed up and cleaned.
A vacation was exactly what we needed to come to terms with what had happened. Over the days, Freya calmed as Ryan’s cuts and bruises faded. My limited magic was able to speed the process at least. It appeared it replenished itself like it had before with the ambient magic in the air and time. If sex worked, I was not sure.
“Are you alright?” he asked during the drive back to the city.
“I am. It’s an adjustment, but I’m getting there.”
“Do you miss being a demon?”
“It was all I knew, so part of me mourns it. I enjoyed the power, though still having some magic is better than none at all. I just—“”
“What?”
“Worry that your feelings for me have changed now I am no longer what I was.”
“They haven’t!” Ryan’s horrified expression was almost amusing.
“We have not… been intimate since my change.”
“Aww, fuck. Mal…” He glanced in the rearview mirror to see Freya with her headphones covering her ears, her screen lit up with the newest movie craze. She had moved on from the demon movie, thankfully, and had even seemed to have forgotten I used to be one too. “Look, we were sharing a room with Frey. There wasn’t really the time for anything other than a quick handjob in the shower, and you deserve better than that. I wanted to wait until we got home.”
“Of course, I’m sorry. I just—”
