Gods above.
She’s trying to do the ritualnow?
The shock of this surreal moment is the final straw, crashing through the walls I can no longer keep up. I never had the chance to formally ask her. I wanted this melding of our souls so desperately—and incubi can only experience it once in a lifetime.
My own lifetime may now be laughably short on account of how fervently I was leaning into my curse before Syntyche sentenced me to this punishment, but I’ll be damned before I miss what it feels like to be joined with Maven.
But in order to experience this intimate moment fully, I have to feel every fucking thing.
So I do.
As the barricade finally falls, emotions flood back so quickly that I'm suddenly drowning. The shock and horror and denial and bitter fuckingagony.The soul-crushing grief. The unspeakable emptiness day after day, existing in a world she no longer occupied.
I choke on it all.
21
CRYPT
When Maven seesme fall to my knees, she pauses the ritual and moves to my side. Her perfect fingers gently trace the markings on my neck.
“Crypt?”
Gods above, her voice.
When I was numbed, it was just another noise—but now I shudder as rivulets of feelings continue to bathe my monstrous soul. It’s a baptism of previously detained human emotions that quickly suffocates me.
The lifelessness on Maven’s beautiful face as Frost wept over her. The psyches I demolished to drown out the loss. The terrified victims who ripped each other apart as I watched. Feeling dead inside while I took vengeance on the gods who dared allow my darling to be separated from me.
I try to inhale, but it’s too much. I’m asphyxiating on emotions.
“Breathe,” my keeper murmurs, holding one of my hands as I finally start to catch my breath.
“Promise me,” I begin raggedly once I can look her in the eye as myself. “Promise that you will never again go where I can’t follow.”
Maven’s gaze is unexpectedly soft compared to her words. “Fuck promises. I’ll make you a godsdamned vow. From here on out, I’ll be your muse. No matter what fate has in store, you won’t be able to escape me this time.”
Gods above.
Yes.
Despite the emotions still stifling my every thought, I rise to my feet to stand across from the stunning demigoddess I ache to belong to. She picks up where she left off, using bronze dust to finish the complex runes surrounding the holy symbol on the altar.
She holds her hands out for mine.
I have no clue if this ritual will work within a memory, but I’d gladly sell my soul to find out.
Taking Maven’s hands, I watch, transfixed, as she utters words I don’t understand. She’s hell-bent on getting this right as she recites from her memory. Towards the end, she switches to English.
“This I vow in all dreams pure
Muse-marked soul forevermore
Bind to me his consciousness
Life or death, this union bless.”
Glowing light surrounds us, soft and warm as ardor burns in my chest. For a moment, it becomes painless heat until my subconscious ripples around us.
