COLD BLOODED

Alice walked towards her house, wearing the cloak Lionel had given her. She pressed her face into it hoping for his scent, but it smelled of wool. She noticed a few townswomen pointing at her. Her name was tied to holy deaths. Alice stepped inside, shutting the door. She took off the cloak, setting it on the table.

Black smoke curled around her, shaping into a man. He took her hand, settling her onto the couch. Alice kept her expression bored while the demon exaggerated a pose. "What a gentlemanly proposal from Oswald~"

Her mind drifted back to Oswald and to the way he knelt without hesitating. "Yes, it was."

Alice stood, rubbing her fingertips along the tear in her tunic. "When Lionel ascends to the throne, Oswald will be exiled. So I have by then to think."

"Will it be a yes~?" The demon's form twisted into a cat, and it leapt into her arms. "I don't know."

It tilted its head, rubbing its fur against her face. “Why?”

"I had the high-priest blamed after I caused the wave of illness. I had Nigel killed and Oswald exiled...." She stroked its black tail. "Yet I feel no remorse. Rather, I am relieved that Lionel survived. So I don’t think I can ever be with Oswald."

The cat purred, then jumped from her arms onto the couch, becoming a boy. "But Alice... that priest you love… is cold-hearted...”

She said nothing, staring at a crack in the floorboards, unwilling to admit she understood what he meant. The boy pressed on. "I dislike him... He... He..." The demon rose, becoming a man, and took her arm from behind. "You should abandon humans. I'll turn you into a demon... you and I will live free, away from everyone."

Alice laughed. "Yeah, as if your other master would let you go."

The demon whimpered, shrinking into a dog. "I hate him."

Alice chuckled and bent to pat his head. "I guess I'll beg him to let you go... For starters..." She stood, opened a cupboard, and drew out a gem meant to be set into a sword's blade. Such gems were traditional gifts from a wife to her husband. Alice’s mother had commissioned this gem years ago, even before Alice started imagining Lionel’s sword with it. She carried it to the demon. "Give this to your master."

The demon jolted upright. "How did you know he was unmarried!?"

"Demon bound..." Alice looked at the gem and then around her empty house. “I just knew he would be..."

The demon reached for it; before he could take it, she asked, "What's his name?"

He pressed his lips before waving his hand. "Don’t go assuming that’s your husband."

Alice narrowed her eyes as he took the gem from her. Before she could ask anything, he folded himself to take her in an embrace. "Thank you, Alice.... I love you." Then dispersed into dark dust.

That was the last time she saw him. He simply vanished, as if he never existed. She waited a day, then another, until the waiting curdled into fear. What happened to him?

She stood in the crowd on the coronation day, lights strung overhead. Lionel stood on the platform with a bigger cross hanging around his neck. His new robe had golden embroidery. He raised his hand, bestowing prayers over the villagers. He was beautiful. Alice wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. She knew this day was coming, but her heart kept sinking. His voice carried verses over the courtyard. She bit her lip, pushed back through the crowd, out of the temple, and ran down the street the same way she had the night he'd taken his first vows.

She stood breathless on the empty street. She screamed for the demon while turning in circles until she found herself at the spot where she had accused the high-priest of slaughtering animals. She dropped to her knees. "Lionel...”

A bird chirped somewhere behind her.

She carried three birds home, their bodies already bled out, and drew a symbol across the floor with what remained. She stood in its center and began to recite. The floorboards shook. A flame erupted, and inside it she saw the demon's shadow, startled at seeing her. “Alice…don’t.”

Before he could step through the fire, her room went quiet. Then the front door came down with a bang.

Two townsmen stood in the doorway. They screamed at what they saw. "Move aside." A voice she had never once dreaded until now. Lionel walked in.

She stepped out of the symbol and staggered towards him. "Lionel." He glared at her, making her freeze on the spot. He drew out a talisman and pressed it against her forehead.

"Seize her..."

The men reached for her, but she began walking on her own. Outside, Oswald stood with his sword already drawn, blocking Lionel. "Let her go. Exile her with me..." The townsmen drew out their swords, all pointed at Oswald

Lionel tilted his head back. "Oswald... quit this. Begone, before I execute you."

Oswald let out a heavy laugh. "You changed too fast."

"It's okay, Oswald." Alice smiled at him. "You ought to forget me." She had already given up the moment Lionel glared at her.

The trial that followed barely registered to her. She confessed to witchcraft. The Senate found her guilty before she even finished speaking.

"Burned alive." Those were the only words she truly heard since Lionel spoke them.

They tied her to a wooden cross with kindling stacked below. Someone poured a liquid over the wood that was obviously oil. Her eyes moved over the crowd, looking for Lionel. I am so messed up.

