Page 17

Chapter 17

M ari did her absolute best to tempt Dante into bed with her when he brought breakfast, but Cisco had apparently been true to his word. Despite everything she tried, Dante was all business, making sure she got the nutrition and hydration she needed from him and nothing else.

She had higher hopes about her escort for her morning walk. Ashdei gave her an appreciative glance in her short green dress, his eyes lingering on her bare thighs. She wrapped her arm around his and leaned up, expecting a kiss, but he pressed his lips to her forehead instead and then chuckled.

Mari grumbled. “He told you too?”

“I’m in the group chat.”

She had a hearty laugh about that, but when she regained her breath, he was looking at her like he wasn’t kidding. “Is there really a group chat?”

Ashdei nodded. “Just got invited two days ago. Cisco was outvoted.”

That the others had argued to include him made her smile. “What do you guys talk about?”

He shrugged. “Most of the time it’s about various parts of your anatomy and how sexy you are, but today the gargoyle has been very growly about not touching you.”

“And you’re just going to do what he says?”

“As you know, I’m very good at following directions.” He sent her a simmering smile that dropped the bottom out of her stomach. “So long as it doesn’t impact your safety, I’m happy to let him play his dominance game.”

“Can I see?”

“Nobody said it was top secret or anything.” He dug out his phone and turned the screen for her to see.

The last message was from Dante. It was a picture of her from behind in the dress she was wearing, with just the tiniest bit of her frilly white panties peeking out the bottom with the caption “How is this ass fair?” The responses were various emojis: a tongue, lips, a hand, and an eggplant.

She laughed and scrolled back a couple of screens. The chat was filled with pictures of her, sometimes with lewd commentary and sometimes very sweet, and the occasional update about her eating or sleeping for Dante to note. She sniffled as she read through the messages that were all about caring for and adoring her, her heart full.

After a moment she noticed something that made her frown. “Dohal’s not on there?”

Ashdei shrugged. “Doesn’t have a phone.”

“Ahh.” Should she get him one? Would he even be able to use it? Maybe there was a reason he didn’t have one that she had no idea about. She reached out for him to see where he was because she wanted to ask. The distant glimmer of his presence was miles behind her. “Do you know where he is?”

“The mountains. He needed some time to recharge. I agreed to guard you while he was away. He can be here in an instant should something happen.”

She knew that was the case—he’d certainly crossed longer distances in the blink of an eye when she was in danger. “Does me being desperately horny qualify as an emergency?”

Ashdei bared his teeth in a grin. “You had what sounded like quite a satisfying orgasm barely an hour ago.”

She blushed furiously. “Please tell me you were right outside the door and not at the house.”

His blue-fire eyes danced with mischief. “You were quite vocal in your praise, but perhaps he was not up to your exacting standards? Do I need to have a talk with him about how to properly satisfy you?”

She stared up at him, her mouth hanging open. Saints, how was the idea of that so hot and so mortifying at the same time? Did she really want them discussing how best to please her in front of her?

He rested his thumb gently on her lower lip. “Perhaps I’ll lay you down on his desk and instruct him directly by making you come undone around my cock? Would you enjoy that, duckling?”

Her cunt throbbed distractingly and assured her that she would, very much. She squeezed her thighs together and nodded.

Curling his hand around the back of her neck, he tilted her head, lowering his face to hers. He paused just before their lips touched, and his breath was hot against her skin. “You’re fucking delicious when you’re this needy.” His tongue brushed over her mouth with a quick sweep before he straightened. “Gargoyle might be onto something after all.”

When he tried to continue toward the walking path, she refused to move. He turned back to her and lifted her into his arms effortlessly.

She huffed with indignation. “Put me down.”

Ashdei ignored her very reasonable request. “Cisco also mentioned that you were worried that nothing had changed with your magic.”

“I just don’t feel any different. If I’m a Prince, shouldn’t I feel something?”

“Yes, but perhaps the answer isn’t that nothing changed so much as when it changed.”

“What do you mean? And where are we going?”

He kept his own counsel until they reached the spot where the Old One had confronted her and he set her on her feet. “I think you forged a connection to the nexus when you stood here and faced down the Forest Lord.”

She looked down at the pavers under her espadrilles, but it just looked like normal ground to her. She had no idea what she was supposed to see or sense. “It didn’t feel like my magic when I channeled to attack him.”

Ashdei nodded, watching her carefully. “What did it feel like?”

Mari shivered as the memories of that moment rose. “Like fury. Like wrath.”

His blue-flame gaze flicked over her. “Because you were angry.”

Her fingers curled into fists. “He was trying to take away what was mine.” That was a very goddess thought, though it didn’t come as a separate voice like it had before—it was just hers.

