by Emma Slate
My hand slid across my belly, encountering my insides, which were spilling out of my wound. I tried to move my head but didn’t have the strength. I knew if I looked down, I’d see one of my legs gone, severed from my body.
I waited for my skin to knit together. I waited for my leg to regenerate. I waited for the black spots dancing before my eyes to disappear.
But none of those things occurred because a magical weapon had felled me.
Immortals most definitely could die.
The roaring silence melted away, and I once again heard the clanging of metal, the shouts of fallen warriors, and the battle cries of those that triumphed. The battle was nearly over, and yet brother still fought brother.
I closed my eyes and wished. I wished for Thane to find the strength to defeat Xan. I wished for Thane to go on and live a long life, full of love and prosperity. I wished for him to be surrounded by friends and family, by his children that he’d have with another because it surely wouldn’t be me.
Xan yelled at Thane in a language I didn’t understand. For a moment, I thought it was a magical curse, but then Thane answered in the same tongue. Maybe it was the language of twins; maybe it belonged only to them.
Thane would never defeat Xan alone. Xan had grown too strong during the years of Thane’s imprisonment.
Take what I offer you.
I can’t—
You will. It’s the only way. Let’s end this.
If I do, then you’ll die.
Our connection was full of strife and anguish.
I’m dying anyway, Thane. Let me help you defeat him. I choose to die this way.
I opened the last barrier between us. The wall crumbled like stone, and pure energy flowed through me. I shot it across our mental thread. My essence was liquid gold, hot, volcanic and furious. Like a mountain river in spring, it gushed, unstoppable. I gave Thane everything, gladly and without reserve.
When the last drop of my essence was spent, I felt myself sever from my physical form. I saw my decimated body—a torn stump where my leg had once been, my belly sliced, and all my coiled organs spilling onto the ground like a sack that had fallen open.
I was dead…and yet I wasn’t.
Not only was I fully cognizant, but I also had an aerial view of the battlefield. Dead carcasses of beasts and creatures. Gabriel with his bloodied sword and fluttering wings as he called out commands to other angels. Chained demons with broken horns glaring with angry red eyes at their captors.
And Thane and Xan…
Thane glowed gold. He whirled and carved, anticipating his brother’s every move before Xan could make it. And then Thane became the attacker, swinging his sword like it was a child’s toy.
Xan’s smirk slipped from his face, his arrogance quickly deserting him when he realized his brother had become stronger, had become the better warrior.
All because of me.
All because of my sacrifice.
All because I loved him.
This battle was bigger than both of us. Bigger than our love or the life we were supposed to have together. We had our time. It was too short; it wasn’t enough. I hadn’t learned how to love him the way I wanted to until the last moments we’d had together, when I realized that offering my life for his was the purest form of love I could give.
But none of that mattered. Millions of lives hung in the balance of the battle that raged below me.
Thane’s sword arced.
It whistled through the air and connected with flesh and bone to detach Xan’s head from his neck. His head rolled across the land, eyes still open, and the expression one of surprise etched into his face for eternity. Xan’s body collapsed like a scarecrow with straw legs.
A dragon swooped down, circled Xan, opened its reptilian jaws, and let loose a blast of blue fire. Only when Xan’s body and detached head were doused in flames did the dragon flap its golden-tipped wings and soar into the sky.
Thane bent over, breathing hard. He barely spared his brother’s charred form a glance. When Thane looked at my prostrate body, he dropped his weapon and ran to my side. He fell to his knees to cradle my dead body in his arms.
Thane wept.
He tried to scoop up my intestines and put them back in my stomach, but they kept unraveling and sliding out. Thane carried me to the river. He waded in up to his chest, his head bent to mine as he continued to cry.
My arms listlessly floated in the current, dangling uselessly by my sides.
Thane reached up to brush the matted hair away from my lifeless face. It had already been leeched of color when a few moments ago there had been blood in my cheeks. I’d been alive, and now I was dead.
He traced my lips with his finger, and then he reached down to scoop up a handful of water, cradling it in the palm of his hand. Thane dribbled it across my lips, only the droplets ran across my mouth. He did it again and again, growing more and more desperate with each attempt.
Thane pressed his forehead to mine and chanted something in his unknown language, and still I didn’t move.
I felt my essence drifting farther and farther away, my awareness growing fuzzy. This was it. This was truly the end. There were no last cards to play, no magical potions that could bring me back to life.
My body was dead, and soon my spirit would scatter, and I would no longer be…me.
But then I felt it—a slight tug at the end of my mental connection, the mental connection I thought had shattered when I’d left my body. But it was still there. Faint. Weak. With my last bit of consciousness, I reached for it. I felt it snap around me, binding me.
The battlefield scene disappeared and suddenly I was flying through a tunnel, like I was inside of a rainbow, and I was nothing but air and light and stardust and magic.
I was love.
I was hope.
My essence slammed back into my body, and my heart immediately started to beat. It pumped magic and blood. It united flesh with otherworldly abilities and restored my leg. My body began to heal.
I took a deep breath and my lungs filled with air and life again.
Opening my eyes, I peered into an ebony gaze now ringed with gold.
