Lor (Monstrous, #7)

by Lily Mayne

He had his own life through the void. Work and family and friends. A weak shard of grief stabbed through my chest over the knowledge that I would likely never get to share any of it with him. That one day, Jugs might simply stop coming back, never again stepping through the void from his world. And I would wait, and wait, haunting an empty guestroom in my hyll, praying to the Mabs for just one more chance to see him.

Now he could carry a piece of me whenever we were apart. Jugs’ throat bobbed several times as he looked at it in the mirror, before picking up his old hoop and turning to face me. “Will you… will you keep mine?” he asked shyly. “Yes,” I breathed, staring at it in his palm. “Please.” Once he’d handed it to me, I rushed to the mirror to take out the jewel in my left lobe. After sliding in Jugs’ hoop, I stared at it. A single flash of gold amid all the silver-and-black metal and muted jewel tones. Now I would carry a piece of him too.

“You are everything to me. I won’t survive it, not as I am now. I won’t.” Releasing his hand, I splayed my trembling fingers over his chest. “My heart is in here now. Not with me. I will be empty without you.”

“I haven’t really achieved much, but making the decision to come back here, to meet you properly, is the thing I’m most proud of in my life,” he told me quietly. “I love you, Lor. I don’t regret any of it. And that… that helps. It helps me accept what”—his breath shuddered out of him—“what’s going to happen. It was all worth it. I love you.”

“I would wait my whole life for you,” he said quietly, trying to steady his voice even as tears continued to stream freely down his cheeks. He pressed his lips to my hand again. “I would wait forever for you, Jugs.”