Will I try to bond with Celine and accidentally kill her instead?My body doesn’t think so. I’m too languid and lackadaisical. I should slap myself, but I can’t, because again, I’m too fucking chill.
“Healing potions,” I say, looking at Riven. “Do you have any extra? Just in case?” I wave my hand around like I’m stirring a pot of imaginary soup.Idiot.
“Are you asking if I have a healing potion lying around that’s strong enough to offset the direct injection of your venom into her bloodstream? Because if so, the answer is no.” Riven’s voice drips with sarcasm, but his faceis blank.
“Great,” I mutter. “Your bedside manner could use work.”
He scoffs. “You need me by the bed too? You’re not inspiring confidence, basilisk.”
A ripple of annoyance disturbs my pool of calm. It’s almost a relief.
I take a step toward the veydra. “I don’t need help, but I’ll feel better if...” I trail off, running my fingers through my hair, then tugging angrily on the strands.
“You have the illusion of safety.” Riven’s tone softens, and I nod. “I’ll provide the necessary props. Do you need candles and wine too?” He’s mocking me, but it doesn’t make me as mad as usual.
Riven is a shifter too. He knows how big a deal this is.
Fated mates, bonding—that’s the stuff of legend. Magic, fanciful, cutesy shit that most shifters get fed in heaping portions while still in the cradle. Although Riven doesn’t strike me as someone who had a lot of fairytales told to him as a kid.
I guess I didn’t either.
“What if it doesn’t work?” I mutter.
My crushing fear of accidentally killing Celine has died down, but the hope is almost harder to handle. There’s a lot riding on this, and there’s no point pretending otherwise.
Riven shrugs, pulls the cloak off his shoulders, and hangs it on the spike protruding from the wall. It’s sharp. I imagine bumping into it while going to get a glass of water in the middle of the night and wince.
“I’ll be shocked if it does,” he says. “Although the witch I spoke to was convinced it was possible.”
“How did a witch end up here?” I ask what’s been bothering me since we first met Hyacinth. Witches and humans are native to Earth, and while many supernatural creatures from other realms have fled there to start new lives, it rarely happensin reverse.
Riven freezes. I’ve either broken his brain or stirred up something he’d rather leave buried.
“Hyacinth’s mother isn’t like the witches you know,” he says quietly. “Her magic and opinions make it impossible for her to be part of a coven, but she’s too powerful to go unnoticed or unbothered.”
“So she decided to live in the worst fucking place in the universe?”
Riven huffs. “I said the same thing, but Rue was adamant.” His shoulders hunch as if someone placed a boulder on his back, then he snatches his cloak off the hook again. “There’s something I must do. Potions are in my bathroom. Take as many as you need.” He swings the heavy, mottled fabric over his shoulders, thrusts a hand in his pocket, and disappears before I can do more than blink.
Weird guy.I shuffle to his bathroom and poke around until I find the biggest vial of sludge in there. I tilt it back and forth, watching as the thick, greenish-brown goop rolls sluggishly against the glass.
“Looks tasty,” Celine says.
I glance at her and my breath catches. Long, red hair hanging in loose waves over her shoulders. Brown eyes that see too much of me. And a smile that makes me want to drop to my knees, crawl to her, and beg. My imagination isn’t good enough to come up with anything half as beautiful.
I squeeze the vial and close the distance between us, hauling her into my arms. “I’ve loved you for so long,” I whisper. “I can’t lose you.”
All thoughts of candles or premeditated romance leave me the second our lips touch. We’re us—Celine and Luca, a team—and it’s about time the gods, fate, and whoever else wants to fuck with us accept that.
We undress each other in a chaotic tangle of limbs and laughter.The potion falls forgotten on the bathroom floor, buried under our clothes. We won’t need it. I believe that now.
No matter how many times I see her body, I don’t think I’ll ever get past my excitement. “You’re perfect,” I say, heart pounding as I grip her ass and lift her off the floor for a better angle to feast on her neck.
We’re in Riven’s bathroom, but I don’t think I can wait any longer. I need her like oxygen. From the way Celine fumbles with my pants and roughly shoves my underwear down, she feels the same way.
“The first time I saw you,” I pant between kisses. “I’d never seen anyone so beautiful. My breathing entered manual mode, I swear to the gods, I forgot how to inhale and choked on my own tongue.”
She smiles against my lips. “I thought I’d done something wrong,” she says. “You looked like you were in pain.”
