Chapter 16 #2
“Zyla—”
My lips capture his words as I kiss him hard.
The past few days has changed my life in so many ways, but when I made this choice—to take him as mine—I also made a quiet little promise to myself.
The way he feels about his family is exactly the way I feel about Aylin.
I would die for her. I would kill for her.
I would burn a fucking kingdom to the ground for her.
As would he for his brothers.
And maybe this is the reason it feels so right between us. This soul deep understanding between us, this kinship, can only be explained by the fact that some part of my soul recognizes his.
But there is one thing he forgets.
He’s my family now too. My mate. And I will not allow anything to come between us—anything to hurt him—even if that something is a God.
I break the kiss, pressing my forehead against his chin for one quivering moment as he strokes my upper arms with desperate hands, before I look up. “Do you trust me?”
Bael glances at me from beneath those tawny lashes as if he knows exactly what I’m trying to tell him. “Of course. But—”
“Are you not Bael the Black? The Beast of Kerawan? The monster everyone fears?”
A flare of gold lights his irises. There it is. The Beast inside him. The drei.
“Trust me,” I whisper, turning back to Kasaros.
“We’ll abide by your rules,” I tell the God, stepping closer to Kari and taking her hand. “One bride. One hunter… or in this case, huntress.”
Kasaros’s eyes burn an eerie blue through the mask. “Now, now, little huntress. Those are not the rules—”
“You said two may enter the portal. This is not merely his choice. It is mine. I claim Kari. And if not”—I unsheathe Bael’s dagger and point it at him—“then we’ll see how much a God likes the taste of pure steel.”
Somehow the light catches on the flat of the blade, highlighting the rose etched there. The handle throbs in my palm as if in warning.
“Where did you get that knife?” Kasaros hisses.
It’s not exactly the reaction I was expecting.
He lunges at me, disappearing into thin air and then reappearing right at my side as if he means to grab me.
But something changes.
The throbbing intensifies, my ears aching as if there’s some sort of noise I cannot quite hear.
The rose etched into the blade gleams an unearthly blue, and a pulse of force shoots out from it in a circular dome around me.
Power vibrates through me, reminding me of summer storms and the scream of dying stars.
Kasaros is thrown back, his expression shocked as he slams to the ground.
Malus’ tears. I have a God-killing blade in my hand.
“Tell me where you found it,” Kasaros demands.
“I stole it off a handsome rogue,” I tell him. “He was foolish enough to fall for my seductive tricks and so I took his prized possession. Why?”
Bael rolls his eyes at me. “The dagger was mine. My mother gave it to me on her deathbed and told me that one day I would meet the female I was intended for, and that this knife was meant for her. It was bound to my blood, my touch, and my mother said the knife would know no other hand bar mine—except for my future mate’s. It was how I would know her.”
I put my hands on my hips. “You knew that first night?”
“Why else do you think I followed you through this accursed maze?” Bael growls. “You were going to get yourself killed. And I couldn’t have that.”
“That dagger is consecrated to the old ways,” Kasaros hisses, eyeing it the way one would eye a venomous snake.
“You mean the Goddess? Am—”
“Do not speak her name,” Kasaros roars.
Bael’s eyes narrow suspiciously. “My mother felt the Goddess still lingered in this world, and that she would bless me with a future mate.” Light dawns in his expression.
“It’s true, is it not? Even if she left, there’s something still here.
And you can’t touch us. You can’t hurt me or mine, for this union between us is blessed. ”
Kasaros blinks to his feet, snarling. “I’ll release you from your vow, drei prince, but in doing so I claim another. All three of you may leave together.” He smiles at Kari. “But in return, I shall claim the soul of another. Enjoy your happy ever after, dearest.”
Kari gasps, stretched up on her toes.
And then Kasaros vanishes, and she staggers forward as if released from some spell.
“What did he mean?” Kari whispers. “Who is he going to claim?”
I rub her back, breathing hard as I sheathe my knife. “It doesn’t matter. When he tries to claim his soul, we’ll be waiting for him. With this knife. I am done with this bride hunt. Together we rise. But never will we yield.”
“Zyla, we need to go.” Bael pushes us toward the portal. “I don’t trust Kasaros not to change the rules.”
“You’re not coming?” I ask.
He kisses me again, hard and furious. And then he undoes the manacle around my wrist, setting me free. “Of course I am.”
He steps back and starts tugging at the buttons on his trousers in preparation of the shift, as if he can’t wait another moment to get home.
His gaze meets mine, and I see the rise of the beast.
“But you asked me to pin you down, my bride,” he says, his body already beginning to shift. “And I look forward to a merry chase on our way home.”
My breath catches, my arousal flaring.
“Come on.” I lunge through the portal, dragging Kari with me.
Home. I’ve never had a home.
And this one will be filled with laughter. I have my sister, my new friend, and a soon-to-be mate.
As the portal spits us into a stunning forest filled with old growth, I know this is my new forever.
Bael just has to come and find me.
THE END…