I wag my finger at the gang. “Not any big rock. This isThe Big Rock.Welcome toRock Jail.”
“Alcatraz for demon biz,” Charlie explains like that makes any sense. “Nobody gets out alive.”
I have zero clue what an Alakazam is but if it’s a scary jail, it’ll do. “Exactly,” I say, nodding.
Eri throws herself back when I walk towards her and tries to run but Buffy holds her tight. Whatever god Eri was, she’s not stronger than Buffy.
“I admit, I wanted to kill you in my bloodlust but that’s not my style. This is the best I can do, so be grateful for it.” Eri screams and shakes her head. It’s clear she wants no part of rock jail. I grab her by her arm and drag her towards the boulder Jaak was imprisoned in. It’s smaller now, almost cut in half by the ceremony that freed him but it’s big enough to hold Eri. It’s prepped for her, ready to take in exactly one god before it closes in on itself again for the rest of time. She’ll be out of the way here, forgotten in the woods where no one will come looking for her. Even if they do, they won’t see her. Not with the spell I just cast over the clearing with Sunday.
“The second anyone comes here that rock will vanish from sight. Even if they see it from outside the clearing they won’t be able to see it past this boundary.” Sunday draws a line in the sand and nods. “And as a fun touch, I’ve added a memory loss bit to our work. Even if they see the rock, they’ll forget why they came here when they enter the clearing.”
“So even if they see it again, it’ll just be a loop. Of seeing and forgetting?”
“Correct. No one is ever going to remember her or find her. It’s a just punishment. You said the Fates cursed your husband? They’re little shits about their punishments being carried out so making Eri take his place will be more than enough to keep the peace with them. It’s a smart move, Meadow.”
Eri digs her feet into the ground and tries to break free but it’s too late for her. Her fate was sealed the second I met Jaak. There was never any world where I wouldn’t make her pay for what she did to him. I look back at Jaak and he smiles at me. I don’t even look at Eri as I shove her back into the rock and just like that Eri is banished from our lives forever.
THREE WEEKS LATER…
I shouldn’t tease Jaak. I know that, but sometimes I just can’t help myself. I have to muffle a giggle with my hand as I run through the house as quietly as I can. Outside it’s snowing, it’s a heavy storm that’s already blanketed Bitter Root and the woods around it in white.
It’s been a cozy day at home. The house was even a part of it with roaring fireplaces, plates of warm cookies and mugs of hot tea and cocoa ready every time I went into the kitchen. Jaak andI spent the day relaxing at home. The night before we’d spent the entire day in town helping Dina decorate the newly minted Dina’s Diner for the holidays. She was determined to win the town decorating contest. She had Jaak on the roof with Clyde lugging an entire sleigh and a fir tree I chopped down for her, so honestly, this is her time. If anyone beats her they’ll have earned it. Which, knowing Bitter Root, someone could come out of nowhere to beat her.
“I’ve never celebrated Christmas. What’s its deal?” I asked her while stringing holly for her.
“It’s whatever you make it about. I choose friends and food. Plus, we get to give presents to everyone we care about.”
“Presents? Say less. Wait until Buffy hears about this!”
The town is eccentric and tight-knit, even with the secret business cult Eri had going, Bitter Root is a sweet place to call home. The business owners that were involved in the whole World Eater Worship Cult have been forced out and locked up far, far away from any of us. Everyone has been welcoming to us, even if they know something is off about Jaak, no one asks about it. He uses his human form in town to help us keep up the appearance of being a perfectly normal newlywed couple, but at home it’s a different story.
At home he switches between forms as he pleases. Tonight he’s in his minotaur form, hence why I downed a mug of spiked eggnog before I took off running past him. Jaak knew exactly what I wanted, he always does. I’ve been sneaking around the house for a good fifteen minutes and the liquor I’d had is sitting just right. There’s no other place I want to be but where I am, running down the hallway with my husband right behind me.
I slow my step by half a second and Jaak catches me. He pulls me against him and like always, I go willingly. I throw my arms around his shoulders and kiss my husband with a smile on my face.
“You caught me,” I tell him between kisses.
He kisses my neck. “You wanted me to.”
“I always will.”
“My greedy wife.” Jaak chuckles and slants his mouth to mine in a slow kiss. I moan and arch into him as he hikes the loose fitting dress I’m wearing high up on my hips and pins me to the wall. When he grabs one of my thighs and pulls it flush to his side, I shift my hips to meet his. Jaak lifts me up and when he rolls his hips into mine I move with him.
“I’m greedy for you,” I kiss him, long and slow. I forget where we are when I kiss him. My hips grind against Jaak’s cock, the hard length of it settling between my thighs. My breath comes out in a gasp when Jaak grabs both of my wrists in one of his hands and holds them over my head. Jaak kisses my jaw and then my throat, when he turns his head the light shines on his horns. My fingers itch to touch his horns, to run my fingertips along the curve of them the way I know Jaak likes. I could break Jaak’s hold on my wrists to do just that but I don’t, because there’s a special kind of pleasure in denying myself when it comes to my husband.
There isn’t a thing in this world or any of the others that have ever or will ever exist that he wouldn’t do for me, wouldn’t give me, and eagerly so. If there’s any denying, it’s me that holds myself back from having every bit of him all at once. There’s no need to rush when I have a lifetime to explore and enjoy my husband. I wait until he drops my hands to pick me up and carry me into the room that’s quickly become one of my favorites.
The ballroom.
Or what used to be used as one. The week that we settled here I asked the house to help me make it just the way it was when it was first built. The next morning rolls of blueprints sat waiting on the edge of our bed.
“I don’t know how I feel about the house making deliveries while we sleep but I suppose privacy is a moot point seeing as we’re living inside of it.”
“I’m sure it didn’t see anything…much.”
Jaak and I started working on renovating the house. It was easier than most renovations with the use of my magic and the house doing its best to help but it was still slow going. We’d worked on the floor we were on first and began our work with the ballroom. Turns out the big empty room with the windows next to our room hadn’t always been empty and quiet. Once upon a time, there had been silverback mirrors that ran the width of it. We’d replaced them, put it back the way it had been before, but the room still sat empty.
But empty didn’t mean unused.
