Maybe that was his purpose now, as a man who’d become a spirit. Someone had to be the one to climb into wells and break cellar doors in the hope that there was still someone there to save. It might as well be Eli.
“You know, Rey.” Eli said, looking out past the gates toward the vast, sprawling countryside. “I think I can handle it.”
Epilogue
“Ican’t believe this,” Eli said.
“No one on Iperios can judge me,” Rey said, from where he was huddled in a fuzzy ball in Eli’s coat.
Winter had hit Duciel hard, covering the city in snow. The country was practically drowning in it—Eli and Rey were already late because they’d stopped to dig out a family whose roof had collapsed with the weight of the snowfall—but Duciel looked like someone had tapped powdered sugar over the rooftops and lumped dirty sludge in the streets. Ice slid down the cobbles in muddy clumps as Eli passed, and kids forlornly kicked slush around, probably dreaming of the glorious snowmen other kids could build beyond the gates.
Rey poked his fuzzy fox head out of the collar of Eli’s jacket. He was wearing a gift from one of the courtesans from the House of Onyx, a knitted jumper made just for a fox, complete with removable booties for his paws. Eli couldn’t stop laughing the first time he’d seen Rey prancing about in it, but Rey wore it every chance he could, claiming that even a layer of fur wasn’t enough to protect him from the bitter cold.
“But you’re a spirit,” Eli had said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re cold.”
“So are you,” Rey pointed out. “Spirits can still be uncomfortable.”
Eli had to admit he was right. It was still strange, coming to terms with what he’d become after the curse died with King Tristan. At first, Eli didn’t think that much had changed. Then he’d heard it while he and Rey were tangled up in each other’s arms in an inn—a voice in the back of his mind, calling for help. It persisted like an echo in a well, knocking about in Eli’s head until he tracked down the source—a boy lost in the woods a few miles away, huddled under a gooseberry bush. Eli had carried him home while Rey scampered about to make the boy laugh, and awkwardly refused the boy’s grandparents’ attempts to give him what was left of their savings.
He couldn’t tell when the calls would come. They came to him at random, usually from someone close by, appearing as a soft, insistent cry in his mind. People were staring to talk about him more, as well. In the north, they called him the Knight. He was the Wandering Knight in the south. In the farmlands, he and Rey were in the same story about a squire and a fox, but he hadn’t earned a title, yet.
Rey had changed since the fight. He looked older now, by about a decade or so. Rey said it had something to do with Tristan biting him in the forest, temporarily pulling his mortal and fox self apart, but Eli didn’t mind the crows’ feet at the edge of Rey’s eyes or the gray at his temples. He often found himself stroking Rey’s hair as they lay together in bed, idly searching for silver strands.
Eli brushed snow out of his hair as they reached the pleasure district. The streets were slightly cleaner there, and most of the courtesans who stood at doors and windows were bundled in heavy fur robes with a hint of the sparkling lingerie underneath.The public eating houses on the other side of the street were full, and the scent of perfume and hand pies made for an odd mix as they passed the noble carriages lining the road.
Eli took a sharp left into an alley before they reached the House of Onyx, and Rey twisted round to look up at him.
“You can’t show up in a jumper, Rey,” Eli said.
“And you can’t expect me to change in an alley.” Eli just stared. Rey sighed and wriggled out of Eli’s coat. “Help me out of this first, I don’t want to stretch it out.”
“The things I do for love,” Eli said, crouching down to help Rey slip out of the jumper.
“You like my ass too much to leave,” Rey said, and cursed as he shifted into human form. “Fucking spirits!”
“Cute,” Eli said, and smacked Rey’s backside. “It’s already pink.”
“Because I’m cold!” Rey squeaked as Eli smacked him again, just to see him jump. “You’ll make us late. Hand me my pa—aah.”
“Hand slipped,” Eli said. He stood behind Rey, squeezing his ass with both hands. “Do you think you can get it up if I spank you hard enough?”
“You do know there’s a difference between sex in nature and spanking a man in an alley in Duciel?” Rey said—or tried to say, probably, because Eli cut him off with a satisfying smack that had Rey biting the side of his hand. His skin really did color well in the cold, and even though he was shivering a little, he braced himself on the wall when Eli grabbed him by the hips to adjust his stance.
“One day I’ll find a knot you can’t untie, and then you’ll really be in trouble,” Eli said. He slapped Rey again, and Rey moaned into his hand. Someone passing by paused before moving on, and Eli smiled, rubbing Rey’s lower back.
He spanked Rey until he was a whimpering, shivering mess, then turned him around to kiss him against the wall. Eli’s coat brushed against Rey’s naked body, and Rey clung to him, their breath steaming the air. Rey was practically rutting against Eli’s leg, and Eli shoved his thigh between Rey’s legs, murmuring in his ear.
“Good boy,” he whispered, tugging at Rey’s nipples as he moaned and gripped Eli tight around the shoulders. “You’re such a good boy, Rey.”
“Fuck,” Rey said, and came between them, gasping for breath.
They both had to clean up after that, laughing softly with each other as they hopped into new trousers and buttoned each other’s coats. Rey was still shaking slightly as they left, but his cheeks were flushed and he was smiling as he clung to Eli’s arm.
The House of Onyx was awash in violet light from the lamps that hung from the balconies and windows, and long shadows fell over the street as Eli and Rey approached. When Eli knocked, he heard shuffling inside, and a young man Eli didn’t recognize swung the door open with a flourish.
“Oh,” the young man said, his cheerful, fake expression fading somewhat. He leaned back to shout into the house. “Sabre!”
Footsteps thumped behind the man, and Sabre appeared, dressed simply in a cream-colored linen shirt and dark trousers. He pulled Eli out of Rey’s grip and embraced him tightly enough that Eli’s toes lifted off the ground.
