58. SOPHIE
Sophie could hear people rushing past her. The sounds of clanging metal rung into the air. Soft murmurs filled the space around her but what stayed constant was the warmth that held her hands.
Her eyes fluttered open to see Ash. His inky hair was pulled back into a braid, the white strands dipping in and out of it, like a lightning bolt striking in the dead of night. Bruises marred his skin, and scars, freshly healed, marred his arms and chest. Some of his feathers had been broken off. The red flight-inhibiting clips were still firmly in place.
“Took you long enough.” He smiled, placing a soft kiss on the back of her hand.
Sophie let out a soft chuckle. He had said the exact same thing when she figured out who he was. What he meant to her.
Tears started in her eyes. “You stupid turtle-dove.” She smiled, squeezing his hand.
Her body felt . . . fresh. Healed and hydrated. Her lips didn’t feel like they’d cracked. She could breathe properly. Sophie sat up slowly.
She was in some sort of tent with medical supplies. She could see Chronos lying down on a stretcher, unconscious. A medic working on her with healing magic. Next to her stretched out on a litter was Deymos. She would recognise those grey wings anywhere.
“What happened to Deymos?” Sophie whispered.
Ash leaned in close, brushing the hair out of her face in way that made her heart tingle. He didn’t let go of her hand.
“A worm tooth severed his femoral artery. We noticed a bit too late so had to heal the entire leg with the tooth inside. The medics just fished it out.”
“Shit.”
“Doc said you had three cracked ribs, two broken fingers all while suffering heat stroke.”
No wonder why it had been so hard to breathe. And no wonder why the last climb up the wave rock was excruciating.
Sophie stretched, revelling in the ease that her muscles and bones moved with. They were nowhere near a hundred per cent, but they were healed. “What can I say? All in a day’s work.” Sophie winked at Ash.
He shook his head. “Smart-ass.”
A moment passed between them.
He looked at her as if he were about to say something.
Sophie herself had so many words, left unsaid.
Electricity filled the silent space separating them.
Sophie hadn’t forgotten. She’d safely tucked the thoughts away as she completed the trials but now that he was here before her . . . the full force of what she’d learnt in the Stagnum De Memoria came crashing into her. Her memories. Him. Them. Their soulmate bond seared into their flesh.
She felt a little hot. It had only been a few days since she was running through the blasted downpour. She was trying to find him and here he was. Right in front of her.
She looked down at their tattoos. Ash’s were far more intricate as the design climbed up his arms. It looked like he’d added more to it. But the designs on their hands were almost identical. Where hers ended in a key, his ended in a lock. The Fates had chosen for them to be together. And for once, Sophie felt like the Fates were right. Heck, she’d choose Ash for herself, over and over and defy the Fates if they denied her.
Sophie looked up to those turquoise smoking eyes and the scar across his brow. “We need to talk,” she whispered.
Hurt danced across his eyes and his jaw ticked. “Come. I know a place.” Then and only then did he let go of her hand.
They sat by a small river, just behind the medical tent, away from prying eyes and ears. Their boots were pushed to the side as their legs and feet revelled in the coolness of the water.
The Tartarus sky was still its ominous grey and the sun had disappeared altogether. Not that Sophie was complaining. Three days of unrelenting sun had probably altered her brain chemistry in ways she didn’t want to know.
Ash was shirtless. His wings relaxed behind him. A knee propped up onto the bank while his other foot dangled into the cooling river.
Sophie splashed some water in his face. “You’re moping.”
“Am not.” Ash retaliated, kicking a wallop of water into Sophie, drenching her entirely.
Sophie gasped.
Without even thinking, Sophie launched herself at Ash, grabbing a hold of his hands, and pulled him into the river.
His hands found her waist as they pushed up to the surface. Their laughter bubbled all around, bouncing off the surface of the river and the trees that surrounded them. Sophie threw her arms around Ash’s thick neck, wrapped her legs around his waist, and squeezed as hard as she could.
