Page 79 of Jinxes and Drumsticks

I nod a little, blown away by how... simple and yet complex this shit all is. When I look at Lillith again, I feel like I’m seeing her in a new light. She smiles up at me like she has no idea, and I realize she might not have any clue. “You’re fucking incredible.”

The words tumble out of my mouth without me meaning to say them. I mean, she is—and I have no problem telling her that she is—but I fall for her all over again.

She shrugs, not willing to meet my eyes when I’m paying her a direct compliment (yet another habit I’ll need to break). “It’s just what I’ve known my whole life. I feel the same way about you when it comes to your drumming. I don’t think I could ever succeed at playing an instrument.”

“Well, do we go in? Now that you have me marked as your thrall?” I lift up my wrist and show off my magical girlfriend tattoo.

She snorts and shakes her head, weaving her fingers with mine. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

We step through the glamoured passageway and find a nondescript hallway with a set of black double doors. She opens them and leads me through. As soon as we close the doors behind us, they vanish, locking us in.

I panic for a moment as we stand in complete darkness. I tug Lillith closer to me in an effort to protect her. Her hand that isn’t already in mine rests on the curve of my bicep.

“Hold on,” she whispers. “It’s just the wards checking you out.”

“I’m that good looking, huh?” I ask nervously.

“I can always tell you’re nervous—you backslide into dad jokes.”

“Backslide?” I say breathlessly. “Come on, baby—dad jokes are peak humor.”

Suddenly, just when the darkness starts to feel thick and oppressive, a faint, phosphorescent glow brightens our surroundings. We’re standing in a cavern inlaid with points of crystalline fractals that glow a pale blue light similar to the first colors of dawn. I feel Lillith’s eyes on me and when I look at her, she’s smiling so warmly up at me that her eyes crinkle at the sides.

“You passed the vibe check,” she teases, starting to lead me down the stone corridor.

I’m silent as we walk, each curve and switchback taking us deeper underground. The air gets cooler as we descend, the faint echo of dripping water makes this place feel almost unreal. Lillith seems to know that I’m taking it all in, because she stays quiet unless I say something to her first.

There are a few brief exchanges about the magic of the stones, the nature of the strange, trans-dimensional magic. She says a few things that don’t really make much sense to me—especially with how distracted I am by my surroundings.

We walk for a long time, but I never feel tired. My feet never hurt. I figure that must be part of the magic, too. Finally, the cavern seamlessly gives way to a wooded area. The smell of loam and the perfume of flowers drifts on a crisp breeze. When I look up, I’m shocked to see a starry twilight stretch above us.

“Wait—what? I thought... I thought this was The Buried City,” I say. “Why is there sky?”

“A misnomer,” she says. “Remember, the cavern is a portal—it’s not actually in our reality. This is... it’s like a pocket reality. A little slab of existence just for us.”

“How—I mean, is it another version of our planet? Is it big?”

“It’s about twenty square miles. A little bit larger than the area surrounding Lake Arrowhead, if you’ve ever been there,” she says.

My brow furrows, “Have you?”

She smiles a little sheepishly. “Old talking point—that’s how Bastion describes its size.”

I nod and give her a little smile. “Well—maybe we can visit it together some time. I’ve never seen it either.”

She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Yeah. Maybe.”

Discomfort twists my stomach. I wonder, in all honesty, if she has really given up on the whole idea of getting out of Del Lune. I know she wants to find a solution—to be able to leave her home again. But I realize I haven’t heard her talk about any larger aspirations. Not for countries she’d like to visit. Not even for states or cities outside of Del Lune, either.

There has to be a way to free her from this bullshit, right? I just don’t accept the idea that this is her fate forever. I look up at the sky, heaving an awed exhale when I see two moons glowing side by side.

“Whoa,” I say.

“Pretty, right?” she asks. “There’s a third one, too, but she’s kind of hard to see.” She points off toward the horizon, where a large black disc crawls slowly in a lazy arc. “Mother, Maiden and Crone.”

“Shit,” I say. “That’s fucking cool as hell.”

“Yeah. I love it too,” she says, sounding softly content.