Twisted Fate (5, Rhyn Eternal)

by Ford, Lizzy

  “No,” she whispered honestly. Caving to the primal instinct that took over whenever they were together, she flung her arms around him, shivering as the familiar flash of energy raced through her. “I can’t do this.”

  His hard body, and familiar scent, threw her senses into disarray and managed to make more of a mess of her thoughts. The baffling attraction between them, the sense of being drawn to someone who scared her, crippled what was left of her resolve. In his arms, she was safe enough to want to cry.

  “But you are doing it,” he whispered, warm lips against her ear. He nuzzled her neck. “You’re stronger than I am.”

  “Stop teasing me.”

  “Really, you are. The other day, I saw a rat in my cell and screamed for an hour.”

  She started to laugh. “I’m being serious!”

  “And I’m not?”

  She pulled her head back to look at him. He was smiling.

  “You’ll find the strength because you know these fucked up people, and their fucked up world, need you,” he said and cupped a cheek in one hand.

  “They don’t need me.”

  “They’re self destructing and have been for quite some time. The daughter of Chaos and Wynn is probably the only person in the universe who can return order to the Immortals.”

  “You knew about my mother?”

  “I suspected she was one of the Unseen without knowing which one until you dying almost tore me apart.”

  Her breath caught. “I’m so sorry.” She reached up to touch his face instinctively and trailed her fingertips across his firm jaw as she’d once fantasized doing. His warm skin was rough with stubble. The longer they were in contact, the more she wanted to mold herself against his lean frame. His intensity, the edge she glimpsed often of the man solidly in command of something as dizzying and unpredictable as the Future, scared her, and yet, she wanted to be closer to him now more than ever. “Are you okay?” she asked and studied him.

  “I am now.”

  The reminder of the temporary nature of their time together disturbed her. They stood in silence, gazing at one another. She could pretend the rest of her world didn’t exist when they were touching. It had always been so easy to dismiss anything outside of them, to trust the instinct rejoicing over the fact she’d finally found where she belonged.

  “This scares me,” she admitted.

  “It’s unsettling,” he agreed. “But not bad.”

  I don’t know if that’s true yet.

  Desire rocked through her, warmer and warmer, the longer they touched. Her eyes went to his lips and the memory of what it had been like to kiss him. He wasn’t just her home. He could also become an escape, a refuge from herself and the world that grew more terrifying each day. He understood their world in a way she never would.

  Stephanie rested her hands on his warm cheeks and drew his face to hers. She kissed him lightly, uncertainly, waiting to see what he wanted. His passionate response left her breathless, weak in the knees and without a kernel of doubt.

  “I have a plan,” he whispered. “Step one, we need to get rid of our clothes. Step two, we talk. Objections?”

  She hesitated, understanding exactly what he meant. Her body screamed for her to agree. “Go easy on me. I don’t have a billion years of experience,” she said with an uncertain laugh.

  “Easy? No. Gentle, yes,” he said with a slow smile.

  A thrill shot through her and added to the furnace blazing in her lower belly. “No objections.”

  “Open a portal. We aren’t walking that far,” he said with a husky laugh.

  Stephanie shifted away. His arms remained around her, and it took two tries for her to open the portal. Moments later, after kicking out her angel and locking the demon out, she stopped fighting the flood of need, embattled emotions and confusion and melted into the arms of her mate.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Fate suspected a night with his mate was going to be unlike sleeping with anyone else. However, the truth floored him. The fusion of their bodies, her flavor and husky voice, the look in her eyes when she climaxed … every second was borderline orgasmic, and every climax greater than all of those he’d ever experienced as a deity combined. Even the simplest sensation of his skin against hers was mind numbing. Combined with desire amplified by his human state and several hundred thousands of years studying the female form, fucking his mate was all he’d ever know of peace or heaven.

  When he’d worn her out, he wrapped her in his arms, unwilling to let go of the single greatest discovery he’d ever made. Any confusion as to why any almighty deity would take a mate sizzled away in soul-deep passion. For a species incapable of feeling, a mate became as necessary as air or water or any of the other essential elements.

  Stephanie’s ragged breathing grew steadier, her sweat-slicked skin cooling. He was aroused again already and doubted he’d ever be able to touch her without being ready to rip off their clothing. He breathed in her scent and admired everything from her smooth skin to her warmth to the faint smell of lavender in her shampoo. He did his best to absorb everything about her, mesmerized by the experience and understanding his parole from Hell was possibly the only reprieve he’d ever received.

  “Why did we wait so long to do this?” he whispered and nipped her earlobe.

  “I think you were in denial.”

  He smiled at the saucy response. “I apologize for torturing you for so long then.”

  She laughed quietly and lifted her head from the nape of his neck to see his face. Hers was flushed, her lips roughened from kisses and eyes sparkling. It was the most relaxed he’d seen her. Her pliant body was his to command, and he sensed this was a release for both of them.

  Fate pushed away the nagging instinct that drove him to be concerned about the time for the first time in his life and instead, studied the woman he was destined to share a life – and power – with, assuming he outlived Hell.