With aching slowness, I reached up and brushed away the tears at the corners of his lids.
“You’re alive,” he whispered in disbelief. “I didn’t think it would work.”
“Didn’t think what would work?”
His smile was slow and crooked, filled with relief and tenderness. He hugged me tighter as he buried his face in the crook of my neck. “Begging.”
“Who did you beg? God?”
Thane lifted his head to look at me. “You, Poppy. I begged you not to leave me. And you listened.”
Chapter 45
I sat on the bank of the River Styx—the river Thane had pulled me into—and let my feet dangle in the cool water. Thane was currently speaking to Gabriel who was nodding along at whatever Thane was saying. Every so often, my mate glanced over at me, his eyes searching for mine, as if to make sure I was still there.
Couldn’t blame him, considering a few hours ago I’d been a corpse with my guts hanging out. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to process it. I still didn’t know how Thane’s begging had been able to bring my essence back into my body. We hadn’t had a moment alone since Gabriel had gently called to him while we’d been in the river.
It was dawn and the battlefield was littered with the dead from both sides. Grass ran red, black, gold, and silver with the blood of magical creatures. Just as I wondered about what it would take to wash the death away from this place, puffy gray clouds dotted the dark blue sky. A moment later, warm rain began to shower the land.
I turned my face up and closed my eyes. Drops splattered my dirty skin. I wanted a long, hot bath more than I wanted a place to rest, more than I wanted time with Thane.
My eyes snapped open, and I watched a golden-scaled dragon fly through the storm clouds to dive toward the river. It slipped into the water like an expert diver, its la
rge body completely submerged by the silvery blue currents. A moment later, a woman’s head covered in long golden hair emerged. The dragon woman floated for a bit before paddling toward me.
“I will ache for days. I haven’t battled like that in ages,” she said by way of greeting. She pulled herself up onto the bank to sit next to me, not at all concerned about her nudity as she twisted her hair.
I was currently wrapped in some sort of leather fur, my skin drying from my own quick dunk in the river.
“I’m so glad to meet you,” she said, her smile wide and friendly. “I’m Auri.”
“Hi,” I said slowly.
Auri rubbed her shoulders, and I heard the bones in her back pop. We sat in silence as the rain continued to fall. Eventually, it stopped, and the clouds parted to reveal glimmering gold sunshine.
She rolled her eyes. “He can’t be bothered to send aid when we need it, but he has no problem presenting a pretty picture.”
I was a jumbled mess of emotions that I hadn’t had time to sort through. I wanted to work through everything with Thane as my sounding board, but he was talking to a fallen angel about warding the entrance to Hell.
The box the mage had built to house all the emotions that didn’t belong to me had been shattered when I’d died, and then been brought back to life. Now, I couldn’t distinguish my own feelings from others. I was feeling elation, anger, and depression. And those were just a few of the emotions I could even name. There were others that were more complex.
I needed a distraction. “So. You’re a dragon?” I blurted out.
Her blue eyes, the color of aquamarines in sunlight, glinted with humor. “Sometimes. You’re a spider?”
“Sometimes.”
We shared a laugh and then she sobered. “I saw you—jump in front of Thane.”
I inhaled a shaky breath. “Yeah. I did that, didn’t I?”
Auri’s gaze met mine. “I also saw him weep over your dead body. It’s difficult to kill an immortal, but not impossible. You were dead. And then you weren’t. How?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
Emotions screamed inside of me, begging to be let out. I channeled my focus and forced them back, envisioning them behind a solid stone wall. The pressure in my head lessened immediately.
Lust blasted through me like a battering ram. Mine, Thane’s, I couldn’t tell. I looked over my shoulder to watch him.
His clothing was streaked with blood and gore, his face was lined with exhaustion, but he looked alert and ever at the ready.
He’d killed his own brother. We hadn’t had a chance to talk about that yet, either. Hadn’t a chance to talk about anything. But all that would have to wait.
My lust couldn’t.
Thane’s gaze left Gabriel’s face to rest on mine. His black eyes were unwavering as I pulled the blanket closer to my body and made a motion to stand.
He said something to Gabriel and then stalked toward me.
“Ah, crap,” Auri muttered. “You guys will be loud, no doubt.”
At any other time, I would’ve laughed and thrown it right back at her. But I was too focused on the man coming for me. Thane swept me up into his arms and carried me toward the forest.
“Hey, Gabriel!” I heard Auri yell. “You up for blowing off some steam?”
Seemed like I wasn’t the only one in the throes of bloodlust.
I stared at Thane. His jaw was tight. I didn’t dare try to soothe him. I didn’t want soft, anyway. I’d ask for tenderness later. Right now, I needed it rough. I needed to be branded. I needed to remember what it felt like to be loved by him.
A few feet before the tree line of the forest, we came to a tent. Thane pushed aside the silken curtain and stepped inside. Sunlight filtered through the filmy material.
“We have complete privacy,” he said. He removed his arms from underneath my legs, and I slowly slid to the ground. I took a few steps away from him, trying to get myself under control.
“Are you afraid of me?” he rasped. His voice sounded harsh, like he had trouble forming words.
