Page 78 of Crave Me

All right, Goddess,I thought at her, holding my hand over her still-bleeding wound.I wish for you to heal.I released the stardust over her sternum and watched as it began to trickle over her, each speck dissolving on impact.

Kaspian whistled, drawing my attention to his gaze—which was on Nyx’s arm.

Where a golden hue had blossomed on her fingertips. My lips parted as the color began to spread, inch by inch, up her hand to her wrist and gradually up her arm, chasing away the ashen quality of her skin and leaving behind a healthy glow.

“Holy goddess indeed,” Kaspian whispered

It turned out that Paxton had been wrong—I didn’t need to treat Nyx like a mortal. I needed to remember that she was a fucking goddess.

A blood sacrifice, I thought, staring down at my healed wrists before glancing at her sternum. The wound hadn’t closed, but she was no longer bleeding.

Because she’s finally healing.

I pressed my forehead to hers, a breath escaping me on a relieved sigh I hadn’t exactly meant to reveal, but it felt as though a weight had been lifted off my heart.

And my soul,I thought, inhaling her scent and noting the underlying hint of orange lingering on her lips.

If it were any other moment, I might have smiled. But I couldn’t. I was too exhausted to function, too beat down to do anything other than hold her.

“I need to take her back to my room,” I told Kaspian, my eyes having fallen closed. “Can you handle everything here?”

He didn’t answer, making me frown.

“Kaspian?” I asked, forcing myself to sit up and meet his gaze.

Only, he wasn’t there.

Because Nyx and I were no longer on the street, but on the floor of my bathroom.

“Did I…?” I trailed off, looking down at the resting goddess. “Or did you?” It came out on a slow exhale, one that sounded tired to my ears.

I’d barely slept in over a week.

And now this… I was at the end of my rope.

However, I couldn’t leave Nyx in this state. Her skin was finally beginning to mend, but there was blood—both from me and from her—all over her chest and her dress.

Her skin was still regaining color, too.

She needed to be bathed. Cherished. Brought back to life.

I swallowed, my forehead touching hers once more. “I don’t know what this was, but it had better not happen again.”

At least I knew how I’d feel without her.

Even with the rejection in place, I was still somehow bound to her.

Is it because we keep drinking from each other?I wondered, at a loss for any other explanation.That’s not how fate bonds work.

But maybe… maybe that was how they worked for her kind?

Except she’d said fated mates didn’t happen in her realm.

So what is this, then?I wanted to demand.Why am I so connected to you?

It went beyond lust. I’d felt her loss in my fucking heart as though I’d been the one to take that hit to the chest. Some fate beyond anything I could even begin to understand had brought us together, and it surpassed all the logic of my world… and maybe even hers.

Regardless of the reason, we were together now.