Paradise of Shadows and Devotion
Page 14
Everything, everything that was my home became Santino’s tomb. A fate I was helpless to save him from.
Hoarse sobs built up in my chest, my tears falling on the ice I now clutched onto with both hands, my fingers chipping its smooth surface and creating spiderweb cracks to spread across its cool glint. And as I listened to trees fall in Santino’s wake, I knew it wouldn’t be long now until he entered the bubbling stream.
I thought of Angela there, of the Rusalkas I’d saved—at the cost of Santino’s life. If I had let him storm the morass alone, if I had just agreed to his plan of burning them all from a distance, evaporating the water and charring the Rusalkas’ flesh, this would never had happened. My life wouldn’t have come at the cost of his.
I shook my head. No, even if I could do it all over again, my actions would have remained the same.
I didn’t want Santino to relive the horror of being Mesechyn. Didn’t want to tear open the wounds he had mended for centuries, to force him to take innocent lives. I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood.
I hated it, but it was the truth.
At least this way, Santino wouldn’t cross into the underworld as a nightmare, but the man he had worked so hard to be.
My vision blurred from the tears, and I exhaled, allowing my voice to rise into the air and weave a melody of love. Of light. Of dreams fulfilled.
Santino wouldn’t go to his death listening to my horror or keening. He would walk in the company of beauty, of the universes of emotions he had stirred inside me—and had kept me from suffocating them with my fear one kiss at a time. He would go in the company of my every memory, every glimpse I had stolen when he wasn’t watching, of every sensation the warm touch of his skin birthed in my very soul.
But most of all, he would stride into death proudly, knowing the past had no purchase on him any longer. Knowing that I saw him for the brilliant, loving man he was… Knowing that what he refused to acknowledge was the truth.
He hadn’t wasted his second chance. He inspired me with it.
I closed my eyes as the song fluttered and danced, as my mermaid nature ran free, filling the water, the air, the trees, the ground—and him.
I didn’t stop as I felt the light pulse of his power, reverting him back to human form. Didn’t stop even when I knew that it was the last step before he would enter the cool embrace of the river.
I only sang for him, ignoring my crumbling heart and the agony shredding my chest.
For him. It was all for him.
When the thrall of the water dissipated, my voice broke and the melody became a haunting lament that seemed to still the very nature around me. With those final words of peaceful travel and a promise to meet him in the underworld, I succumbed to silence.
Trembling, I pressed my forehead against the cool surface of the ice, and, finally, let my pain run free.
I didn’t know how long I cried, how long I shivered, holding on to those few tethers still keeping me together. But when a hand fell on my shoulder, the ice had already started to melt. Gods, it seemed sinister that I should smell the rich scent of pine so very much like Santino’s, sinister that the touch felt as if it were his.
I stilled.
“Piccola.” Santino’s voice wrapped around me, nothing but a rough whisper, yet filled with so much love I nearly slipped below the surface.
And when the overpowering rush of relief flooded my mind, I did.
Darkness overtook my vision, and the last thing I remembered were Santino’s hands, pulling me up and wrapping around me in a fierce promise to never let go.
25
Fairy lights illuminated the airy white tent, breaking the gentle darkness of Moon Bay with almost a kind of melodic, ethereal grace. The fabric whispered in the light breeze and waves sloshed languidly to my left, murmuring their greetings and sending forth a loving invitation to enter their depths.
Soon.
I glanced at the Rusalkas lingering in the sea. While some still carried the echoes of fear, their eyes weren’t filled with hatred, but kindness. And before them, flickering her cobalt blue tail in and out of the water as if it was the most natural thing to do, was Angela. She had led our sisters to safety, lifted the spell on Kauer’s men that compelled them to kill, and used her own call to fight them until silence descended upon the morass.
She gave me a small smile, eyes brimming with mischief and life unlike anything I had ever seen on her before. I tilted my head to the side and grinned.
A second chance.
Angela got her second chance and wasn’t wasting even a second of it.
