The Secrets of Lore Seymour

No Ending Better Than This

One Month Later

Seren POV

A pain in my left arm wakes me followed by my right. The doctor warned of this; a tingling sensation, though it resembles more of a thousand needles stabbing my arm in random patterns. Swinging my feet over the bed, the cold floor sends a shiver up my legs.

My prosthetic arm sits on the bedside table. I grab the device, biting my bottom lip when attaching it to the metal contraption attached to the elbow of my left arm. The prosthetic makes a short-lived hissing sound. Gears clink. A slight shock moves up my arm, making it twitch, then my fingers and hand move. It's strange. Sometimes I forget, other times I can't stop staring at the metal hand that has a slightly delayed reaction. The doctor said it'll take time getting used to a prosthetic. I should be grateful. Magic allows me to move my prosthetic like a limb, but every morning I swear I feel my left arm, then I look over and realize it's gone. There's a sinking feeling and I wonder if I'm being silly about it.

"Seren?" Lore calls half asleep. I glance back at him. He turns to rest a hand on my hip, then leans up to kiss my back. "Are your arms bothering you?"

"A little, yeah."

Lore rises fully. His hair tickles my back when he leans in to massage my right arm as the doctor said we should. While my right arm was saved, scars linger. The children said the marks resemble vines twisting up to my elbow. Hyun Woo likes that "we kind of match" in our prosthetics, so they were better reactions than predicted. I had worried they'd be scared or ask a lot of questions that I'd be hesitant to answer because I wouldn't want to frighten them even more.

"The doctor will be visiting again tomorrow for a check up," Lore says, making me groan. He chuckles. "He needs to make sure you're taking well to the prosthetic and that nothing goes wrong with your other arm. And no complaining when he's here. We don't want the children copying and complaining about seeing the doctor."

"I feel like you're using them as an excuse against me," I tease, retreating when Lore tries to lean in for a kiss. With his hold on my arm, he tugs me into his chest to kiss my cheek, then my neck.

"I'm merely making suggestions to keep in mind, seeing as the children have caught on to us. You'll be surprised how often they'll copy you."

"Oh, don't remind me," I grumble, recalling Angel repeating the word "shit" at least four times after she heard me say it. I've never been one to believe we should prevent children from cursing. They're just words, but a part of me cringed upon realizing how easily we influence them.

Chuckling, Lore gets out of bed to head for the bathroom. I follow, joining him at the bathroom sink to brush our teeth. Of course he tries kissing me with a mouth full of toothpaste. I narrowly dodge, managing to finish up before Lore.

Leaning against the doorway, I ask, "Have you been considering when we can move back to the manor?"

Ristain went on an outing to Silra and stopped by to inspect the manor. There was considerable damage, though less than we predicted. Mostly doors kicked in, windows busted, and furniture flipped over in search of anything or anyone left behind. The structure itself remains mostly intact.

"With everything going on, I doubt we can return within the year." He sighs, returning to the bedroom so we can slip into shirts. Lore grabs a hair tie on the dresser to pull his hair into a tight ponytail. "Though the church is losing members faster than we predicted, there's too much heat to risk revealing ourselves yet," he continues, snapping the band.

"The monarchy is keeping an eye out for us too," I add, recalling the last meeting we had with the Red Moon. The monarchy turned on the church quickly. About a week in, the king started announcing investigations into the church's "good for nothing" deals. Trying to throw this mess all on the church. Some believe that, most are hesitant after all that has happened, second guessing everything as we had hoped.