She was eerily still; her chest didn’t move, and Tony felt sick to his stomach. He was a scientist who understood how to analyze data and reach conclusions. Looking at the data, there was no doubt that Kendis was dead.
“No,” Chester screamed as he hurried to kneel beside her. “She’s not gone.”
“It’s your fault,” Chester snarled at him. “You were supposed to die! Not him, never Harry.”
It all hit Tony then that Chester Coil, the man who had killed his spouse was now holding Kendis’s lifeless body in his arms.
A surge of fury swiftly replaced the deep, aching grief that had risen inside of him. Tony shouted every curse he knew behind his gag as he fought against his bonds.
Tony was going to knock that wand out of Coil’s hand and wrap his hands around his neck. He would teach this insignificant little worm what true terror was.
“Crucio!”
Tony shouted as he arched against the chair; every nerve was on fire. But he didn’t shut his eyes; Tony wanted Chester to see that if he ever got free, he would not be leaving this place alive.
The torture went on forever, and Tony could only drown under the relentless waves of pain.
“Finite Incantatem,” Chester snarled and turned back to Kendis. “What in Merlin’s name—“
Tony tried to catch his breath, but he found just enough strength to turn in time to see Kendis close her eyes.
Tony could only stare in shock as he watched the movement of her chest go up and down. Kendis was now breathing when only a minute ago she had been rigid and still.
And then she snapped open her eyes, and instead of the green shade he was used to. Her eyes were so eerily dark they were eerily pitch black. Kendis stood gracefully to her feet to face Chester.
“Harry—“
“My name is Kendis,” Kendis replied through gritted teeth. “And this ends now.”
Tony shouted as Chester waved his wand and said, “Impedimenta!”
Kendis smirked. “Nice try.”
Tony looked on in wonder as Chester’s wand flew to Kendis’s palm without a word spoken. Suddenly, it turned to dust in her grasp.
What came next was something right out of a movie. Tony knew that Kendis could take care of herself. He had watched firsthand as she humbled that jackass biker after the Crenshaw race.
In hindsight, Tony knew he had gotten off lucky that she only slammed him against the back of a semi.
But now Tony could look on in amazement as Kendis proceeded to kick Coil’s ass. Her rage should scare him, and in truth, there was a part of himself that was terrified of this new side of his spouse. It didn’t take a genius to know this was the same darkness that he had only seen a hint of when they had mentioned the war.
Tony could only sit there and watch as she dropped-kicked her stalker to the ground and then curb-stomped him nearly to death. Yet, beyond the fear of this person who was the embodiment of pure fury and vengeance, was the person he loved, impossibly alive.
And even through the haze of his pain, Tony couldn’t take his eyes off her.
The theater’s temperature dropped, and the dim light faded further, leaving only Kendis visible beside Coil’s motionless form.
Then, a ring materialized on her finger, followed by a cape draping her shoulders, and last, a slender white wand materialized in her grasp.
“H—Harry,” Chester wheezed. “You wouldn’t—“
Kendis laughed, but there was no mirth in her voice.
“Harry Potter is dead. He’s been dead from the moment Voldemort hit me with that killing curse. The naïve little Gryffindor you idolize has long been gone,” they shrugged. “And I am nowhere near as forgiving as he was.”
Tony struggled to get out of his chair to get to her. He wanted to take her in his arms and let her rest. Kendis was more than capable of killing Coil, but she shouldn’t have to.
Tony understood it made no sense. Kendis had likely killed before, but Tony was irrationally pissed that she was forced to do it again.
For the first time since waking up, Kendis turned to face him. He was looking at his spouse, yet their dark eyes held an unfamiliar quality. Those eyes shone with something cold and ancient that sent a shiver down his spine.
Despite Kendis’s new strange qualities, Tony also recognized her love for him in her gaze: her devotion, and a question that resonated in the silence between them.
‘If I do this, will you still love me?’
Tony didn’t have to think twice. He loved Kendis deeply, loved every part of her, including the darkness inside her. He gave a slight nod, and she sighed to point her wand at Chester,
“Avada Kedavra!”
Coil was struck by a flash of green light and then collapsed, dead, into a pool of his own blood.
