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  The corners of her eyes began to burn.

  No. First, no matter what her form, she had to check on Aurelai. If it hadn't worked, and Vimika had damned herself for eternity...

  The black threads on her hand slipped away.

  "Vimika!"

  That wasn't a demon's voice, or another ghost's.

  "You're awake!"

  "No, I'm dead. I think you have me confused with someone else."

  The daylight vanished, replaced by a smiling face framed in midnight, twin pools of stars gazing down on her with beatific concern. "You're quite alive, Vimika."

  Impossibly soft fingers settled against her face. Warmth radiated from them, along with the unmistakable current of magic.

  "You came back for me."

  "Aurelai? You can see me?"

  "Of course I can! How else could I have dragged you here?"

  'Here' was Aurelai's lawn again, only now everything around it was smoldering and emitting some flavor of smoke. Sometimes wood, sometimes metal, sometimes blue.

  "I didn't explode?"

  Aurelai laughed her throaty, luscious laugh. Vimika bolted up to cut it short. It was a deep, languid kiss, but not terribly long, as Vimika went quickly dizzy and had to lay back down again.

  "Don't overtax yourself. No, you didn't explode, but you came awfully close."

  Vimika snatched up Aurelai's hand and held it to her cheek. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! You were hurt and I left you. All my fears took over, I was scared and upset..." The words tumbled out of Vimika faster than she could think them. Overwhelmed with relief, she had to get them out before something else came along to take away her chance.

  But Aurelai set a finger gently over Vimika's trembling lips. "Ssh, my prince. This isn't the place."

  A gust of wind brought more smoke, making Vimika not only cough, but aware of the fact the only thing she was wearing was a blanket.

  "Where are my clothes?" she asked, staring down at her bare toes in disbelief.

  "Those did explode, so you might be breathing your hat. We should probably go inside." Aurelai said, and gathered Vimika into her arms using a strength she didn't bother to hide.

  Vimika was deposited on the cushions in front of the hearth feeling like she'd aged a thousand years. Everything hurt, even her hair somehow. Pain, at least, confirmed she was alive.

  "How...?"

  Aurelai sat down, foisting a cup of tea with one hand and stroking Vimika's arm with the other. "I felt it. Father's animata was the heart of the whole latticework. By starting there, you gave the alumita direction to discharge into. If you'd done it from anywhere else, you would have been killed. That was smart of you."

  "I just wanted to make sure I got him. Did I?"

  "Yes. It cascaded through everything that was connected, and went around the house. I'm safe. Oliver is safe," Aurelai said.

  Vimika blew out a long breath and took a sip of tea.

  Aurelai narrowed her eyes in both concern and no little suspicion. "You expected to die, didn't you?"

  "Yes," Vimika said to her reflection.

  "For me?"

  "He was going to keep you in here forever. After my stupid mistake, he was never going to let anyone else in."

  Aurelai traced a finger up Vimika's bare arm as she considered this. "You talked to him?"

  "What there was of him. He tried explaining. He told me about Greldefara. She died naturally, you know. You didn't take anything from her."

  Aurelai nodded, but said nothing, her eyes far away.

  It was too much. Vimika set the tea aside and threw herself at Aurelai without care for how much it hurt. The dam on her earlier apologies cracked wide open, and the words came pouring over Aurelai's shoulder in a torrent of sobs and half-formed syllables. "I'm sorry. When I saw what you were, I reacted like a frightened animal, not a wizard, and certainly not someone who cares about you. I was everything I shouldn't have been when you needed me and worse, everything I hate and decry in others. I was no better. I can't begin to wash away the shame of what I did, or that I can ever make it right, but know I will try. I was stupid, and couldn't stop myself from making the biggest mistake of my life."

  To her relief, Aurelai returned the embrace, but only briefly. "You hurt me, Vimika... in places I didn't know I could hurt."

  Vimika didn't deserve to ask forgiveness. "Aurelai, I'm so sorry. Please-"

  "But," Aurelai ran her hands through Vimika's hair as she thought, nails grazing against the skin. "Neither of us were at our best in that moment. I accept your apology."

  Vimika buried her face deeper into Aurelai's shoulder and clutched her back, pulling them so tightly together Vimika could hardly breathe. "Thank you."

  "And what's more... I'm sorry, too. I should never have left something so important up to misinterpretation. I should have told you, no matter the cost to me. And... I said awful things to you, too. Things I can never take back."

  "No," Vimika said, shaking her head to clear her eyes of hair and tears both. "You've nothing to apologize for. You were right about most of it. You deserve nothing of what's happened to you, least of all the hurt I caused."

  She ran her fingers over the right side of Aurelai's face, to the shimmer just below the surface. The wound had already healed considerably, but there would likely be scars. Mechamagical or not, Aurelai was still a wizard, and not even they healed from wounds so egregious without a cost.

  "Does it still hurt?"

  Aurelai found Vimika's fingers, guided them. "A little, but it's much better than before."

  "When I left you. I'm so-"

  Aurelai cut her off with a finger to the lips. "Enough. We're both sorry."

