I step back.
It’s not an alarming change as one might expect. It’s a lightness.That’show I could breathe easier.
My eyes are wide, looking into his, no longer terminally dark.
No, this time, silver moves around the darkness—a swirling, endless loop of eternity. With his subtle new look, he almost feels human-ish.
Almost.
“I’m no human, Dove.” His voice is velveteen rapture as it slinks through every crevice of my soul like it was made for me, affecting me worse than ever before.
He takes a step forward. I take a step backward to the two males waiting for me. “Your eyes,” I whisper.
“All the better to see you with, my pet.” I gulp. My legs tremble. He used to affect me before… Now…Fuck, now, I’m dripping.The daemon was holding a dagger to my neck only precious movements ago. “You feel it, don’t you?” Fury questions, pushing me back while he moves forward.
None of us needs to answer. The power in the air is palpable. He’s free.
And it had nothing to do with a song, or with finding the heirs of the Gods. It had everything to do with my blood.How can that be?
I run into Rivern, his golden-lined fingers coming around my waist. “We have fulfilled your end of the bargain, God. Now, it is your turn to fulfil ours.”
Black-and-silver eyes track my every movement. I push back into Rivern’s chest.“Should I tell him, or should you,Pet?”It’s a seductive promise in my head of hot, sweaty nights together where he gives me the only thing I’ve ever wanted, but never thought I could dream of. Only a God can give me that—a do-over.
I didn’t understandhowwhen we first made the deal. I just wanted her back. My life was one cataclysmic event after the next… I didn’t have time to mull over words that were elusive to me. Now, he’s in my head, and I’ve had turns to mull over his words. I understand it now. He can give her back to me in a new form.
“I cannot be yours,” I blurt out. My old securities leak through.Do they ever truly leave?
A smirk is already travelling the lines of his ethereal beauty. “You already are.”
Another image overtakes my thoughts of a black-winged God naked and thrusting into me, his new eyes holding me in place. Shaking my head, I push as far back as I can into a hard chest.
“You can’t go any further,love,”Rivern says for only our bond to hear.
Gideon stands to our left, his arms crossed over his chest, Moyrie and Calypso watching in rapt attention at our odd display from around the formidable soldier, ready to stand in the way of Fury if he takes this too far. They won’t win. Orion is back, in all his glory.
His powersare at full force, the magical seal holding Fury in this prison no longer holding him in place. The air is palpable to the change. It almost draws me closer to him. If I were a cat, I’d rub up against the leather of his pants.
Thank the Goddess for the grounding smell of pine behind me, holding me in place.
“The bargain, fae, is never-ending. She’s mine, and if you’re going to stay by her side, I encourage you to get onboard.” His eyes pin me down. “We are never-ending, Spitfire. I’m not letting you go. Now I have this”—his hand thumps to his chest—“I’ll never give it up. I won’t have the very reason I came down to this place stripped away from me.”
forty-two
Fury
Love.
I wanted it. My soul was desperate for it. What we Gods had in our ethereal forms was nothing more than a numbing existence. The three people who were once closest to me soon became my enemies after I told them our life wasn’t enough for me.
They’d originally called me mad. We were Gods. Of course it was enough. We were everything—until I pointed out what we were missing, high up in our all-knowing, all-seeing sphereof being.
We could never experience the reality of being flesh. We could never experience the ecstasy of two bodies becoming one. That was always a fascination of mine, and soon, it became a fascination of Oona’s. She wanted me. And I didn’t want her.
I wanted star-crossed lovers. I wanted to learn everything from them.
Upon coming to Maia and creating my beasts, I gave them all mates. I gave them everything I wanted. I could’ve made my own mate, but that wasn’t what I yearned for. There was meant to be courting, falling for each other, friendship, banter, soft touches, lingering kisses. Waiting was a virtue I was willing to partake in. I’d wait for eternity to find her.
Then, they imprisoned me, my heart turning to the shadows of my nature. Everything I came to this world for seemed lost to me. Until I found Dove. She saw through my darkness, and I found my first friend. Someone I’d lose everything to protect.
