Hi, all!
Annabelle Hawthorne is back with yet another chapter of "I should be wrapping Christmas presents but decided to lewd as many myths as possible and make them fight for your attention."
This is way easier than figuring out what gift to give the person who finds the Christmas pickle in my tree (not a euphemism, look it up).
New readers, welcome! You are several books and spinoffs into a story that has likely saved me thousands of dollars on porn and therapy, but feel free to dive right in. If you need a reading order, I would start with Chapter 001 and climb the ranks from there. Dead and Horny takes place during Book 3, and D&H 2 takes place shortly before Book 5. I keep release dates in the bio, so check that if you're trying to schedule a date night for yourself (this is legit a thing, and no, you don't have to put out).
Returning readers, welcome back! The year (2024) is closing out and I finally feel like I'm hitting my stride just in time for the holidays to make their temporal demands. I want to thank you all for coming back to see exactly where this book is going, it's going to be hard to top the finale of the last one, but I'm going to give it my best shot!
As always, don't forget to leave some stars on the way out (do this for other authors you read, they love it). Release schedule is in the bio, my beta team are amazing, and you should check out TJ Skywind here on Lit if you want a different fantasy read.
Okay, friends, it's time for me to bastardize some Arthurian lore while creating an air of mystery. Shall we begin with how the last chapter ended?
Avalon Found
Mike sat on a log on the shore, staring at the distant island as the sun continued to rise back in the human realm. The brighter the waters became with the sky's reflection, the more the world they now occupied looked as if it were trapped in a perpetual twilight. They were waiting for a bit more light before attempting to cross over to Avalon-once lost and now found.
Sofia sat next to him. Cerberus was sniffing around the boathouse island and had somehow found a grasshopper to chase. Sulyvahn sat on the other side of Mike, his gaze also on the island.
"So..." Mike looked at Sulyvahn. "Care to explain that outburst we just saw?"
Sulyvahn chuckled. "If yer talkin' that wee tantrum from the princess, there's not a whole lot ta say."
Mike looked over his shoulder at the boathouse behind them. Several of the stones had been scoured down to the ground, reduced to dust by Nyx's magic. The princess had blown her top at the sight of the island, taking out her wrath on the structure behind them. As far as Mike could tell, her magic seemed to center around time. In this instance, the remaining walls of the boathouse had experienced hundreds or maybe thousands of years of weathering in an instant.
"Maybe start with why she's so angry?"
"That's Avalon," whispered Cecilia from behind. "The island she and her sisters were sworn to protect."
"Aye." Sulyvahn crossed his arms, looking suddenly thoughtful. "It's been lost fer centuries in yer time. It happened a century or so after Merlin closed the veil on magic."
"How does somebody steal an island, though?" asked Mike.
"It was never in one place to begin with," answered Sofia. "Historical records indicate that Avalon itself was constantly on the move."
"Aye. Untethered from this realm while firmly tethered to our own. Even then, ye couldna just pay it a visit. Ye had to have permission." Sulyvahn squinted toward the island. "It's kinda hard to see with the light of the lake all around it. Just one big shadow."
"This twilight realm is weird." Mike gestured at the sky. "No stars. If there are no stars, then where does the heat for this place come from?"
"It's not that warm," said Sofia. She was huddled in a cloak. "My guess is maybe forty degrees Fahrenheit. How are you not freezing?"
"Well, I packed a really good sweater, for starters." Mike patted his chest. "I'm actually quite comfortable."
"What's it made from?" asked Sofia. "I don't recognize the wool. Is it Alpaca?"
"Bigfoot." Mike laughed. "Eulalie gave this to me, said it belonged to her dad. When she and Velvet were little, they'd brush Bigfoot and braid up his fur, that kind of thing. It sounds like their mom made a couple of these during some lean winters. Beth found a box of old clothes in the attic of the cabin last spring and it's the first occasion I've had to wear it. This one used to be loose on me, but my shoulders have filled out."
Everyone went quiet and sat there on the shore. Cerberus laughed and continued to chase the grasshopper back and forth. The thing was nearly eight inches long and made an unnerving rattling noise when it jumped. Mike wasn't entirely convinced the thing was actually a grasshopper. Was it a locust? Sofia could tell him, but she looked grumpy and now didn't seem like the time.
"You know...just because I mention Velvet doesn't mean you all have to suddenly be quiet." Mike looked at the others. "I'm not happy about what happened, but I'm okay with it."
Sulyvahn shifted uncomfortably. "It be a bit different for us," he said. "We learned long ago not to speak of the dead for fear of unsettling them. That's just the business we be in. Yer Velvet has passed on safely and all, but old habits die hard."
"Eulalie talks about her a lot," said Sofia. "Usually it's fine. Every now and then, though, she'll freeze up as if stabbed. Grief has sharp edges that only time can sand away."
"Aye, that be true. Ye speak as if with firsthand knowledge."
The cyclops nodded, absently picking at her braid. "Long ago, I grieved for my own family. I lost them when I was quite young. But you have to realize that I've lived far longer than I was ever supposed to. It's been so long since I remembered anything about them other than concepts. I know I had a mother and father, and even a sibling, but they're simply ideas now, like characters in a book. I don't see their faces or hear their voices. They're just kind of...there. My own grief has been sanded away, leaving nothing behind but scars in the ground for me to look at."
"That be heavy thinking," said Sulyvahn.
Mike put his hand on Sofia's leg and squeezed. Cecilia wrapped her arms around the cyclop's shoulders and held her from behind. Sofia went stiff at first, then allowed the others to comfort her.
"FUCK!" Nyx's voice resonated through the ground, causing ripples to drift away from the island they sat on. Mike frowned and looked back at the ruins.
"Why is she still here?" he asked. "Wasn't she going back through the mirror to contact her sisters or something?"
"That's what she said," muttered Sofia. "I already miss the peace and quiet."
Cerberus squatted down in front of Mike, then proudly handed over the winged insect. Mike chuckled and rubbed each of their heads, causing the hellhound to press against his body and make happy noises. Their tail swished from side to side as they curled up in his lap, but they didn't quite fit, which meant they kept squirming. Their eyes went wide and they sniffed the air, the center head letting out a growl.
