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Your soulmate has already lived and died. You didn’t find her in time.

I can feel despair creeping in as I head down the ley line, back to my palace, but I know I’ll be back to earth again.

How can I not?

The drive to find my mate eats away at me. When I lay down to sleep, its thoughts of her I close my eyes to. When I take another woman, it’s my mate’s touch and taste I fantasize about. When I sit at my throne or stare at my bed, it’s the empty space next to me I long to fill.

Hunting her has become my new addiction. Night after night I come back to earth for her, my heart wearied, worn. These long years I’ve grown cynical, but I’ve never lost my determination.

Once I find her—and I have to believe that I will find her—I won’t let her go. I’ll cherish her, love her, and eventually, I’ll feed her lilac wine. I will make her wholly and completely mine, and I will be hers.

Till darkness dies.

Part II

Be Mine Always

Chapter 13

It Begins

May, 8 years ago

“Bargainer,I wouldlike to make a deal.”

The moment I hear that feminine voice float out of the ether, I know there’s something different about it. It feels like ambrosia sliding down my throat and lighting me up from the inside out.

Drawn by my curiosity, I manifest inside a chic Los Angeles home. There’s blood everywhere, splattered on the walls, the table, the chairs, the floor. It looks as though someone tried to finger paint their kitchen out of it.

And right at its epicenter is what used to be a person, laying in a pool of the scarlet liquid.

After a moment, I whistle at the lifeless body. “That is one dead man.”

I saunter over to the corpse in question. I see this kind of thing far more often than people would like to believe. Friend or lover gets angry at a comrade and kills them in a fit of passion.

There are very few ways to remedy this sort of fuck up. Luckily for my clients, I’m one of those remedies.

I toe the body.

“Hmm,” I say. My client’s in luck. “I stand corrected. Mostly dead.”

“What?” Again that voice runs down my skin like a caress, rousing my magic.

“It will cost you probably more than you’re willing to offer,” I say, “but I can still revive him.”

“I don’t want himalive,” the woman says, aghast.

I turn, my eyes drawn to the creature behind the voice.

And then I see her.

I feel like I’ve been hit by a freight train. It takes a helluva lot of effort to keep my face passive. She’s unnaturally beautiful, but I don’t believe that has anything to do with my magic rushing up and down my skin.

Tha-thump, tha-thump—tha-thump … tha-thump.My heart slows until it nearly comes to a standstill.

Like a bolt of lightning striking me, I feel a stirring in my chest and my wings to begin to manifest.

Dear gods, could this be …?