But the butterfly lands on my nose and jabs its antenna at my eyes and then at Midnight.
“Yes, it’s Midnight.”Okay, maybe she really is sentient.What is it with all the animals in my life having an attitude problem?
Her entire body, thorax and all her legs sink on my nose.
She jabs her antenna in the direction of Midnight and then leaps off.She circles back to land on the tip of my nose and repeats this motion three times.
“You want me to leap?”
She does that dipping thing that I think means yes.
“But I’ll die?”
She flits from side to side,no.
Okaaay, we’re communicating with a butterfly now.I file that away for processing when Midnight isn’t falling to her death.
I look up, Midnight is enormous now, and I swear she’s gaining speed.“Oh gods.It’s now or never.”
“If I die, I will come back and haunt you.”She flits to the side, as though tilting its head in a ‘sure you will,’ motion.
Fucking snarky little shit.
Midnight must be unconscious because her body hangs limp in the air.She grows bigger and bigger, and I realise I only have one chance to time this right.
I hold my breath and desperately try not to look down.I reposition myself with my arms behind me, my feet ready to kick off as if I’m leaping from a pool edge and I inhale.
Three.
Two.
One.
I stupidly close my eyes as I push off the edge.And then realise my mistake as I crash mid-air into Midnight’s body.
I scream, fling my arms around her and we twist around and around.My stomach flip-flops and bile licks my throat as I struggle to right us and stop spinning.
We plummet faster and faster.I scan around looking for the butterfly but can’t see her anywhere.Little traitor.
As soon as I have the thought, there’s a pinching on my back, a stabbing pain and then we’re hurled upwards.
I strain to look behind me without dropping Midnight to find my butterfly attached to my back, only instead of being tiny, she’s fucking enormous, her wings expanded to angel size, her legs dug into my skin in several places.She flaps her elegant wings hard and fast, dropping us down to earth slowly instead of the rapid plunge to our death I was certain we were doing.
We spiral around as we descend.Prima Tower looms, fungus fields stretching as far as the eye can see.
My feet scramble across the barren land and finally we come to a stop.My butterfly detaches from me and flits around shrinking back to her normal self.Midnight is still unconscious.I brush a hand over her brow, pushing her hair back and freeze.There are two little bumps under her skin.
“Horns?Are you growing your very own demonic horns?”
Her eyes flicker, her hand rubs her face, and she stretches in my arms.“Am I dead?”
“Doesn’t look like it, seems your body rather liked my demon magic…”
She sits bolt upright.“It worked?The Architect moth actually fucking did it?”
I grin.“Yes, Daddy, y?—”
But I’m cut off by Midnight plunging her lips over mine and shoving me backwards.Her hands are everywhere, my jaw, the back of my head, my waist and breasts and between my thighs.