I whirled. “How can you even ask that?”
His shoulders were taut, and he watched me with a predatory stillness while he waited.
“It’s not you. It’s me.” I laughed, but there wasn’t humor in it. “Sorry, that came out—that’s not what I—I am the one who…who…”
“Died?”
I nodded.
“You’re not the same.”
“I’m not. No.”
“Do you still love me?”
My eyes widened. “Of course I still love you. I died for you. I’d die for you again.”
In two strides, Thane was in front of me, my face in his hands. His mouth covered mine, and then his tongue was in my mouth. I reached for him, and the blanket fell from my body.
“Wait,” he commanded, removing my arms from around his neck.
“Wait? Why?” I blinked, drunk with lust.
“I need to bathe. I’m caked in—”
“I don’t care. I need you,” I pleaded, reaching for him again.
Thane’s gaze darkened with unrequited hunger. He ripped at his clothes, the sword dropped to the ground, and then he was on me, dragging me down to the pallet.
His mouth swooped in to devour mine as his hands tried to be everywhere. My legs fell open, cradling him against me. I was hot and ready, mindless.
When he sank into me, I cried out in pleasure and disbelief—disbelief because I never thought I’d get to experience this again. I never thought I’d get to feel him against my skin.
“Poppy,” he gritted. He said my name over and over as he thrust hard and deep.
I reached for him, needing his mouth on mine, to absorb the pleasure he was giving me.
He gripped my hips, his touch bruised and demanded, and still I wanted more. Thane was relentless and he didn’t stop, not even when the wave of my release crashed over me. Even as I trembled from my aftermath, he pulled out and flipped me over, so I was on my hands and knees.
And then Thane was entering me.
I felt him deeper, and pleasure bloomed again. My nails tore into the silky fabric of the pallet, and I couldn’t hold back my screams.
He pumped a few more times, and then I felt him come inside me. We collapsed and Thane dragged me against him, still joined, our hearts and mental bond pulsing in sync.
Thane brushed his lips across my shoulder, and I shivered.
“There’s a bathing tub, just behind the tent.”
“Of course there is.”
“Not built by my own spiders.”
“What then?”
“Dragon magic.”
He slipped out of me and stood, and then reached down. I took his hand and let him lead me out the back of the tent. The bathing tub was a square pool on a raised wooden platform. Steam rose from the water. Thane helped me up the wooden steps and into the bath. I moved out of the way and sat down on a stone bench, enjoying the heat that sank into my bones.
Thane waded in, but instead of coming to sit next to me, he floated in the center, his dark eyes on me. “We have a lot of talk about, don’t we?”
I nodded.
“I have to know something before we get into it.”
“What?” I asked, instantly wary.
“What was it like?” His black eyes flashed gold. “What was it like to die?”
Chapter 46
I licked my suddenly dry lips, wishing for a glass of wine. I smiled when a heavy silver goblet appeared on the ledge of the tub. I grasped it and took a drink. Tart and sweet, a touch heady.
“Poppy?” he pressed.
“What did it feel like when I died,” I repeated. “Numb. My body was numb.” I paused, my finger tracing the rim of the goblet. “Regret. That I wouldn’t be the woman you’d get to spend your life with. But also…I wanted you to be happy. I wanted you to love again.”
His eyes were more gold than black.
“Why are your eyes gold?”
“I don’t know.” He frowned and then took a moment to formulate his words. “For someone who was dying, you seemed to have pretty lucid thoughts.”
“I don’t know if I was really dead.”
“You were. Trust me.”
“I wasn’t”—I wet my lips—“I don’t know…gone. Like my spirit was still close, and I could still see you.”
“You could?”
“Yes. I saw you kill your brother and then drag me into the River Styx. I saw you dribble water over my lips.”
He froze. “You saw all that?”
I nodded. “But I couldn’t hear you. It was like watching a silent film. I felt the tug on our mental connection in a way I’d never felt before, and then I flew back into my body. That was probably me responding to you begging me not to…not to die.”
“Probably.” Thane lifted his hand and ran it across his stubbly jaw. “Tell me what happened to you after I was petrified.”
I filled him in, and when I told him about Hunter’s death, I felt the pain deep inside me. Fresh anguish.
“Your heart glows. When you talk of him.” Thane stared at my chest and pointed. “Like when you were human.”
“It did that when I was human?”
He nodded.
“You had a visual? Every time I thought of Hunter and my feelings, you could see it?”
He nodded again.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t know.”
Thane swallowed, his eyes melancholy. “It was a small price to pay—knowing I’d get to be with you. In the end.”
“Poppy?”
“Yeah?” I looked down, letting my tears fall to mix with the bathwater.
“I knew.”
“Knew what?”
“I knew you’d have to kill him.”
I lifted my gaze slowly. He looked tortured, but even if he hadn’t, I would’ve known he felt that way. Our bond was even stronger now, the last shield between us down. I hadn’t even considered erecting another barrier between us, nor did I want to.
“Part of the prophecy?” I guessed.
“Yes.” I mulled over that piece of information as he went on. “And I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to agonize over it.”