final
The first time they meet is at a crossroads.
There is a boy who stands in the middle of the road. His hair is black as the night sky, his eyes gray as stone. Pale skin and a dusting of freckles on his nose. He’s wild-eyed and frantic, wants to make a deal to save his brother from sickness, and begs—my soul for his.
James isn’t surprised by this. It’s only the desperate and dying that make deals with devils.
The boy says his name is Regulus, and James thinks his soul is the most beautiful he’s ever seen. He doesn’t hesitate to take it, to claim it. Smiles when he crooks a finger under Regulus’ chin and kisses him, seals the deal.
The second time they meet is one hundred years later.
Regulus is young again, and his soul is still warm. A burning star in his chest that James sees and knows. Loves, even.
James has been waiting. Watching. One hundred years is the blink of an eye when you have eternity before and behind you. He was meant to claim Regulus, to bring his soul into the pit and let it rot.
But it’s too beautiful, and James is so weak for beautiful things. So he lets it live, lets it try again, and when he sees Regulus, he approaches him with a tentative smile, says, Hello, love, it’s nice to meet you, and they fall in love over a lifetime.
The third time they meet, James is already in love. Has been in love for two hundred years. He sees Regulus buying apples from a vendor and doesn’t hesitate. I know you, he wants to say. I’ve seen your soul and it’s seen mine.
We were in love once.
This time, it isn’t so easy. Regulus is married, and he resists. But his soul belongs to James, and in the end, so does he.
He says it in the quiet of a shabby inn. James kisses a line down his spine, licks at the vertebrae and counts each one, and when he reaches the dimples at Regulus’ lower back—there in every lifetime, James has realized—Regulus says, I belong to you, and James replies,
You always have and always will.
Between the third and fourth time, James is in agony. His chest yawns, cavernous and aching, but Regulus hasn’t come back yet. His soul bides its time, and James wishes he’d been selfish. He should’ve kept it closer, kept it with him. But he didn’t, and so he waits.
Yearns.
But Regulus always comes back to him, in the end.
I’m named after a star, you know.
I know, love. You burn so bright. Nothing else would suit you.
It’s as the years stretch and James waits that he finds himself looking up to the sky. He has never been so envious of the heavens for their proximity to the stars.
The fourth and final time they meet, James has waited four hundred years and he’s tired. Has searched heaven and hell and all of earth for a burning soul. He’s decided if he finds Regulus again, this will be the last time. He will take his soul and bring it home, and James will follow it down.
James finds him—finally—on a busy street in New York City. It’s 1972, and the world is so different but Regulus is the same. Black curls and gray eyes and freckles James has never forgotten.
He has spent so long alone; he has no more self-control. “Hello, love,” he says, and it takes Regulus by surprise.
“Do I know you?”
“No, but I saw you over there and I wanted you to know I think you’re beautiful.”
Regulus’ smile is shy, a little tentative, but James knows his soul. Sees it burn, bright and bold. Hello again. “Oh. Thank you. You’re not so bad yourself.”
James’ heart trips and stumbles. “Do you want to get coffee with me?”
“Are you asking me on a date?”
“Would you say yes if I was?”
Regulus cocks his head. “I think so. What’s your name? I’m Regulus, by the way. Weird, I know. I’m named after—”
“A star,” James finishes, and he delights in the laugh that bursts forth. Has ached for it for so long he nearly forgot the sound. “I’m James.”
“That’s a nice name. James.”
A taste, just a bite.
More. Eat more.
Devour me whole and leave nothing left.
“Well, James. Know any good coffee spots?”
And this lifetime, the final one, is James’ favorite.