  “I don’t want this to end,” she whispered, and shadows darkened her gaze.

  “But it will. At least, for tonight.”

  Her smile faded.

  “Stop,” he chided. “We both need this. We both need each other right now.” He traced her high cheekbones and forehead with his forefinger.

  “Please tell me you have a plan.”

  He considered telling the truth but found the words stuck in his throat. Stephanie’s vulnerability, the emotions in her eyes, left him feeling raw as well, afraid to reveal just how bad their situation really was. “I always do,” he lied. “But it’s going to take some time.”

  “I think something bad is coming.”

  He said nothing, aware of the same.

  She told him of all she’d done and seen, including Wynn stabbing her, since her visit to Hell. Fate listened, sorting through the events and placing them – when possible – in the chain of events leading to the possible Futures he’d been tracking before he lost his power.

  When she finished, he hugged her more tightly. “The good news is the Future isn’t set,” he whispered. “There’s time to change the worst from happening.”

  “The worst being …”

  “Civil war among the Immortals. Darkyn isn’t the only one who would leap at the chance to take advantage of their disarray. As poorly effective as they are, they are at least a major speed bump standing between any ambitious deity and humanity.”

  “Makes me hate Wynn more. He must know what he’s doing is going to hurt everyone.”

  “Wynn would make the quintessential deity. No one has ever understood the source of his madness, not before his first death, and not now,” Fate mused. “He’s brilliant and lethal and driven towards an end we’ve been speculating about since he emerged as a figure of power among the Immortals.”

  “How can gods not know what he’s thinking?” she asked and propped her head up to peer at his face.

  “It’s generally suspected he’s an illegitimate half-breed, the son of a deity and Immortal.”

 
“Like me.”

  Fate smiled. “Yeah. Although, you were raised as a human. You lack the edge prevalent among my kind and theirs.”

  “You mean, I’m not an asshole,” she said.

  “Precisely.”

  “So no one knows his parentage or what he wants.”

  “He’s killed anyone who did. Everyone took an interest in him when he united the Immortal factions and families under one roof. He wiped out entire races of Immortals who refused to capitulate and exiled others. But he did the impossible – he united them. In the process, he killed anyone who knew his true origin. He took on deities as eagerly as Immortals, which was unheard of before him. The lines between deities and everyone else were very clear, very rigid, before Wynn upset the balance of every realm he touched,” Fate explained. “It was then that the rumors spread he must be part deity in order to cross those lines, to survive as he did.”

  Stephanie’s gaze was pinned to him. She rested a hand on his neck, absently stroking the sensitive skin beneath his ear.

  “When the Immortals were obedient, he stopped the wars and took seven mistresses over the course of several thousand years. After each gave birth, he killed her. He himself was murdered after a very complicated, long standing plot involving no less than six deities.”

  “You were one.”

  “I saw his madness first,” Fate said. “I saw what it would do if he wasn’t stopped.” He dwelt on the Future he’d seen many ages before. “But Wynn had an ally of the second most powerful deity in existence, Death. He foresaw his own murder and they worked together to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.”

  “The twin Deidres,” she said. “Why didn’t you stop him?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You and your secrets. Will there ever be a day when you can share them?”

  “No,” he replied. “There are things that can never be spoken about, deals which will never be recorded, events and Futures only I can ever See and even Seeing them, still may not choose to prevent.”

  “Which is why you’ve always been alone.”

  “The Future is a burden. A beautiful one, but a burden nonetheless.”

  She nodded, pensive, chewing her lower lip. “And you don’t like sharing your power.”

  “No.”

  “How does this work?” she asked carefully.

  “Us?”

  Another nod.

  “I don’t know yet,” he replied. “I cannot share some things with you, ever.”

  She drew a breath. “Okay. I can live with that. I saw some of what you do when I asked the Oracle. I … I don’t think I want to know everything you do. But it would be nice … I mean, if this all works out,” she rolled her eyes, “and it’s not just amazing sex, then it’d be cool to have, you know, a partner.”

  Fate understood what she was trying not to ask, namely, if the man who worked alone were capable of sharing himself with someone else. It was another question he didn’t feel ready to answer.

  “Sorry. I went all serious on you,” she said, her blush deepening at his silence. “We can just do the sex thing.”

  “I kinda like it,” he teased.

  “How did I stack up to a trillion years of lovers?” she asked.

  “You surpassed all of them combined.”

  Her gaze warmed.

  “Do you trust me yet?”

  “Not really,” she replied.

  He chuckled. “I love your honesty.”

  “Maybe I do. I guess I must if I’m in bed with you,” she said, puzzled. “I don’t know what to think. I just know I really like being with you here like this.”

  “I want you to listen to me,” he said and rested his hands on her cheeks. He nudged her onto her back and settled between her legs. Her breath caught, and she gazed up at him. “You are my mate, and I claim you in every way possible, by the laws from the time-before-time and the laws of our world.”

  She listened with rapt attention, and he resisted the urge to fuck her until he’d said what he had to.

