He laughed and brushed her lips with his. “There’s nowhere I wouldn’t go to be with you, Merri.”
Malice tugged her out of his arms without apology. Kissing her hard before resting his forehead against hers. “Never leave me again.”
“I promise,” she whispered.
When Chaos finally got his turn, he seemed to have no words to give her. I knew my brother well, and the truth was, his emotions were so great he had no way to get them out. After a few ragged breaths, all he managed was, “Well done, Red.”
Realizing the facade hadn’t flickered in a while, I narrowed my eyes and studied it. Something had changed. If I had to guess, I’d say the illusion was growing stronger.
Clearing my throat, I looked back at Merri, still tangled up in Chaos. “I’m sorry to break this up, but we need to go.”
She pulled back from him, her face paling as she looked beyond me and to the cabin.
I followed her gaze, instantly understanding her reaction as my focus landed on the man standing in the doorway.
Lucifer
“Merri?”I rasped as consciousness finally found me again.
I was weakened, most assuredly, but it had been fucking worth it to bond with my mate. I’d do it a hundred times over if she asked it of me. Did this make me a simp?
I stood, legs as weak as a newborn fawn. Reaching out, I pressed my palm against the wall to steady myself.
“Where did you run off to, crabapple?” I murmured, listening for any hint of her whereabouts as I staggered out of the bedroom. Snagging my dressing gown off the back of the bathroom door, I continued down the hall.
Bloody hell, I couldn’t wait for my full power to restore itself. This being mostly human thing was exceedingly tedious. It was all I could do to make it to the living room without needing to stop and rest.
My stomach dropped at the sight of the open front door, revealing not the picturesque lake property I’d conjured for us, but hell.
“Bollocks,” I huffed. “You let your mate drain your power one time, and you lose your grip on the alternate reality you’re holding her captive in.”
Luckily I knew she wouldn’t get far. Not in my domain.
There was nowhere she’d ever be able to hide from me here. Or anywhere, for that matter.
I gave our bond a little tug, feeling the tether connecting us vibrating with awareness as I moved to the open door. What I saw when I got there hit me like a cricket bat to the face. Those pesky horsemen were here. Of bloody course they were. Well, they were in for a surprise when she chose me, weren’t they?
Her mate.
Like the proverbial moth to a flame, Merri’s gaze turned to me.
That’s right, my darling.
But it wasn’t happiness on her face. It was horror.
A discordant note rippled through the bond connecting us, and unease spread through my chest like acid, eating away at any certainty I’d had.
The familiar ring of steel had my eyes moving to War, his overcompensatingly large sword in his meaty hand.
“Protect our mate at all cost,” he snarled.
I froze as everything I knew to be true crumbled before my eyes.
The last time I’d felt this lost, I’d just been shunned from heaven. That was the second time today I’d been brought back to that moment in my life, and I did not care for it one bit.
“Leave him be. Take me away from this place,” she said, looking to Death as though he was the love of her life.
I beg your finest pardon, madam, that is moi.
