“I don’t. I’m guessing.” She started to leave but turned back to me, as if unsure about something.
“What if you are wrong?” I asked.
She took a deep breath before smiling at me in a way that shot warmth straight through my cold heart. My gaze stayed on her face, and all I could think was that I did not want another man to get this smile from her. This was all for me. I wanted to see this smile every day for the rest of my life. This had to be destiny because I wanted to haul her over my shoulder and drag her to Hell with me, so I never had to say goodbye.
“I’m hoping I am.”
My chest squeezed at her confidence. Fuck, she was perfect. Gods, this day had quickly become the best in my existence. I stepped forward without thinking. I wanted—no, I needed to be closer to her.
“I’m hoping you are too. How will we know?”
“Fate will tell us.”
I glanced around and realized I was running out of time. I really should go talk to Avesh. My hands ran down my face as I stepped toward her again. I did not want to leave her.
“Give me your name.”
I lifted my hand, desperate to feel her smooth skin under my fingertips at least once. She didn’t move from me. But she hesitated before she spoke, like she might keep it from me.
“I will beg for it if I must,” I whispered.
“You would fall to your knees for me and beg for something as simple as my name? Why?”
“So that when I start praying to the stars and heavens, they will know which goddess I am begging for.”
I had never prayed a day in my life, and if you would have asked me about it twenty minutes ago, I would have laughed in your face. But then again, perhaps I had never found anything I thought was worthy of a prayer. If praying would help to make her mine, then I would pester the stars all day for her. I would annoy them so much that they had no choice but to either let me keep her or hear me for the rest of their lives.
She raised an eyebrow at my comment and smiled again. “I am Ardella.”
The name alone sent a jolt of life coursing through me. My heart and soul buzzed like it had waited our entire existence to hear it. It rose to the surface, like something that had been buried deep within.
“Well, Ardella, maybe the fates will decide that we are supposed to be together.” But even as I said it, I knew the stars would never let me have her. She was a heavenly god, and I was a God of Hell. Her eyes stared at me, as if trying to read my thoughts. I knew I couldn’t let her remember this day with me though. At some point in the near future, I would be walking this realm with ill intent, scheming up a plan to break the stars and old gods, and I did not need her recognizing me.
But I hesitated because this meeting had been… perfect. I didn’t want to become a nobody to her again. Somehow that just seemed wrong. Ardella gave me a bright smile before she slowly reached out and pushed my hair from my forehead. I inhaled sharply at the action, her touch sending a spark of electricity through me. She acted as if this were a normal occurrence between us.
“You look like you’re about to bolt,” she said coyly.
“I am supposed to be somewhere, and I am very late.” I didn’t want to leave. She gave me a look like she knew what I was thinking.
“I’m confident that our paths will cross again, Haden, so don’t look so disappointed.”
“I look forward to it. Maybe by then, fate will catch up to us.”
“Let us pray to the heavens above and the hells below that we meet again,” she said, but something about the statement made me pause. She knew there were gods of Hell, and she was willing to pray to them for me. Didn’t that go against the stars?
“Until the next time, Ardella,” I whispered before frowning slightly as I jumped into her mind.
I closed my eyes and started scrubbing away our meeting. But at the last moment, I stopped and opened my eyes. Could I change fate so that shewouldbe mine? The stars could not keep me from her if we were mates. They would have to let me out of Hell for more than a few hours.
Fuck.
I didn’t care if they only let me out for five minutes a day to be with her; I would take any scrap they sent my way when it came to her.
Without giving it much more thought, I scrubbed our conversation, but I left bits and pieces so that she would feel drawn to me if she saw me again. I leaned down and stared into her vacant eyes. Her mind was shut down because I was in it, manipulating her.
I closed my eyes and started thinking of us, projecting images of a fabricated future together. Then I put them deep in her mind, hoping that if we ever crossed paths again, she would see these fake thoughts and feel like we were supposed to be together. I opened my eyes and leaned forward, planting a kiss on her forehead.
“I do not care if fate says you belong to another; they are wrong. You belong to me, Della, and you’ll remember that when you see me again. No matter what, I will be who you choose.”I gave her a small memory of my face, burying it deeply in her mind.
