Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kris
Excited glee rushed to meet her as fast as the breeze hit her face. She’d done it! Somehow, she’d thought outside of the box and outwitted the man who’d thought to keep her, and her reward was a life where she got to make the rules.
She didn’t think about how the glass had vanished, just as she didn’t dwell on how he’d transported them around the place.
All that mattered was freedom. Stepping forward, she closed her eyes as the wind ahead of her intensified.
She would never forget Kronos, the things he’d done to her or the way he’d made her feel, but in the end, she was relieved that sanity had prevailed.
She couldn’t stay there in his ivory tower and play out his sexual whims. Sure, his behavior, or more significantly, the way she’d reacted to it, had given her lots to think about, but there would be plenty of time to digest and ruminate on what had happened between them.
Hopefully, once she was back home with her friends with a drink in her hand, she could try to understand the way she’d responded.
Maybe then, things would start to make more sense.
Perhaps talking to the police can help me with that.
She took another stride forward, her hand feeling for the glass perimeter of the building.
Whatever happened, she knew she had to go to the authorities.
Kronos might not have harmed her, but he’d still taken her from the street against her will, stripped her, and refused to let her leave.
That was abduction, and he’d also snatched Shelley.
He couldn’t be allowed to get away with the crime again.
The idea cemented in her mind, and eyes flickering open, she pulled in a deep breath. Her liberty awaited, and all she had to do was—
The end of the sentence was obliterated by the sudden tightening in her chest, and as her mouth opened again for more air, the panicked sense that her lungs couldn’t fully expand hit her.
Whimpering, she realized her heart rate was accelerating as she tried to get more oxygen, but for some reason, however many shallow mouthfuls of air she took in, there never seemed to be enough.
Alarm exploded in her head as she stumbled and fell to one knee.
Why the hell couldn’t she breathe? All she could see around her was fresh air, yet the closer she got to the exit, the harder it was to access oxygen.
A wave of dizziness came next, sweeping in and causing the world around her to spin.
Flashes of black and white whirled around her, ratcheting her swelling dread.
Head heavy, she lowered to all fours, trying to understand what was happening. She’d been on the brink of freedom—so close to what she wanted—but unexpectedly, everything had changed. Kneeling and gasping for breath, the liberation she sought had never seemed farther away.
Glancing down, she noticed her hands were tinged blue, and an unnerving pain was blooming in her chest, spreading out to her arms. What was left of her logical train of thought deduced what should have been clear from the initial symptoms; Kris wasn’t getting enough oxygen, and she wouldn’t have long before unconsciousness came to claim her.
The last thing she recalled before she was forced to succumb to the encroaching black was the sight of the blue sky looming beyond the glass; the most flawless topaz blue she had ever laid eyes on.
***
Kronos
Kronos returned to the garden room with a smile.
Not only had Shelley been safely deposited back at the town bus station where he’d collected her from, but she seemed content and ready to pursue her new life with renewed purpose.
Even better, as his feet touched down on the cool marble tiles of his palace, he knew he was coming back to someone even more enticing.
Kristina.
The thought of her alone was enough to spur him on, stirring his shaft as he shook off the cloak he’d donned for travel.
Often, when he released a mortal, there was a period without a concubine by his side, but discovering Kristina so soon had negated the need for any break.
He had moved seamlessly from one woman to another, although his pretty blonde was turning out to be more than he could ever have imagined.
Everything was going to plan. In fact, with the wonderful progress Kristina had made since her arrival, he would have gone so far as to say things were even better than he could have hoped for.
She was curious, yet still compliant, and he already sensed she would remain a source of endless fascination for him. Having tasted the connection between them, he knew there would be no problems where desire was concerned, either.
A few long strides cut the distance to the bed he’d left her sleeping in. He couldn’t wait to see her again, couldn’t wait to resume her training, but only after he’d dealt with her most recent transgressions. She had to learn to—
The sight of the empty bed before him punctured his line of reasoning, his jaw falling open as he stared down at the abandoned covers. He’d enacted a seriously intense sleep charm over her before he’d left. How in the name of Titan could she have had immunity to its lasting effects?
It wasn’t the first time she’d countered his incantations, but given the ferocity of his intentions to keep her sleeping long after he’d returned, the first chimes of panic sounded in his head.
If she’d woken so soon, what else was his little one impervious to?
And more to the point, what had she been getting up to while he’d been gone?
He turned, his heart thundering as he scanned the space for her.
He didn’t think Kristina was mischievous by nature, but she certainly had an eye for finding trouble.
Her brush with the thugs who’d cornered her on the street was proof of that point, and even though his dominion was predominantly safe, it wasn’t designed for unsupervised, inquisitive mortals.
“Kristina!”
He rushed from the empty bed, searching the corners of the elaborate space but finding no one.
At every unoccupied void, his panic ballooned, beginning as a kernel of doubt and blossoming into something strong and powerful.
There was no reason to think she had come to any harm, yet as he dashed on, he was reminded of the serpents who’d come to warn him before his departure.
They’d cautioned him that leaving Kristina could result in chaos, yet he’d dismissed the counsel, deciding he knew better.
“Damn me!” Racing past the bed in the direction of the glass, he hissed the words.
She’d been interested in the windows in the dining hall, so perhaps she’d wandered to the panes to discover where she was.
That idea did little to quell his concerns.
He didn’t want her to find out too much about their location before he’d had a chance to talk to her about who he was and what that power meant, but fate had delivered him a different hand.
Regrets echoed in his mind as he reached the vast pane and looked left and right. There, in the distance, by the door to the cloud garden, was a sight that almost stopped his heart.
He moved in slow motion, hurrying toward the pile of tangled limbs covered in the deep red cloth he’d chosen, yet never seeming to reach her.
As he finally drew closer, the whistle of the atmosphere outside garnered his attention, and he looked up to find that the door had been opened.
All at once, he understood what had happened.
His intrepid little one had gone wandering.
She’d found the door and, somehow, she’d managed to open it.
Fleetingly, a thousand queries rushed to the fore, most notably, how had she opened the door? He didn’t even need to utter the remedy to seal the hatch, the glass appearing in the doorway to close them in with only a glare in its direction.
He cast an eye over Kristina’s unmoving form, refuting any likelihood that he was too late to save her, even though his senses failed to detect her heartbeat.
One click of his fingers was all it took to lift her inert form to his level, her honeyed tresses and limbs trailing behind her in the air as she rose.
Ignoring the blueness of her lips, he lowered his ear to her mouth and listened for any signs of breathing.
His jaw stiffened when none were revealed, but there was no time to give in to panic.
Kronos would just have to revive her.
He refused to believe that she was gone, but even his magic couldn’t bring the lifeless back into being. Despite his proclivity for the old traditions, some things needed to be done the modern way.
Tipping her head back, he checked her chest for any sign of breathing, and finding none, he shifted to deliver chest compressions. Pushing down on her fragile body, he rejected all considerations other than her life.
There was no other choice. Kristina had to live.
She was his future, the only mortal with whom he could conceive a permanent future. There was no version of events where he didn’t have her by his side, no story where he wouldn’t fight for their happy ending.
Acting on autopilot, he pinched her nose and, taking a deep breath, he closed his mouth over her lips.
Kronos would force the air back into her desperate lungs and bring her back to life.
He’d cradle her and soothe her to health, and then, once she was the troublesome little minx he knew and adored again, he would put her right back in her place.
The End
Devour the next book in the series,
Kronos’ Consort
(book three in the Dominant Gods series):
Enjoy this cheeky snippet…
Kris
Falling.