He stiffens, baffled. “Cut your wings out?”
“Of my back. Break them free.”
“Oh.” His tone is…interesting. Not asyes, of course I’m going to do that for youas I’d hope.
“What?” I prompt.
Castor provides me with another ball of dough as he finishes up his tenth or fifteenth. “My apologies. I was not speaking literally the other day. I needn’t cut your wings out of you. To free them, you must simply become fully fae.”
Become fully fae. That sounds far more romantic and far less painful. Mm. Yeah, I’m a fan.
I ask, “How do I do that?”
“Cast off your humanity. Accept a tongue that can’t lie. Embrace everything you are.” His expression softens. “Make the decision to be reborn yourself.”
My mind parses over that one, and I wince. “So I need to die? Or I need to cast rebirth on myself?”
“The second option.”
Oh, thank goodness. If standing in fire was a horror experience for quite a good portion of it, I don’t know how I’d work my human brain past a suicide. Now the only problem is that I don’t think I’ve everquiteintentionally cast rebirth. It’s sort of just…happened. By mistake. “Castor?”
“Yes, Mine?”
“How do I do that?”
He finishes his last roll and settles it into its place on the large tray. “How have you cast rebirth on other organic beings?”
Well, mostly it involves a lot of regret where it concerns misgendering and…
Oh.
Castor recognizes the shift in my emotions and smiles. “That’s how.”
I need to choose a new name.
Chapter 40
~~~~~~~~~~~~
From loving arms, I will rise.
“What aboutEmber?” Zahra asks, taking a bite out of one of the sandwiches Castor and I brought to movie night. “You said you were something fiery. Ember is pretty and fiery.”
Sure is. Pretty…fiery…and so cliche.
“If you wantfire, what about Dark Flame, Ruler of Chaos?” Alana—Cael’s soulmate, who has a very clear and obvious attachment to pop fiction, as judging by the fact she’s sitting here in fullKaleidoscope Dawncosplay—suggests. “It can both be anameand a title.”
“I don’t think so,” Willow interjects. “I likePersephone.”
I do, too, but that feels very firmly likenot my name. On account of it being, you know,Persephone’sname.
“You could go back toStorm!” Frelsi cheers into a sandwich she’s been violently tearing to pieces ever since we got here and uncovered our meager offering for everyone. Thankfully, she’s only hissed at Cael once, because Castor said she wouldn’t be allowed to stab him anymore if he let her come. “You’re much morekachow, kachownow. It’sperfect.”
I’m not sure I can berebornwith an old name like Danielle or Storm…
My attention drifts toward Castor, on the couch, with Ash in his lap, and Alexios leaning against his legs, and Andromeda on one side, and Pollux on the other. Saintly, at the head of the room in a chair dragged from the kitchen, Cael sits, watching, a serenity to him that feels somewhat…different than when I met him before.
Pila, on the floor by the TV, rests with her own baby, Terra.