“Help! She’s trying to kill me!” Ash feigned.
“Oh shush, die quietly, will you?” Sophie laughed, pulling back to look him in the eyes. Every curve and plain of their bodies were flush against each other. Their lips, mere centimetres away. “I went to the Stagnum De Memoria,” Sophie said quietly.
Ash stilled.
“And I learnt something,” Sophie continued. Her heart was beating wildly. She let go of Ash’s neck and pulled herself off him, trailing a hand down his tattooed shoulder. The tips of her fingertips burned as their skin met.
He watched the movement of her fingers the whole time.
Sophie continued tracing the swirls of patterns down his arm. When they disappeared under the water, Sophie pulled his hand up from underneath. Tracing each line, each detail, each edge until their fingers met. They stood in the river, palm to palm. Tattooed hand, to tattooed hand. And nothing could be sweeter. Nothing could be more whole. Like two mirror images, they stood.
She intertwined her fingers with his. “We are fated,” Sophie said simply.
Ash swallowed hard.
Sophie’s lips started to wobble, and her eyes started to water. She let out a whimper. “I’m sorry, you had to wait for so long.”
Without warning, Ash crashed his lips into hers. His kisses, urgent, demanding, consuming and possessive. Sophie kissed right back, growing breathless with every movement, but she didn’t care anymore. Ash was the only oxygen she needed.
Ash pulled back, emotion washing his voice. “I would wait a thousand lifetimes for you, Starlight. An infinity sun cycles. A million Ephemeral Eclipses. However long you needed. However long it would take for you to come back to me, I would have waited.”
Sophie was sobbing now. She didn’t deserve him. She kissed him urgently. Perhaps it was the Hrabrost Trials, and the agony of knowing one’s truth rolled into one hot mess, but Sophie couldn’t think of anything but Ash.
Ash. Ash. Ash.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
“I love you.” Sophie smiled through her tears, her hand resting on his strong jaw. Her thumb caressing the scars across the left side of his face. This was what love felt like. She had found it at last.
Ash blushed. Literally blushed as he nuzzled into her hand.
“I, wait”—Ash shook his head slightly—“but what about the letter?”
“What letter?” Sophie furrowed her brows and tilted her head.
“It was in a black envelope . . . you said you wanted to remain friends.” A sadness laced his deep voice.
Sophie’s gut dropped. That letter. The one where she harped on about being friends and a close confidant. The one where she wrote the word friend a suspicious number of times so he would get the point but in actuality, she never felt that way. She was just trying to protect herself. But how did he get that letter?
Her mind rewound to the point in time where Eros, the heart-shape-eyed snoop, had infiltrated her room and gave her an ultimatum. It felt like a lifetime ago.
“Eros,” Sophie groaned.
“EROS,” Ash repeated murderously.
Sophie gripped his jaw. “Fuck the letter, Ash.” She climbed on to him, her hands on both sides of his handsome face and her legs wrapped around his waist.
He wrapped his arms around her and that feeling.
Ugh, this feeling.
It sent her soaring even though she’d barely left the ground.
Her eyes started to water again, as she let the flood gates open. The gates that had held back the full brunt of her emotions. “I’m falling. I’ve fallen, Ash.” He wiped a tear from her eyes. “And it’s all consuming. It terrifies me. I don’t know whether I’m shining or burning. With you, perhaps . . . perhaps I’m a little bit of both.” Sophie laughed softly. “Loving, hurting”—she kissed him on his cheek—“shining, burning”—she kissed him on his other cheek—“in pure ecstasy when I’m with you and utter agony when I’m not.” She kissed him on the lips, savouring his woodsy scent and the addictiveness of his essence. “But what I now know for sure, is that the stars that line the sky have always been lighting a path to you.” She lightly traced the scar, like a lightning strike across his brow and cheek. “My Ash. I love you. Only you.” She leaned her forehead on his. Her chest bursting with a swell of emotions.
