His lips quirked, and his blood dripped onto the table. “Yes.”
Too easy.
“And when the final date ends, you’ll remove all your power from Eloise?”
He sighed, and the shadows crept toward us from the edges of the room. “That’s what I said. I hate repeating myself.”
I snatched the blade and mirrored his wound before holding out my hand. He encased it in his and allowed our life forces to mix. Our blood mingled, reality warped, and the room bent inward. Ash, starlight, and something older than time coated my tongue.
Donn’s voice—his true voice—spoke in a dead tongue, and the words etched themselves into the marrow of my bones. His essence hummed up my arm and whispered down my spine. The raw, terrifying power stole my breath and made my heart stutter in my chest.
Guess I was stuck going on three dates with a god. Hudson would be ecstatic. Then again, he had no right to my decisions after stealing my memories.
“Do you want those memories, Cora?” Donn asked as he tightened his hand around mine. How did he know that’s what I was thinking about? Could he read minds? That would be inconvenient.
“No, I cannot read your mind, but after an eternity, people’s thoughts are relatively easy to predict.”
That’s a relief.
I shook my head. I didn’t know what awaited me, and I wasn’t about to be vulnerable with him.
“If you change your mind, you only need ask. They underestimate you, something I would never do.”
He saw me as a weapon, which made him the most honest person in my life. But why he was trying to coax me to his side was a mystery to unravel another day. For now, I needed to use that desire to my advantage.
I tugged my hand free and rose. “Unless you are counting this as one of those dates, I need to leave.” I’d walk out the front door, but I had no idea where we were. Gods play with dimensions without breaking a sweat.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Absolutely.”Not even in the slightest.
“Where do you want to go?”
Where? Back to the beginning. I was claiming my past and my future, and I could do neither by running and hiding.
CHAPTER TWO
Gods, ghosts, and growling mates.
Outside, the Louisiana sky was bruising as it prepared for the shroud of evening. I grabbed a much-needed soda and closed the small fridge before folding myself onto the sofa, fanning my dress out around me. My wings shuddered as theyskimmed the kitchen unit and wall. This was going to take some getting used to.
I tried retracting them once more, and like a stubborn mule, they refused to listen. I sighed, popped the tab, and took my first drink of the sugary goodness.
Harry appeared in front of me, his legs sinking into the surface of the coffee table while he floated in front of me. “Those are new,” he said, pointing at the giant feathered appendages.
“No, they are just free.”
He scowled. “I don’t understand.”
Neither did I, but while wings that altered my center of gravity were a problem, they weren’t my priority.
Bella sauntered along the railing before thudding onto the floor and stalking through the open French doors. My cat eyeballed the wings before snaking between my legs, brushing her soft fur against my skin. I blinked down at her. Bella claimed my home as her own the night she rode into my makeshift morgue on the back of a dead shifter. She preferred men and delighted in dropping anything she caught at their feet. I, her caregiver and food source, got haughty looks and a regular view of her ass whenever she stuck her tail high in the air while sauntering off.
Being contradictory and keeping me on my toes, she jumped onto the sofa, rubbed against one of my wings, and curled up against it, offering me a yawn while gazing at me.
“You have to know they only had your best interests at the heart of their decisions,” Harry reasoned.
Even my ghostly sidekick was in on it? Why did that hurt so much?
