“They never work this well together.”
“Maybe something has changed.”
“That’s a lot of damn maybes.”
She chuckles and shakes her head.
A comforting silence—aside from her bites—surrounds us. It pulls a sigh from my chest and my nerves cause an annoying thud to pound in my ear. My last little truth crawls up my throat.
She was…is going to marry me.
There’s no reason to keep anything from her.
“I’m the Empowerer of Godsden. Much like you just saw, I tend to fields that are struggling and are on the verge of dying. I help maintain abundance and prevent scarcity. My power is hiding all kinds of environments where creatures—some dangerous, some abused, some normal—can live in peace and not be fucked with.
“It’s also protecting caves like the one we went to. I do all kinds of activities with the kids at Annalise and Ellian’s. They all had a rough start to life, and I always show up to harmonize them when they’re having a rough go. I float around this region, fixing shit for ungrateful, asshole gods because if I don’t, they’ll let the damn wildlife die off.
“I couldn’t tell you before now, because you didn’t know about my situation in the Abandon. Then I didn’t want to admit I took on the role title and the duties to prove to myself I’m not disgusting and that my powers can do good things. That’s an embarrassing amount of self-doubt to admit to the person you really want to impress.”
She’s quiet for a long moment. I don’t like it.
I get over it quickly enough when the stroke that slides across my soul makes my bones shake.
Fuck. I’ve grown used to only feeling that at night when she closes her eyes.
“Nothing about you is disgusting. What you do is incredible, Riven. I’m seriously blown away. You’re doing something that makes a really important difference. It’s intimate, selfless, and so impressive. I don’t want you to ever feel embarrassed about this again. Every day I want to hear about what you do and every day I’ll tell you how proud I am.”
I gulp.
“Proud? You’re proud of what I do?”
“So much so, I’d tell the whole realm if I didn’t think you’d get all pissy with me.”
A smile crosses my lips, and I tuck a wild strand of hair behind her ear.
“I’ve never been pissy with you. I don’t think I could be. You forgive me too often for me to ever really be mad with you.”
“So what you’re saying is I need to stay mad at you longer?”
“Gods, no. I won’t survive going days like that again.”
“Yeah…” Her slow breath fans against my fingers as I trace her lips. “I don’t think I’ll survive that distance again.”
She won’t have to worry about that.
First thing I’m doing when we get home is telling my brothers we’ve got to up our touching game.
After that…I’m going to count down the moments until we give her, her surprise.
Fuck. I can’t wait.
Thayla
33
My sigh echoes around the bathroom and I wiggle down in my hot spring until the water reaches my neck.
It was another day full of working out and power training. I’m sore as shit because Creed enjoys slinging my ass around.