Ash kissed her deeply, taking in a full breath as their lips joined. He held her firmly, so that she couldn’t look away from his burning, smoking eyes. “I will hold you close until all the realms turn into the dusts of time, protect you until the fires of Hell burn over my very skin and I will fucking love you until the rattle of death is the only sound I hear. Forever and beyond that, Starlight, I am yours and you are mine. I love you, Sofreya. Only you.”
Their kiss was slow. Aching. Binding. Soul crushing. Twenty years it took. By the Fates they were going to savour this.
Water lapped all around them, but they did not care.
Their kisses grew hurried. She needed him now. Heck, she needed him years ago. His words were the salve to mend her irreparable heart. His touch, his actions, his kisses were the flames that forged a shatterproof heart.
Ash grabbed her thighs, tightening them around him. She could feel every movement of muscles across his abdomen. It lit her core on fire as they hungrily kissed and moaned.
She would never get enough of this.
He pushed her to the bank of the river and reverently lay her down. Her legs and feet were still in the water. Rocks and grass bit into her back as he trailed kisses all over her neck and down her chest.
Sophie arched her back and opened her eyes to find . . . Eros.
“AHHH! EROS, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE, YOU FUCKING CREEP?!” Sophie shrieked, pulling her wet blouse up.
Lightning struck the ground behind them.
Sophie didn’t even notice Ash move from on top of her.
Eros was on the verge of tears as he held a bag of marshmallows and chocolate in his hands.
Sophie scrambled to her feet, dodging the small storm clouds that brewed around Ash’s wings and shoulders. Ash grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to him. He snarled at the god of love, promising death and more.
Eros ran to them with open arms, dropping the bag of marshmallows and chocolate to the ground. He was sobbing. “I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU GUYS!” He crashed into Sophie, pushing her back into the solid mass of Ash. Eros held them hostage in an awkward, three-person hug. Vice grip, rather.
All Sophie could see was chest and muscle as Eros squished her, pulling in Ash for a hug too.
I’m in a freaking angel-sandwich.It could be worse I guess . . .
“Eros,” Sophie murmured, trying to get him off her.
“I thought I altered the will of the Fates by giving Ash that silly letter, Sophie. Why didn’t you tell me you wrote a fake letter? If only I knew! I wouldn’t have given it to him in the first place. I thought I was doing you a favour. He was so sad. So broody. He pouted the entire time we were in Tartarus and it was all my fault and—”
“EROS. You’re crushing me,” Sophie groaned.
“Oh.” Eros eased his grip.
Sophie righted herself and smiled. “It’s fine, Eros.” She turned back to Ash who still looked like he was about to raise hell. “We’re fine.”
Lightning struck again.
“I say we burn all his rom-com blu-rays for interrupting us,” Ash threatened.
Sophie narrowed her eyes on Eros and grinned mischievously. “Better yet, we should block him from our streaming accounts so that he has to pay for his own subscriptions.”
Eros gasped. “You would never!”
“Oh, but I would. You wanted to watch season three of Emily in Paris, didn’t you, Eros?” Ash’s grin was positively murderous. “Well, too bad.”
Eros yelped, letting out a horrified sound as he grabbed the befallen marshmallows and chocolate, scurrying away from them in pure terror.
They spent the better part of the day resting for what was to be their last leg of the Hrabrost Trials. By tomorrow morning, they would have conquered Mount Gehenna, locked away the monsters that lived inside it and, hopefully, lived to tell the tale.
The entire Tienthan sat by a fire, toasting marshmallows. Eros had started his own s’more-making station. He insisted that the chocolate had to be smeared in a love-heart shape before they were eaten to let everyone in the group know that they were loved.
They were all in the middle of a gruelling test of mettle and teamwork. Gods and goddesses in their own right. Eating s’mores. By a fire. In Tartarus.
This is by far the weirdest thing I’ve ever experienced.
Sophie smiled to herself. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
The medical tent had disbanded and the medical team with it, leaving the Tienthan to themselves with a bottle of water each and a hot meal for the cooler evening. Deymos was awake, though he had lost a considerable amount of strength in his left leg. Chronos had also returned to her normal pallor.