Kendis didn’t move for a long moment, her eyes eerily swept over the stage and into the audience. He shivered at how cold the theater suddenly got. It was so frigid that Tony could see his own breath.
And there was a scent of something smoky and pungent that he suddenly realized was brimstone. ‘The pain is making me delusional.’
“Decayero,” Kendis muttered, and just as it had before, Coil’s body deteriorated into ash, and then the pile that was left simply vanished.
Then without warning, the theater started shaking violently and he was thrown to the ground with a cry by the overwhelming power of the tremors.
“Tony!” Kendis ran over to him, and with a wave of her new wand, his gag and bindings disappeared. Kendis helped him to his feet, but it was hard to stand.
“We’ve got to get out of here!”
Tony coughed as the plaster from the ceiling fell around them, and in the next moment, they were gone with a pop.
***
Tony’s knees nearly gave out as they appeared in Kendis’s living room. Only Kendis’s grip on his shoulders kept him on his feet.
“Kendis!”
“Tony!”
There was a bark as Alke collided into their legs, and Tony fell on his ass that time.
Kendis told her dog, “Alke, no!” and then helped him get back on his feet. He turned to see Kendis’s four friends surround them, and then his mouth dropped as he took in their sorry state.
“What in the hell happened to you?”
Hermione and Ron were wearing the same scaled bodysuit that kind of reminded Tony of something a LARPER or cosplayer would wear. But their face and hands were full of cuts and bruises.
Ron’s right eye sported a hell of a shiner, and Hermione’s afro was messy, looking like someone had violently pulled a bunch of hair out of her ponytail.
But Jason and Ian? Tattered pieces of their neat black suits lay everywhere. Jason had one of his arms out of his suit, torn off, showing off his thick, muscular arms. And much like Hermione. His long hair was a mess, and there were dark bruises on his forearms.
Ian looked as bad as Jason, but Ian’s jacket was gone, and his white button-down shirt looked like it had been ripped to shreds.
“Zombies, man.” Jason glared at Ian. “Zombies.”
“Inferi,” Hermione corrected, and Jason rolled his eyes.
“Someone please tell me they are joking?” Tony asked, incredulously.
Kendis grimaced, “No, not even a little bit.”
Tony groaned and slapped his forehead. First wand waving wixens and now zombies. ‘The weirdness never stops.’
There was a sudden shift of weight on the sofa and Tony opened his eyes to see Alke sitting beside him. She whined, sniffed him, and whined again. Tony blinked and then shook his head as he finally gave in and scratched between her ears.
“Tony?”
He looked up, met her eyes, and was surprised to see her eyes had returned to their normal green. Tony had so many questions, but his body ached something awful, and for once, Tony was the overwhelmed one in their relationship.
“I’ll give you some mendiculus potion,” Kendis sighed. “It will help alleviate some effects of the crucio curse.”
“Coil cast crucio on a muggle?!” Ron asked, outraged.
“Kendis — “
Kendis put her hand up to silence her friends. “Let me give Tony his potion, and then I’ll answer his questions.”
Kendis quickly left, and Alke followed behind her. Tony turned to the others who had taken seats on the nearby sofas.
“Mà tòn Día,” Ian swore as he ran his hand through his long, light-blond hair. “I need a shower, food, and a bed in that order.”
“Hear, hear!”
“What happened to Lan Jingyi?” Tony asked, noticing that he was missing.
“We sent him home,” Ron shook his head.
“We all waited here to see if you would turn up,” Hermione replied tiredly. “We were just about to go back and look for you.”
The friends went silent as Kendis returned and handed Tony a vial that had a neon yellow substance in it. He had a sudden sense of déjà vu about the day she revealed her magic. “This is going to taste like dirty socks, isn’t it?”
“That’s how you know it’s working.” Kendis shrugged.
Tony uncorked the vial and knocked it back. He grimaced, “Ugh, socks it is.”
Ian giggled and leaned into Jason.
Jason glared at his husband for a long moment, sighed in exasperation, and then wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
“What happened to Coil?” Hermione asked.