“Avarice looks good on you.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Feel that again. It’s a different sort of desire than you usually channel.”

She let herself look over the form of the man before her, taking in his muscular frame and his improbable length of silver hair. Her mouth watered as their night together floated through her memories. He too was hers.

I am , he said into her head with a pleased smile. “Reach for the power under your feet.”

She remembered reaching for Dohal that first time, weeks ago. Stretching her senses down into the earth, she searched for anything that felt familiar. Something golden shimmered at the edge of her awareness. The goddess’s power had always felt gilded and shiny to her.

Mari still wasn’t sure what she was looking for. She was about to say as much when golden fire raced through her, burning along her veins.

Ashdei’s smile sharpened. “Good. Open yourself up to it.”

She relaxed little by little, letting her hands fall open and her head drop back. The magic inside her blazed white-hot. Her feet left the ground as she floated up on currents of energy.

“If I had any doubt you were a goddess before, I would be certain now,” Ashdei said, with reverence filling his tone.

“He can’t have what’s mine,” she said, in a voice vibrating with the promise of thunder.

“No one can,” her demon agreed.

The blue-fire halo of his magic sprang up around him as he stepped closer. He reached for her hand. Power arced between them just before they touched, making her gasp. The magic she drew up from the earth was vibrant and shining, but his was something else altogether, like the slick heat of bodies entwined.

She pulled him closer, needing to feel the sizzle of his power against every part of her. Golden sparks shot through blue flame as their bodies collided.

He wrapped his arms around her, tugging her down so that he stared into her eyes. “The magic you draw from the nexus is natural. But the magic you get from your mother is Incarnate, like mine.”

“So I can use both?”

Ashdei nodded. “You’ve been doing it all along without being aware of it. Dohal’s magic is earth magic. When you’ve channeled him in the past, you were using it.”

“What does that mean?”

“We’re about to find out. Draw through me.”

She rested a hand on the side of his neck. The pulsing of his magic was hot under her fingers. She’d never tried to do it on purpose before, so she had a brief moment of doubt when she wasn’t sure what she was meant to do.

And then, as if some barrier between them had been lifted, his power flowed into her in a torrent. His desire and magic spiraled through her, dancing with the golden light that glowed from somewhere below. Nothing had ever felt so right. Every cell of her body vibrated with power.

She let out a delighted laugh that cut off when she saw the serious expression on his face. “What?”

“You’re tapping my nexus through me.” His voice was soft with foreboding. “It shouldn’t be possible.”

“Why do you sound afraid? Wasn’t this what you’d planned to do?”

“Not exactly. I’d planned on renouncing my claim to the Hells entirely and forging my own connection to your nexus. Holding two at once risks bringing the Heavens down on our heads.”

She let go of the magic slowly, painfully. “So do that now. You break your connection, and nobody is any the wiser.” As she said the words, she mourned the loss of the heat roaring through her. She wanted it. Why should she have to give it up?

“Even without that desolate look on your face I couldn’t withdraw it. It’s yours now. Like everything about me. I am your vassal.”

Now that she was obeying the rules of gravity again, she tried to push him away halfheartedly, but he held on tight. “I didn’t ask you for that.”

“You did not,” he said solemnly. “I gave it willingly.”

“I don’t want it.” The lie tasted like ashes on her tongue. She wanted everything he had given her, even though she didn’t understand what half of it meant yet. He was hers .

His smile was endlessly patient. “And yet, everything I am is yours until I die.”

They all kept talking about dying, and it was more than she could take. Tears ran down her face. “Don’t say that. Nobody is dying. I’m having babies that will live for thousands of years to keep you all here after my stupid mortal heart gives out despite all of you saying you’ll die without me.”

“Oh, duckling.” He ran a hand over her hair and pulled her against his chest to comfort her. “Is that what all the worrying has been about? While you can certainly be killed, you won’t die a mortal’s death. You’re a goddess.”

She sniffled, fisting her hands in his shirt. “Most days I don’t feel like a goddess.”

“I can assure you that you are.” He started to walk back toward the house with her in his arms. “Have you ever even been sick aside from the times you’ve exhausted yourself magically?”

“Not that I can remember.”

“Any kind of physical ailment at all?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Assuming we can deal with the Forest Lord and avoid drawing the ire of the Heavens, you’ll live a long, long life.” He kissed her temple. “So stop worrying about that.”

The crushing weight of the responsibility for all of their lives lifted considerably, until she parsed the rest of what she said. “Who is it that will be coming after us from the Heavens?”

“I believe he’s talking about me,” came a rich feminine voice from above and behind them.