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On a heated high, soaring exalted as the heavens after I nail my split, I shoot my back leg into the air in a high arabesque…and skim my head low to touch my ankle. One last twirl. In the midst of my ninth and final triple, my Halo light bursts into a pageantry of stars. They raise me higher and higher. Hundreds of feet into the air, my glorious soul spins and spins with the host of heavens surging from me like a million meteors just as I’d vowed.
I am magic. I am pure energy. I am soul light!
At last, the music slows…it fades. Frost prickles the back of my neck in a kiss both dark and elegant. When I turn around, departing from the final spin, I pause in midair. There is Thanatos, staringupat me from his throne of ice. I amhigherthan the head of Death. And all the souls gaze at me from the now-thawed Lake.
Rising to greet my angelic presence, Thanatos stands and strides onto the balcony just a few breaths from my chest. In response, my Halo beams unleash a kaleidoscope of butterflies to impart a united celestial kiss. Tears freely glisten upon my cheeks from the welling of emotion.
Masterfully and beautifully checked, Elysia! Please…accept my gift of thanks. Something to honor this Ice Princess.
A soft but delirious smile teases my lips. On this night, I found not an atom bomb but romance and rapture, bliss and blessing…euphoria.
The next moment, Thanatos’ frost dresses me like breath prayers, parading all around my skin and diving hundreds of feet to the ice below us. Violent emotion ricochets in my heart. I part my lips in silent awe at the sparkling soul gown of translucent crystals with a waterfall of frost—abridaltrain. A crown of crystals dons my curls. My halcyon gold skin is the perfect complement.
My core radiates, betraying a tiny rivulet of gold liquid weeping along my thighs. No shame whatsoever in my body’s response to such beauty. No shame in the waterfalls of tears upon my cheeks.
With a treasured smile, Thanatos sweeps his gaze to me, transforming those tears into tiny rosebuds of frost. Ones I catch. He’s turned my tears into…roses? Closing my eyes, I gush and cradle the roses, releasing a deep and grateful sigh.
A black shade to my golden storm, Thanatos extends his hand where I hover in his frost gown before accepting so he may tilt his head to me and brush his serendipitous mouth across my knuckles.
In a low voice only I can hear, Death recites:
“Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?”
With his hand still clasping mine, frigid lips embracing my skin with a frost kiss, I curl my Halo light in golden dancing filaments all around us to mimic my dance, to mimic the frost he’d spun for me on that ice, and whisper back,
“Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?”
Thank you for the dress, I utter in barely an overwhelmed whisper of the mind.
Death surrenders my hand with a,You’re welcome. Perhaps next time, we will make it a dual waltz.
Oh, Saints!
He leads me to his throne. A wonder of stalactite and stalagmite crystals fused into the ice palace itself, bound by his soul blood.
When a couple of familiar growls resound, I squint in the darkness to where multiple silhouettes of massive hellcats creep around the throne—fire-wreathed eyes preying on me, drawn to the light beams glowing from my skin. At first, I stiffen.
Cold and calm, Thanatos raises his hand so the flaming felines settle, their fur relaxing from a prickle to a thick hide. I peer at him with a sweet grin and bite my lower lip as one approaches, her muzzle high enough to reach my neck.
“Hello…” I murmur and daringly lift my hand to touch her strong cheek, discovering how…oh, heavens…she leans her powerful jaw into my palm. I feel her heat and sharp scabrous teeth through that thick hide while her whiskers prick me like hot iron. “Oh, she’s beautiful, Natos!” I gush and scratch her ears, picking up on a murmur of a purr.
“These are my daemons, but I’m particularly fond of Persefoni.”