Kendis sighed as she slumped down next to Tony, and Alke jumped on the sofa and lay her enormous head on top of his legs.
“Dead,” Kendis curtly said. “And I disposed of any evidence.”
The four friends sighed in relief.
“It’s over, then.” Ron said, “But all the same to you, Dis. I’ll double-check and make sure we covered our tracks. I don’t want the American Aurors knocking on our doors.”
“The theater is pretty much a goner.” Tony shook his head.
“That’s helpful.” Hermione nodded, “It makes our job easier.”
“Can we eat now?” Ian asked with a yawn. “I want all the takeaway!”
After kissing Ian on the forehead, Jason got up, ignoring Ian’s whines, and went to use Kendis’s landline phone. Tony wrinkled his nose in obvious disgust. He was dead set on prioritizing how to get magic and tech to play nice together.
And the first thing to go is that ancient relic.
“Don’t even think about it,” Kendis said in his ear as if she could read his mind. Maybe with all her powers, she could take a peek into his brain.
He violently shoved that thought down before he went down that unsettling rabbit hole. Kendis gave a tired chuckle as she kissed Tony on the forehead
He opened his mouth to argue, but found himself giving a loud yawn instead as an overwhelming exhaustion hit him. Tony quickly closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
***
Tony was cranky when Kendis woke him up later, but to his delight and bewilderment, there was enough Chinese food sitting on the coffee table to feed an army.
After eating his weight in beef lo mein and some general tso chicken, the journey from the living room to the bedroom was a bit of a blur. He remembered Kendis dragging him down the hall and into the ensuite bathroom.
He had brief memories of Kendis helping him take off his clothes and get in the shower, then later helping him slip into an old band shirt and boxers. “Thank you,” Tony muttered tiredly, and then with a sigh of relief, he flopped headfirst onto the bed. He was startled when Alke jumped on the bed, then he settled down.
Tony just lay there existing in that warm, happy place between sleeping and being awake. He heard a noise and turned to Kendis, who was walking out of the bathroom, dressed in a gray pajama short set with a black satin bonnet tied around her head.
“Tony,” Kendis shook her head as she tiredly padded across the room and helped him get under the duvet before she walked to her side of the bed.
Tony pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her waist, making sure the duvet was covering them both. He put a kiss on the top of her bonnet. She gave a long sigh of relief. After everything that had happened. Tony was just so goddamn grateful that he still got to hold her, still got to feel her breath against his skin.
For a moment there, Tony believed he might never see his spouse again.
Alke huffed, shut her eyes, and let out a big snore.
“Long day,” Kendis gave a mirthless laugh.
“Long month,” Tony countered over a yawn, “I can’t believe the same time last month I was a confirmed bachelor.”
“Do you regret it?” Kendis asked. “Marrying me?”
The only thing I wish I could change is that I don’t remember our wedding, and that we got cheap wedding rings.” Tony ranted, “I am Tony Stark, and I don’t do cheap.”
Kendis snorted as she snuggled closer to him. Tony tightened his hold around her waist and sighed. “Seriously, though? I would marry you a thousand times if I could.”
“I am the reason you got tortured,” Kendis sobbed.
“And you died for me,” Tony shot back. “I watch you drop dead right in front of me.” The grief and anger hit him all over again, and he pulled Kendis closer.
She tightened her arms around him. “I choose to live for you.”
Tony jerked back, “What?”
“I was given the choice to live or to go on to see my family again.
Tony didn’t believe in God or the afterlife, but he could tell that Kendis was absolutely serious. Even though Tony would typically have debunked Kendis’s words as only a delusion or written them off because of her brush with death. Yet, in a world where magic existed, people could come back from the dead. Was the concept of an afterlife so far-fetched?”
“Why?” Tony surprisingly asked instead.
“Because I love you,” Kendis said simply. “And I choose you, and I will keep choosing you every day for the rest of my life.
Tony leaned down, bringing his lips to hers in a soft, affectionate kiss. It was a shame they both were too tired to do more. Yet, as Tony drifted off to sleep with his spouse, who was only supposed to be temporary, in his arms, he could only think that he would spend every day for the rest of his life proving to Kendis that she had made the right decision.
