Page 60 of Palingenesis

Serenity settles in, easing the ache in my bones, and I am weightless.

Gusts waft around me, spreading that comfort, and I peel my eyes open one more time.

I’m greeted by a scarred cheek and glowing feathers.

Must be heaven.

An angel, come to rescue me from this mortal plane and carry me to what’s next.

I never would have thought I’d make it past the pearly gates because I didn’t believe in that stuff but… There’s no mistaking it now.

Even if it’s all just in my head. At least here, I won’t die in the dirt.

Instead, it’ll be in the arms of someone that has to love me and care for me as it’s their duty.

“What’s your name?” I feel the slur to the words, though I can’t hear them and shit. That means I can’t hear the answer either. But does that mean I’ll still be deaf in the afterlife?

Too weak to ponder any further, I let myself go slack in the arms of my savior with a new hope blossoming in my heart.

Maybe the damned get a chance after all.

Chapter 32

Ilios

He slumbers for days.

My beloved is broken, his human body too weak, and a worry I have never experienced creases my brow.

He may not wake.

“Do not think such things,” I snap at the smoke collecting over my shoulder, observing as I do, though I feel the salivation in my extension’s presence. It’s a contrast to my own concern, embodying the growing hunger of my cursed nature.

He’ll not survive the night.

I rip my gaze away from Shannon’s limp body, from the site where I reset his bone, with a deep ache in my chest.

“Why must this offering be so feral?”

Resisting, running as he did is what destroyed his limb, made him sick.

You didn’t show him the way.

I slash my talons through the swirl of darkened air beside me, dissipating it only for it to reform.

Stop playing with my food.

The grit of my jaw and the grinding of my teeth do nothing to deter the thoughts from filling my head, reminding me of what must come.

You’re running out of time.

“Time is the only thing I have.”

Even as the cycle ends, I know it must repeat, time and time again until I sire an offspring to take my place or dismantle the cursed loop on my bloodline.

Pay the penance, or pay the price.

Raking my eyes over Shannon’s body, the sheen of perspiration coating his sallow skin and dampening the curly strands at his temples… It feels like succumbing to more than the usual punishment.