  “But there are rules, and you must follow them. You can never reveal the Future to anyone, other than me. Whatever the Oracle showed you, you can never share it. Do you understand?”

  Stephanie nodded.

  “Second, I alone can interfere with the Future and do so at will. No matter what you see, you cannot act. Ever, and you cannot ask me to change something, no matter how much pain it may cause you.”

  “I don’t plan on looking again,” she murmured.

  “Third, I will never allow anything to come between us, and you must promise me you will do the same.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “I don’t know if I can be the person you need, expect or deserve. I will act in ways you won’t understand and perhaps may not be able to accept or forgive me for. I will keep secrets, and I will push you away to protect you from what I know I am.”

  Uneasiness flickered through her gaze.

  “Everything I do is to protect you and the Future. It won’t be easy for you to witness, and people are going to try to exploit you and your fears.”

  “You want me to promise not to be a liability,” she said.

  “Yes.”

  “Because you can’t trust anyone else, even your mate.”

  “Because there may come time when you must choose between me and say, your family.”

  “That’s not how this works,” she said and ran her fingers through his hair. “But I will promise you can trust me, and I will do everything in my power never to betray that trust.”

  Ever cautious to the wording of deals, Fate dwelt on her declaration, uncomfortable with it. But he suspected his true concern was the vulnerability she created by simply being in his life.

  “I wouldn’t know how to trust,” he said finally.

  “Just say okay. This is how you start,” she replied, smiling.

  “Okay. We’ll try it your way. Fourth rule, don’t return to Hell. I need a promise for this one.”

  She hesitated once more. “I have hopes of breaking you out.”

  “No. It would interfere with the deal I have with Darkyn,” he said. “Promise me.”

  She nodded unhappily.

  “Fifth, whatever happens, try to prevent the Immortals from falling into a civil war. That will mean sacrifices, possibly even siding with Wynn against your brothers.”

  Stephanie studied him. “Is it that bad? Whatever you Saw?”

  “It could be. I know what deities like me would do if it happened.”

  “When you say things like that, you terrify me.”

  “It’s the truth.”

  “It’s not. At least, not for you. Whatever you are, you’re not cruel. You’re not the monster Wynn is.”

  The simple observation, spoken with hushed confidence, intrigued him.

  “You sacrificed your freedom for me twice. I don’t know what to think about your duty to control the Future, or the things the Oracle showed me, but I know you’re not doing them out of malice. You care on some level,” she said.

  He didn’t respond. Her insight was too personal, too intimate, for him to know what to say.

  “I know … well, I suspect, you lie to me sometimes,” she said. “I need an honest answer to something.”

  He waited.

  “Is this the only night we’ll be together like this?”

  Something inside of him broke. He’d been carefully avoiding such a thought, unable to handle the idea of a single night with his mate. Hope, edged with pain, was in her eyes. Knowing she wanted more was torture when he was blind to the Future.

  “I don’t know, Stephanie,” he whispered. “If it is, it won’t be because I don’t want another. I will always want another, and I will always protect you, wherever I may be.”

  “You’re the only person who makes sense in this fucked up place.”

  He laughed despite the ache in his chest. “I’ve never had anyone tell me that.”

&nb
sp; “It’s true. Crazy but true. I think I could handle this, if you could stay with me.”

  “I’ve never heard anything so beautiful.”

  She swallowed hard. He saw the fear in her eyes. “We’re almost out of time.” She pulled his head down to hers and kissed him hungrily.

  Fate wasn’t about to resist, not when he sensed the same desperation from her kiss he, too, was experiencing at the idea of never holding her again.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  He didn’t trust her, may never see her again, and she’d slept with him anyway.

  The next morning, Stephanie remained in bed later than usual, breathing in the scent of Fate lingering in the sheets. She was sore in places she didn’t realize had muscles, but it was her heart that hurt the most. She didn’t know what to think about the man she couldn’t keep her hands off of, his cryptic warning about civil war, or the idea their one night stand was all they may ever have.

  Was all this how the Immortal world worked at large? Two strangers were thrust together as mates then wrenched apart just when they started to fall for one another?

  It seemed … wrong. And terrible.

  But if she had the choice between being in his bed for one night, without his love and trust, and not being in his bed at all, she already knew she’d choose him every time. And that frustrated her more than anything, the powerful bond trapping people in a world where they were already fucked.

  The boom of thunder drew her gaze to the French doors leading onto a balcony. The chandeliers of her bedchamber trembled. It was clear and sunny out, without any sign of a storm lurking.

  Sensing something was wrong, Stephanie flung off her covers and dressed hastily. Pulling on her shoes, she tied her hair back as she hurried to the door. When she opened it, her two unwelcome guardians were both across the hallway at the windows.

  “What was that?” she asked, squeezing between them to see.

  Black smoke billowed into the sky from a part of the fortress she wasn’t able to see. She strained to see more, thoughts on the promise Kiki had made her the night before about getting her sister out of the tower where Wynn trapped her.