With less of an attitude too.
They were sharing stories of the trial so far.
“Athena was literally dangling from its beak with its putrid ink all over her.” Nemy laughed.
“And we had to deal with her stinky ass for days. The absolute worst,” Achlys joined in.
Athena smacked him across the arm. “At least I didn’t trip over a twig and accidentally look into the eyes of a wailing witch.”
“You tripped over a twig?” Pallas barked a laugh.
“Mate, thinking about Pallas too much, were you?” Erebus teased Achlys, earning himself a rock to the head.
Eros cooed. Naturally.
Together they all laughed.
Morpheus had his arm around Nyx.
And Sophie was safely tucked in between Ash’s legs. She leaned back into his broad chest as he mindlessly fed her marshmallow after marshmallow.
This is living.
“Well, I’m going to turn in. Rest well everyone,” Deymos declared with a stretch of his wings and back.
With that, they all mumbled their goodnights before peeling off. Some of the angels took to the trees while others moved to a small clearing with padded grass, leaving Sophie and Ash to their own devices by the fire.
“Did you want to stay by the fire or move to the grass over there?” Ash whispered in her ear. It sent chills down her back.
Sophie leaned back, smirking. “Seeking some privacy, are you? You dirty, smut-loving angel.”
“Hey, you said they were your favourite books,” he said, kissing her lightly on the forehead.
She did say that. When they’d been reunited at the age of eighteen in Faery. She’d told him that they were worth a read and that she wished she could read them for the first time again. If only she could.
Sophie’s heart warmed. “You got them for me?”
“Of course. And I’d buy you a million copies if it makes you look at me like that. In hardback too.”
Sophie chuckled. “Ah, you do know the way into a woman’s heart.” Sophie kissed him on the lips again. She would never tire of the feeling. Like two jigsaw pieces, they fit perfectly together. “But we do need to rest.”
“I’ll rest when I’m dead.” Ash tried to catch her lips, but Sophie pulled back.
“But you’ll be dead tomorrow if you don’t rest.” Sophie pressed a finger onto his lips, pushing him back, earning herself a growl of frustration.
“Fine.”
“When we get back to the Godlands, Ash, we’re going to spend an entire week alone. Closed off to the world. You can do whatever your smut-loving heart wants to me.” She leaned in to whisper in his ear, “Anything.”
Ash purred. Literally purred. And if that noise didn’t make Sophie’s toes curl.
“I hope tomorrow comes sooner then.” Ash kissed her, pulling back to look at her.
He pulled her down onto the patchy grass by the fire and pulled her into his arms. Her back flush against his chest. He placed his palm on her bare stomach and sighed. “Goodnight, Starlight.”
Sophie intertwined her fingers with his. “Goodnight, my storm.”
Upon those words, Ash cocooned them both in the safety of his wings.
Sophie could hardly sleep. While Ash’s warmth lulled her eyes closed, knowing they were about to embark on the most difficult trial of all within a few hours made her jolt awake every few minutes.
She could feel Ash’s steady breaths on the back of her neck. His face was buried into her hair as he held her. Sophie shifted in his arms, trying to find a new position in the safety of his wings.
Ash stirred at her movements. “What’s wrong?” he asked softly, his voice thick with sleep.
“I can’t sleep.”
“Are you worried about tomorrow?”
“Yeah.” Sophie let out a frustrated breath as she turned to face him. His eyes were sleepy, hooded.
“I can help you sleep?” He held her face with a strong hand and placed a soft kiss on her lips.
Sophie nodded sleepily. She would accept anything to help her sleep at this point.
Without a word, he turned her in his arms so that her back was flush against his chest again. The feeling of their bodies so close, instantly pulled her focus. Suddenly, all her senses were consumed by a soft kiss on her neck. Then a soft kiss on her shoulder. They were painfully patient and devastatingly delicate. The kind that made her heart squeeze, her stomach flutter, and her legs tense. As his hand found its way up her blouse . . . well. Sophie wasn’t thinking about tomorrow anymore.