Warmth swept through my chest. All my fears, all the nightmares the murky waters had stirred when I entered their depths—it was worth it. Worth it just to see that light touching Angela’s features, to hear her lively presence etched into whispers of the waves. And the Rusalkas…
They would need to find their own way in life, free from the oppression and threats of our former leaders. Not the easiest of tasks, but they knew they could always turn to the two mermaids in their midst to help. Although—I glanced at Caz, standing by Eva’s side—the best form of therapy just might come from the person they least expected.
Since Kauer himself had eluded the massacre, Caz was in full search mode. And so were my sisters. There was no body of water safe from their awareness. The instant even the smallest ripple of Kauer’s presence fluttered to them, the PI would find himself facing the pull of water or the heat of the flame.
Either solution sounded perfectly fine.
Caz matched my grin, and Eva—with Giorgio curling around her legs—mouthed, “Good luck.”
I chuckled lightly. I’d probably used up all of my luck, several times over, but thankfully, I didn’t have to rely on its fickle nature any longer.
No more running or wishing things were different. I was building a life I wanted—and doing it with the man who held my heart.
Santino was outrageously dashing in an all-black suit that accentuated the spill of his silver hair, and his brilliant argent eyes were shining as wildly as the gemstones sprinkled down the length of my flowing white dress. He was born of the moon and night, and every inch of his presence exuded his breathtaking magnificence.
I felt myself blush, my lips parting into a wide smile that refused to be contained.
My everything.
Deep inside me, magic stirred in response, the fierceness of its affection for the man it had saved matching mine.
Words filtered through to my ears as the officiant started the ceremony. She spoke of commitment, love, and responsibility, but beyond the basic grasp of her speech, nothing truly anchored in my mind. Because it was the echo of my own promises, creating a silent melody between us.
Promises I whispered to Santino in the intimacy of the cabin, then his apartment, then the sea, where we had spent our nights—our freedom—beneath the starlit sky.
But even my vows had been a mere decoration, a pretty ribbon wrapped around the true core of the bond we shared. The one our actions had echoed, time and time again, as we shrugged off the heavy coats of our past, keeping them in our memories, but refusing to let them drag us down.
Santino’s gaze never left mine as the officiant’s voice scattered on the breeze. Only a corner of his lips twitched in a way that sent heat to pool between my thighs as his “I do” sounded through the night, entwined with the sea’s loving murmurs.
I was still staring at him, losing myself in his magnetic presence and the demand in his eyes when the officiant turned to me, asking if I accepted this man as my husband, as my mate for an eternity to come.
I trailed a finger down the side of his face.
“I do.”
And I did.
Thank you for reading Paradise of Shadows and Devotion
If you enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review!
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If you’re looking for more paranormal romance, then the Nightwraith series might be for you. The last title, Nig
htstorm, features a certain dashing dragon you’ve met in Paradise!
About the Author
Gaja J. Kos is a USA Today bestselling author with a mission to breathe fragments of Slavic lore onto many, many pages of fiction.
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Gaja resides in Celje, Slovenia, with her husband (as well as co-author) and two Chinese Crested dogs.
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More:
gajajkos.com
Also by Gaja J. Kos
FANTASY WORKS CO-WRITTEN WITH USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR BORIS KOS
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SHADOWFIRE TRILOGY
Upper YA fantasy
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Evenfall
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THE IRON HEAD TRILOGY
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The Fox
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The Bird
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FORGED IN FLAMES
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ROMANCE
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SILVER FOX CLUB
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Cotton Candy
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KOLOVRAT UNIVERSE
PRESENT
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BLACK WEREWOLVES SERIES
Urban fantasy
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Novels:
The Dark Ones
The 24hourlies
The Shift
The Ascension
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Novellas:
Never Forgotten
Chased
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NIGHTWRAITH SERIES
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Windstorm
Blackstorm
Nightstorm
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FUTURE
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LOTTE FREUNDENBERGER SERIES
Urban fantasy
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Shadow Moon
Darkening Moon
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SHADE ASSASSIN SERIES
Urban fantasy
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Shadow World
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PARADISE OF SHADOWS AND DEVOTION
Standalone paranormal romance
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DESTINY RECLAIMED
Urban fantasy standalone novella, available exclusively through the Fall of Magic anthology