  Vimika kissed the back of Aurelai's right hand, her wrist, up her arm. Her skin was warm, and Vimika nuzzled against it, holding Aurelai's eyes as she did, shining bronze searching obsidian black.

  Aurelai watched her in fascination. "These hands have wielded the alumita, yet they're still here to hold mine. Hm... what made you do something so reckless?"

  "I wanted to keep my promise."

  "I would have taken a broken promise over losing you."

  "Breaking a promise is losing me."

  Aurelai fingered loops of Vimika's hair, flicking charred bits off the ends. "Is there something past romantic? My books aren't clear."

  "Only the truth."

  "What truth?"

  She held Aurelai's hand out, considering the shining skin where her lips had pressed against it, and curled their fingers together. The connection took them, stronger than ever, magic and emotion rising to meet the words rushing to leap from Vimika's tongue.

  After all, there was magic, and then there was magic.

  "I love you. And I will never leave you again."

  "Nor I you. And I you! What? No! I love you, too!" Aurelai spilled forward, knocking Vimika onto her back, shattering the pall that had held them.

  Tussling and giggling, they rolled over the pillows, snatching more kisses and wiping tears. Bit by bit, Aurelai lost her clothing until they were each swathed only in the moment.

  Vimika's aches and pains faded into a haze of pleasure as they made love in the warmth of not only the sun, but the relief and elation that came with the confession of the feelings that matched their magic.

  What arced between them now was sweet and life-affirming, nothing like the torture of the alumita. It filled Vimika's veins and her lungs, flooded her every sense as her tight gasps peppered Aurelai's succulent moans, their bodies bearing out the truth of their words as they rose in climax together, each crying the other's name.

  When they came drifting back down again, Vimika laid her head on Aurelai's chest.

  "It's... not fair... you don't have to breathe..."

  "Mmm... you'll see its advantages when I don't come up for air next time." Aurelai laid a tender kiss on the top of Vimika's head so at odds with her intimation it made them both smile. "You've been through a lot today, I didn't want to push you."

  Th
e silence of someone absorbing a promise she was very much considering calling in immediately passed, but Aurelai made to get up before Vimika could decide.

  "I want to stay like this too, dear heart, but the forest exploded. We have to get moving before someone comes to find out why."

  Reluctant in the face of good sense, Vimika lifted her head, now without pain or dizziness. And looking forward to laying it upon her beloved's chest once more, another reminder from the forest that would never hurt her again.

  "What will we do now? Spring has come. Real spring," she said as Aurelai stepped into her dress with graceful, assured movements. Whether it was the emotions, their shared magic or just having observed Vimika for awhile, Aurelai's odd tics had disappeared. She moved with graceful assurance now, and there was no small part of Vimika that was sad about it. She alone had been privy to that Aurelai, and would cherish those memories forever.

  "You almost died. Go home and see your family," Aurelai said.

  The euphoria of their lovemaking suddenly faded, the sun dimmed. For the first time since awakening, Vimika took her eyes off Aurelai to look out the window at the smoke rising from the ashes of her prison.

  It was only their first barrier to freedom, and Vimika's near death the lowest price.

  "I can't do that," she said slowly, the truth of it dawning on her as she did. She pointed outside. "You were right. People will come looking. People who know I'm gone and why. One Look will tell any wizard what happened, and being able to connect me to you and Oliver would doom my family. So would trying to leave Atvalia... if I was... alive. For their sake, and that of Delica and Seris for that matter, I did die out there."

  It was a strangely comforting thought. There was a finality to it that was freeing, even if she knew that the true cost would come later.

  "Vimika.. I'm-"

  "No. I asked you to stop apologizing." Vimika went to Aurelai and brushed the hair from her face. "I didn't have to follow Oliver out here. That was my own greed and short-sightedness, not you."

  "But it's your family. Your friends, your life! I can't ask you to-"

  "You didn't. I'm telling you."

  Aurelai shook her head, leaning into Vimika's touch. "I never intended for you to have to give up everything for me."

  "I know. Which is why I'm doing it. You called me to your service, and in it I will remain, Princess Sweet Beak."

  Cheeks reddened beneath black eyes gone aglitter. "Then, if you insist, I heartily accept. Prince Silver Tongue."

  Vimika was able to reconfirm her wizard healing was working when the smile that broke out on her face didn't hurt. "Oh, I don't know about that. Do I talk so well?"

  "Talk?"

  Laughing softly and not entirely with humor, Vimika rolled her forehead against Aurelai's. "I hope they write something nice about me in my obituary."

  "I'm sure they will. And when it happens... I know someone who has a lot of practice being a ghost."

  "Then we both get to start over. Together."

  Vimika looked into Aurelai's eyes. Black and bottomless, Vimika willingly hurled herself into them. Rushing up to meet her came a relentless tide of pure joy that washed them both clean. When their lips parted, they were afloat and adrift, carried by the current rushing between them in a direction that neither of them had ever charted before.

  As if the emotions of the moment weren't enough to unbalance her, something heavy tried to knock Vimika's legs out from under her. She looked to see Oliver looking back with wide, knowing eyes. "Would you like to come, too?"