Ash’s thumbs drew intoxicating circles along her bare stomach, driving her into a hazed, sleepy madness. She held her breath, lying in agonising wait, wondering where his hand would go next.
Ash pulled her closer to him with the arm she was laying on. His forearm lay across her chest, binding her to him. His warm breath tickled her ear as he whispered, “Relax.” That deep sound. That word. How could she do anything but?
Slowly, painfully, he moved his hand lower. The delicious circling of his fingers made Sophie’s breath hitch, her back arch, wanting exactly what he was offering.
He placed another distracting kiss on her neck as he lowered his hand past the band of her pants. Her mind fought against itself, not knowing whether to focus on his sweet kisses, or the way his hand moved closer and closer to the place she really wanted it to be.
Were they going to do this?
“Ash,” Sophie rasped. It was a warning. A plea.
“Relax,” he breathed into her ear again. And it was his words, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear and the warmth he provided that was her undoing. He nudged his knee between her legs, urging her to open for him, and she obeyed. Eager for his touch. She melted into his arms as he drew closer and closer. He breathed in deeply and as he sank his fingers into her. They moaned in unison.
By the fucking stars.
He explored every curve and every line of her as if she were a fucking map, before settling where X marked the spot. His fingers drew delirious circles. She’d die here. Happily. In Tartarus, with the realm’s most deplorable demons listening in.
His fingers were slow at first, occasionally dipping in and out of her as desire built. With each stroke, with each circle, her desire came in droves, forming a cliff edge she’d joyously fling herself off. Every breathy moan that escaped her lips earned her an encouraging growl from Ash’s throat. An increase in pressure. A quickening of his fingers. All of which drove her to the edge. She was equal parts need and madness now. On the precipice. Impatient as hell. Her hands clutched hungrily onto his muscled arm and her hips unabashedly lifted, trying to get closer. Her moans grew louder and louder.
“That’s my girl,” Ash purred.
The words sent her into another fucking dimension. Several dimensions parallel to this one. She was dripping for him. Begging for him.
He gave it to her. He never denied her. And when she was about to spill over, he stopped.
Sophie whimpered, her heart galloping in her chest, her legs weak and sweaty. She turned her head to face him. “Why are you stopping?” She panted.
Ash said nothing as he lifted his hand, sank his two fingers past the softness of his full lips and tasted her. His eyes fluttered closed as he moaned with feral satisfaction.
Sophie’s lips parted, her throat becoming awfully dry as her eyes traced every line of his face and the angelic perfection of it. It were as if he had just tasted the most delicious thing in his life.
That is so fucking hot.
Ash let out a little chuckle as if he’d read her mind, before moving his hand back down to her. Ash moved to kiss her deeply. She could taste herself on him. On his tongue. On his lips. He loved the way she tasted and, by the Fates, she swore she could come from that thought alone. And when her kisses grew impatient, when she was grinding mindlessly upon his hand, he didn’t hold back.
He groaned and moaned as much as she did.
He circled her. He worked her. He pleasured her until she was sinfully soaked, clutching onto his arm for dear life and claiming his lips like they would be ripped from her in any moment.
She was going to come.
Her entire body tense, electrified.
She couldn’t hold on to this cliff edge any longer.
“Come for me,” Ash whispered.
His words were her undoing. She cried out as she spilled over the edge of ecstasy. With every pulse, he pulled her tighter against him. She came so hard that every part of her body was shaking. Every curve of her body, fit and flush against his. He showered her with kisses. His fingers stayed, buried inside her, drinking up the last of her climax.
She felt like she was walking on air. She was putty. Her heart raced in her ears, and she could hear his heart doing the same.
Ash kissed her softly on the shoulder before wrapping his arms around her middle again. “Sleep, Starlight. You need to.”
And so she did.