The Scattered Bones

by Nicole Scarano

Hreinasta, the Pure One—the divine primordial goddess who turned her back on me—declared their names forgotten, her decree transforming their brotherhood into a cautionary tale.

“I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you. I mean this in the most respectful way, but you are divinely lovely. I’m almost ashamed to share the same air as you.”

Even if he never scaled the temple walls again, I wanted the man shrouded in both darkness and light to be alive and safe.

He’d become my favorite part of my existence, breathing life into parts of my soul that had died.

“I don’t want to take anything from you.” Conviction fortified his voice. “I want to give everything to you.

“I’ll even return when you’re old and grey and Hreinasta abandons you for another. It may take a while, but I’ll always come for you.”

I hate the gods. I don’t want to serve them, but this brokenhearted husband? I will worship him. We are the same.

Varas may be the god I’ve pledged to, but you’re who I want to swear my future to. You’re the altar I pray at, the deity I worship, and I would sacrifice my life for you,

“You are my goddess.” His low admission rumbled through his ribs, vibrating against my skin. “You are what I pray to, what I worship, what I adore.”

“I love you, Sellah,” he whispered into my hair. “You own me. All of me. Forever.”

“This isn’t love. Love is too simple a word for what I feel. The world could end. Ages could pass. The gods could die, and I would still adore you. You’ve been braided so deeply into my heart that I no longer exist without you.”

“I’ll want you even in death, Sellah. There’s no afterlife, but that doesn’t matter. I’ll love you until I’m dead in the dirt, then I’ll love you until my body is nothing but bones. And when my bones fade to dust coating the earth, I’ll still want you.”

miss him so much. More than the sun misses the moon, the lover she shares a sky with but never at the same time.

He prepared for an army, for a battle won with brute force. He should have been preparing for a thief’s wife.