  His tail had barely completed two swishes before Aurelai gathered him into her arms, holding him between them like the spoiled child he was. "As if I would think of leaving my little brother behind."

  At any other point in Vimika's life, it might have qualified as the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. Now, however, it was the most appropriate.

  In all the world, Aurelai was unique, but that would never again mean the same thing as alone.

  EPILOGUE

  THE WORLD WAS filled with noise unlike anything Vimika had ever heard. The rush of wind through the tall grass that wafted back and forth in the alien air was a gentle whisper compared to the full-throated roar coming from just ahead. Something black and wet squished between her toes as she worked them into it more deeply, as elated as she was slightly alarmed by the feeling. Humidity as she'd never experienced blanketed her, pregnant with rain that had yet only threatened to fall.

  Straight ahead, the perfectly flat horizon was a deep steel gray shading to blue.

  Beside her, Aurelai stared out with eyes widened to take in every detail, filling them to bursting since she couldn't be bothered to blink.

  "This is the ocean?" she asked.

  Vimika stood with her arms outstretched, dressed as they both were in simple tunics and trousers. All the unnecessary weight of their lives and heritage had been scythed away, leaving behind wizards of their own definition to look out over the breaking waves.

  There was color in Vimika's cheeks permanently now, the tips of her ears darkened from near-constant sun, which had had the opposite effect on her hair, lightening it and shooting it through with golden streaks. Shorter now for traveling, she felt Aurelai reach up to finger the ends affectionately, prodding Vimika out of her reverie.

  Taking the hand from her hair, she kissed each and every finger on it without even glancing at the scars. She saved her gaze for Aurelai's, matching it with a growing smile. The elements had been no match for her mechamagical body, and despite the sun, she was still sheathed in fresh cream, her midnight hair hanging down to her thighs without a strand out of place. The blades of her ears were still as pale as snow, as were her cheeks, the right one creased by a faint line just below her eye.

  Vimika hadn't had a drop of alcohol since leaving Durn, yet she still spent every day intoxicated.

  "It's wonderful, isn't it?"

  Three weeks they had traveled already, enough to leave Atvalia completely, and into the Kingdom of Il-Tahana. It had been a lot of flying, but also the first taste of true freedom for both of them as they played hide and seek amongst the clouds, both from each other and those on the ground. A thousand miles from anywhere Vimika had ever called home, she had yet to feel a single impulse to return.

  Being dead was glorious.

  "Does it go on forever?" Aurelai asked.

  "No, not forever."

  "What's on the other side?"

  "No one really knows. Could be anything."

  Aurelai took her hand and squeezed. "Dragons?"

  Vimika squeezed back. "I certainly hope so."

  In the far, far distance, somewhere just over the rim of the world, she thought she could make out something in the air. Maybe it was a cloud, a play of the light. A mirage.

  Or maybe it wasn't.

  "Shall we?" she asked.

  Nodding, Aurelai summoned her transportation.

  Sliding to a stop behind them was the top half of an old door, and a a blackened, charred wooden beam. To the back of the latter was strapped two lightweight packs, while from Vimika's doorknob hung her well-traveled satchel. Looking out from it was Oliver, eyes wide with boundless curiosity, tongue lolled out in satisfaction at what they saw.

  Vimika met Aurelai for a final kiss before mounting up.

  "Let's go see what there is to see."

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I WANT TO say thank you to all my friends and family who supported me through the writing of this book. They know how much this one means to me and why, and without them it wouldn't exist. So many have and continue to support me on this mad quest, I only hope the end results live up to all you have done for me. Brooke, without you this book would be a lot worse (and quite a bit shorter); you've helped make all of my books better.

  THANK YOU

  THANK YOU FOR reading Midnight Magic! Hopefully it was exactly the story you needed for the world we find ourselves in as of this writing, or at the very least, made you feel s
omething positive for a few hours.

  Reviews mean a lot to writers, especially indie ones. They're tangible evidence that you enjoy our work, and not only tell other readers what you thought, but us as well. Writing novels is a lonely experience, and to know that you like what we do goes a long way to inspiring us to do even more. (And usually faster.) So if you could leave a review when the little prompt shows up at the end, I would really appreciate it. Doesn't have to be much, just a few words. To know that my little magic kissing book put a smile on your face would mean the world to me.

  If you like my work and want to know when the next one comes out, please use the 'Follow Author' button on this book's Amazon page and you'll be notified automatically when it does! Otherwise, give me a follow on Twitter @cdarrowwrites for announcements and whatnot.

  My email address is [email protected] if you'd like to contact me more personally.

  Thank you again for taking this journey with Vimika and Aurelai, I sincerely hope you enjoyed your time with them. And me.

  -Cameron Darrow, June 2020

  ALSO BY CAMERON DARROW

  Midnight Magic

  From the Ashes of Victory

  Remember, November

  The Fires of Winter

  Hall of Mirrors

  Short Stories

  By the Moon's Light

  (my first published work; not explicitly lesfic)