Kathryn Ann Kingsley - 03 Fall of Angels by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

Author:Kathryn Ann Kingsley [Kingsley, Kathryn Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Limitless Publishing, LLC
Published: 2020-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

***

It was another memory. Another shelter in a storm. Anything against the cold, the death, and the nothingness. Another dream to lose herself in to avoid her reality. Another happy memory she could relive.

It was the day Godfrey had given her a puppy for her “birthday.” She didn’t have a birthday; she knew that even then. But they had chosen a day on the calendar and celebrated it anyway. It was part of the human experience, he had explained. She personally thought it was silly at the time. There were enough holidays to count the passage of time. She didn’t really need one of her own.

After the night she had killed them all and abandoned Asmodeus in the spirit realm, she never celebrated her birthday again. Looking back on it, she missed it. She especially missed this one.

The puppy was rolling around on the ground, chewing on a piece of tied-off cotton rope. She was sitting there with it, smiling so wide her face hurt. It was a golden retriever. And its happiness was contagious. She remembered playing on the floor with it for the rest of the day, cuddling when it fell asleep, taking it outside, cleaning up after its mistakes. She couldn’t remember ever being so happy.

It felt like a lucid dream. She knew where she was and what was happening, but she could enjoy this and let it distract her from the pain that battered at her soul. In the real moment, it had been summer. But in this dream, a winter storm rattled the windows. A constant reminder of what was waiting outside the corners of her mind, threatening to break in at any moment.

She scooped up the puppy, and it wriggled excitedly as she hugged it to her. It began licking her face, sending her into a peal of laughter. “I love him, Godfrey!”

“I’m glad.” A heavy hand settled on the top of her head. “It is to teach you a lesson, though.”

“What?” She looked up at him with a playful smile. “Is it to teach me responsibility? Do you think I’m that juvenile that I don’t know how to care for an animal?”

Godfrey chuckled and walked over to the window, looking out at the storm. “No, you’re plenty responsible. I have no doubt you’ll take care of him just fine.”

“Then what’s the lesson?” She put the puppy back down in her lap and began tickling the little ball of blond fluff as it wriggled and rolled onto its back to happily chomp at her hands. “Is it about how cute he is?”

Godfrey answered without turning around. “It’s about loss, Selina.”

“What do you mean?”

“Even for a mortal human like me, we take in pets, love them like family—sometimes even more—and then we have to suffer their loss. They don’t live as long as we do. We take them into our hearts, and then they leave us. They leave a terrible grief in their wake. You’ll spend many happy years with that pup at your side. And then you will have to learn what it’s like to let him go.

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