The Everlasting

by Alix E. Harrow

“It was the whole reason you were sent here in the first place. You wanted a grand story, a fitting end to your book. And I wanted … to be what you wanted.”

I did not answer. I did not open my eyes. I only listened, while you told me the story of the queen-who-was-not-the-queen, who was every queen. You told it well, of course; you had been telling stories for more lifetimes than either of us could remember.

“This once, please—let me save you.”

(We’ve been so many things—a legend, a history lesson, a lie—why not a fairy tale?)

‘I’ve died in your arms more than once. Is sex so much more intimate than death?’

‘Who is free, who loves another?’