They lit the flames. Sweat rolled down her temple. The burning smell filled the air. And finally the pain. She clenched her jaw against it, watching the nearest townsmen; some watched with pity, most with something closer to satisfaction. How annoying.

"Oh, not so great, people.... I, a witch, curse you all, each and every one of you.... So beg your high-priest for mercy."

A wave of fear rippled through the crowd. What a satisfying sight.

The flame curled around her. She closed her eyes but soon noticed it wasn’t touching her. The flames soared up in the air. Screams rose. Her demon stepped out of the fire. The ropes at her wrists disappeared. She fell forward into Oswald's arms. "Alice."

She pulled back from him, gasping, staring at the odd pair. "Y-you two..."

"Yeah, us," the demon smirked at Oswald. Alice noticed the freshly carved marks and symbols. "The other master set me free to save you..."

The Senate members closed around them with swords raised. Oswald lifted his own blade and looked at the demon. "I guess we'll fight."

They charged.

Together, for one strange moment, the two were something like a team. Blade and claws moved side by side as if they had done it a hundred times before. Alice looked for a sword to join them and then heard one unsheathe behind her.

Before she could act, something pierced through her. The blade came out, dark with her blood.

Her vision blurred as she watched Oswald and the demon turn, already running towards her. She blinked, and the last thing she saw was the gem, her so-called husband's gem, set into the blade.

Her body went slack. The sword slid free, and she fell back into the arms of the man who killed her.

"I am sorry." Lionel's voice came in a whisper.

.

Lionel.

He killed me.

But—the gem...

Darkness swallowed the rest of the sentence.

.

"Arise."

Her body arched forward on its own, one arm lifting and then the other. Something pulled her upright into an embrace. Her sight remained dark until a cloth was lifted from her face. Light struck her eye. She tried to close, but they wouldn't obey.

"Sorry. The eyes haven't started blinking yet." She knew the voice perfectly well. With small jolts her neck moved until she finally saw him. Lionel.

He sat beside her, one arm around her shoulders. He leaned in, brushing her hair back. "Sorry, had to kill you. But I knew you'd understand."

She tried to speak, but nothing.

"Speech isn’t working too…" Lionel cupped her face in both hands. He bent in and kissed her, long and slow, better than she had ever imagined. He pulled away. "Oh, Alice... I love you."

Her body wasn’t the same, but she knew she longed to hear those words.

He laughed softly and pulled her into a hug. "I've revived you. Necromancy. You must have heard of it."

Alice went still.

"I'm glad it worked out," he said, still holding her. "As an undead, my vow not to indulge in love with a human woman doesn't apply to you..." He kissed her forehead, brushing his fingers through her hair. "Fire would have destroyed your body. Good thing I let go of that devil..."

The gem... Alice reached up, caught his collar, and pulled him down to her eye level. Her voice wouldn't come, but one long look holding every question worked. Lionel looked at her, then sighed, the way he used to sigh as a child when she'd caught him at something.

"Okay, okay... I was the demon's master. I saw him near you, so I picked him." He chuckled softly. "I lied about Nigel and the high-priest wanting to kill me. They were suspicious of me, but never threatened my life. I needed to be strong enough to perform necromancy. Only a high-priest is capable of performing it. May we continue with what we were doing...?”

She kept her eyes on him, waiting for the rest.

He sighed with a sheepish smirk. "I needed someone to get rid of them both, and you were perfect. Yes, I could have told you, but I wanted to see if you loved me as much as I loved you.”

Her jaw tightened. Her fists crumpled his robe. She let it show on her face, and his expression eased when he saw it. He brushed a thumb along her lips. "Don’t be angry. I'm sorry for that. I'm not sorry for everything."

She rested her head against his chest, listening to his racing heart. He smiled nervously. “My heart beats so fast around you.”

He lifted her out of the box she was in; it was unmistakably a coffin. She had truly died.

He brought her into a room dressed in flowers and ribbons, laid her on the bed, and stepped back to look at her. "Just like a doll." Then, softly. "Perfect." He bent and pressed a kiss on her lips. "I'm glad you didn't marry Oswald. Or agree to become a demon."

He sat beside her. “Let me comb your hair.” He slowly ran the comb through her long locks. "Right, I remember. Oswald and that demon were both thrown out." He spoke slowly. "Hopefully they give up on you and just live together. I wouldn't mind if they did." In reality, he didn’t care what became of them, and neither did she.

"When you can walk again," Lionel lay down, pulling her into his arms, "I'll take you out of the village to see a crystal fountain."

She took his hand, her smile coming out crooked, her body still not quite hers. But it was clear she didn't hate any of this. Living as his doll. Being undone and remade by him. If they were together, then that was enough.

Outside this underground chamber, the villagers slept, unaware that their high-priest lay beside an undead witch. The one he killed and loved.