“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he grits through clenched teeth.
“Then tell me.” I shove him backward, his hand dropping from my face as he stumbles a single step in surprise before regaining his footing. “Tell me what Taura told you.”
“No. It’s my curse to bear.”
“It involves me and I know it!” My skin glows white as my temper flares. “I saw it in her eyes.”
“You have no idea what you saw,” the dark god growls. “Drop it, Light.”
Power boils in my veins as I try and fail to control the rage that filters through me. For too long my light has been seen as naivety, as goodness and sunshine. But I am also the moon, and the stars, and the illumination from blistering, burning fires. I am the electric tingle of lightning in the storm and the light that blinds you as your life ends.
I am a goddess of the Golden Pantheon—and I am tired of being discounted.
“Do you think you are untouchable, Dark One?” I step forward, invading his space and forcing him backward. “Do you think you are the only god powerful enough to change the course of this rebellion? You have seen what I am capable of, and yet you still think I am weak.” My finger digs into his granite chest as I press on. “Your darkness cannot exist without my balance and it is time you see me as the equal I am.”
Drayven grips my wrist. Pulling my hand back, he lifts it towards his face, examining the still pointed finger. His green eyes lock onto mine as a devilish smirk pulls up the corner of his mouth.
“Careful, Light. Bastin’s magic stokes all manners of desires tonight. I wouldn’t provoke me, if I were you.”
I rip my hand from his grasp and shove him again. “I do not start what I cannot win.”
In a flash of black, the Dark God vanishes. He reappears behind me, spinning me until my back presses into the hedges. “Is that so?” Drayven leans down, the tip of his nose grazing the side of my face as he speaks low into my ear. “What exactly are you hoping to win?”
White tendrils of his hair brush across my face as he pulls back.Hovering inches away, Death’s breath is hot on my face. I should cower from the sparkling emeralds that peer into my soul. I should fear the villainous features and malevolent body that crowd my space. But all they do is stoke the fire burning within me that emboldens me further.
“A bargain,” I say with renewed fervor. “Grant me a day in the Under Realm and I won’t ask you about the vision again.”
He shakes his head vigorously. Whether to convince me or himself, I cannot be sure.
“Only a fool makes a bargain with Death.”
“You have always thought I was a fool. Make the deal and find out once and for all if you’re right.”
Drayven’s chuckle reverberates through me as he scans my face. My words tempt him, and I pounce on the chance to further goad him into accepting my bargain. Calling to my power, I dial up the intensity of my eyes until the golden irises shimmer like flames.
“You want to say yes,” I taunt seductively.
His breath hitches as my fiery gaze sucks him deeper into my orbit. Instinctively, the Dark God leans impossibly closer. I swallow down the chill that dances across my skin as his icy lips lightly graze the tips of mine.
“What I want is not important,” he breathes.
Heat pools in my core, my own breath catching in my chest as I fight the urge to meet his advance.
There has always been something between us, some hint of chemistry, some ember of desire easily written off as witty banter or snarky comebacks, but there has never been anything so outright as this.
Perhaps it is Bastin’s power or Lyra’s song— or perhaps they are convenient excuses for something that has been brewing for a millenia.
“Accept the deal.” My whispered words kiss his lips. “Take me to the Under Realm, Drayven.”
The Dark God’s eyes shutter at the sound of his true name. He swallows reflexively and I sense the moment he knows he can no longer resist me.
“You will regret this, Light.”
Drayven pulls me into his arms, his lips crushing mine as an obsidian mass of swirling night envelopes us. Thunder booms and the garden of gods fades into nothingness.
His tongue dips into my mouth as the pull of gravity releases us. I am afloat in the ether between realms and he is my tether, my charted course to a forbidden destination. He angles my head to drink me in deeper, his fingers tightening in my golden hair.
We fall through space and time, tangled endlessly in each other. I feel his strong arms under my thighs as he cradles my body against his chest and finally breaks our kiss.
