His purr ignites in response, the rumble seeming to echo through every inch of my being. “You’re safe, Serapina,” he whispers against my ear.
Safe?I repeat, dizzy from the rapidly changing sensations in my body.Safe from what? You?I don’t understand what he’s doing.
I canfeelthe violence in his aura. It’s at odds with the soothing vibrations coming from his chest.
Stars…My mind is telling me to scream, but my body refuses the action, some intrinsic part of me too calmed by this Alpha’s purr.
It’s like I have no control over my reactions, my being enslaved to the God of Death’s commanding presence.
This is not okay, I decide.I am my own person. I do not…
The mental rant trails off as a world of color appears around us. My eyes round as I take in the expanse of water, the sight of which I’ve never seen in person.
However, I recognize what I’m seeing.An ocean.
My lips part.
Then my mind is immediately distracted by the warmth shining down upon me.
The sun. I instantly look right up at it, which is the absolute wrong thing to do, as I’ve spent the last year in the darkness of the Netherworld Kingdom. My brief visit to Morpheus’s palace in the Mythos Fae Realm was not nearly long enough to reacquaint myself with such intense solar power.
Nor should one ever look directly at the sun.
But I’m not exactly feeling like myself right now.
Hades reminds me of his presence, his purr intensifying as he says, “Stay here and don’t move. I need to go back and help Maliki.”
What?
My heels—because, oh yeah, I’m naked yet still wearing four-inch heels—touch the sand.
And Hades disappears.
“Oh!” My knees wobble, and my ridiculous shoes send me sprawling onto my side.
Where I just lie for a moment as I try to figure out what in the thorns just happened.
I—
A whooshing sound has me sitting bolt upright. Black dots still decorate my vision, thanks to my previous glance upward, but I train my squinted gaze on the source of that rumbling roar.
Waves.
Ocean.
Deep blue waters.
It’s all I can see.
As well as the sand I’m currently sitting in.
Stars. Looking down, I run my fingers through the unique texture and note that it’s not unlike the Netherworld Courtyard dirt. Only, it’s pale in color.
Because it’s sand.
Or I assume it is, anyway, since I appear to be on a beach.By. The. Ocean.
My legs scramble beneath me as I try to stand again, only for the heels to dig into the earth and practically melt into the ground.
