Satan's Queen

Epilogue

She didn't see Zeke or the others again. For the first few years since the day they'd left her, Kaitlyn would sit outside almost every night waiting for them, but they never showed. It was sad but it did not upset her, not when she had Jacob.

And Jacob was always there.

She couldn't count how many times they moved. The longest they stayed in any one location was three years before Jacob began to feel anxious for her safety. Even as the decades passed and most of the rumours about the queer events surrounding her began to fade, he did not lose his vigilance. Strangely, it didn't take nearly as long as Kaitlyn thought for humanity to forget her name. Every now and then it would pop up in a magazine or news article and sometimes on T.V, surrounded by disbelief and mystery, before vanishing again.

Just another unexplained phenomenon that seemed less and less likely as time went by.

It wasn't the same for Kaitlyn.

Even after so many years Kaitlyn hadn't forgotten a single detail of her reunion with Lucifer in the nave of that church. The way he blazed—like a star, so glorious he'd taken her breath away.

I can be rid of them.

Be rid of what?

Your painful memories.

She remembered the smile that followed, so confident, so perfect, so full of ancient history. Not only had he succeeded but somehow he'd made sure that she remembered everything with impossible detail. If it hadn't been for that—and Jacob—she could have almost convinced herself that it had all been a wild dream.

Though they moved constantly, Kaitlyn didn't mind. It was always in some out of the way place, far away from people, on a beach, on a mountain, in the forest, amid the waving grass. So far away from the rest of the world that it almost didn't seem real.

And they made love, constantly and regularly throughout the decades. Jacob's love never wavered, just as Kaitlyn's didn't, made easy by the fact he didn't age—a hard reality to accept. As Kaitlyn's skin wrinkled and her hair turned grey, Jacob remained just the same as that first moment she'd met him at the bar, dressed in that silly grey sweater, bowed low over his beer. As beautiful as ever. His angel light as bright as ever. His love for her as fierce as ever.

Now, after so many decades, they didn't make love anymore, though they held each other just as tightly as that first time in Father Alexander's church.

The extent of your life is merely a blip.

She could hardly conceive of it in the early days; she definitely felt the truth of it now as she looked down at her wrinkled, spotted hands.

'Are you all right, Kaitlyn?'

'I'm fine.'

'Are you ready?'

Kaitlyn took a deep breath as she turned to look at the ocean. It didn't look any different to when she'd first arrived those many years ago, when she was still young and full of life. She could almost picture Jacob swimming in the water. She could almost see her young self stripping off and splashing after him, her dark hair flaring behind her. She had asked if they could return to the little beach house to live out the last of her days—her favourite place in the whole wide world—and he had delivered as he always had.

Jacob laid his hand on her shoulder. 'It is okay to be frightened.'

'I'm not frightened.' Though her lips quivered as she looked up at him. 'Not if you're with me. You'll be with me the whole way?'

He smiled. 'It's a very short trip.'

'How long?'

'A split second. It's like closing your eyes and opening them again.'

Kaitlyn gripped onto his hand with trembling fingers, swallowing hard. 'Just like a dream.'

'Just like a dream.'

'Will I be young again?'

'You can be anything you want.'

'Will they all be there?'

Jacob brushed her hair out of her face. 'You're stalling.'

Kaitlyn took another long breath as she stole one last look at the ocean. Then she grasped his other hand, and they walked slowly back to the house, Jacob helping her up the steps as her old, aching legs faltered.

The bed was freshly made. The sun was setting now and red light was pouring in through the windows. Jacob helped her into the bed, then lay beside her. Kaitlyn gazed into his eyes until all she saw was an endless emerald, her favourite colour.

Jacob reached out to hold her close and Kaitlyn sagged against him, her head on his arm, watching as his angel wings filled the room and blazed so brightly she was forced to close her eyes.

She opened them again.

'Didn't I tell you we'd see you again one day?' came Zeke's familiar, aching voice.

Kaitlyn grinned.

The End.