30. Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
Nyrah
Nyrah tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
She’d used up nearly all of her Stamina while swimming and fishing earlier that day, especially when she caught that special fish for Cody.
She felt exhausted, but she couldn’t get comfortable.
She missed Yana’s sleepy-time cuddles, but she was also happy Yana had gone out with Cody.
She wanted Yana to spend more time with their future husband.
But it left the cottage feeling quiet and empty.
She didn’t like the feeling of being all alone.
She grew up in an orphanage surrounded by other children and then went straight to the Rose Temple to train as a priestess, always sharing a dormitory with several other women.
The bed smelled of Yana, and that was comforting, but she could think of something else that’d be even more comforting: being in Cody’s bed. He forbade her from going into his bedroom, however…he’d be out with Yana for at least an hour or more, right?
Every heartbeat thudded in her chest, paired with that light and tingly, needy feeling between her legs. She ached to be closer to Cody. To be with him. To feel his skin against hers. To have his scent wash over her.
Nyrah slipped out of bed and silently crept out into the hall, stopping before his door.
She slowly ran her finger down the wood paneling, her heart beating even harder.
The door wasn’t clicked shut all the way, so it only took a little extra nudge from her fingertip to make it swing open.
Then she was looking at Cody’s bed. The blue plaid comforter was rumpled, as if made in a hurry.
She stepped closer, already smelling the strong scent of him in the room.
But she could also smell her. Morgan Callahan.
That other woman was all over this room, in the air, and in the bedsheets.
Nyrah wrinkled her nose as she climbed into Cody’s bed, doing her best to ignore Morgan’s stench.
She didn’t understand what he saw in her.
Cody was hers, her Heartmate. He shouldn’t be interested in anyone but her.
And Yana. She wanted him to love Yana, too.
Together they could protect him from being taken away by… by whores, like Morgan Callahan.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she pressed her face into Cody’s pillow and breathed deeply, luxuriating in his scent and picturing him there, with her. Next to her. Looking into her eyes. Touching her. Telling her how much he loved her and that he would never ever leave her.
She must have fallen asleep, but she wasn’t sure for how long. It could have been a minute, or an hour, she couldn’t tell. But she woke when someone stroked her face, pushing a stray piece of hair from her eyes.
“Cody…?” she murmured, but when she opened her eyes it was that goddess-witch lady, Temica, and her stupid shoulder chicken. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, stroking Nyrah’s face.
“No, not Cody,” Temica whispered. “But he should be yours, shouldn’t he?”
“Yes.” Nyrah didn’t even care that it was Temica, the bitch who made her work in retail, because she was speaking the words Nyrah wanted to hear.
“You’re a Heartseer and he has a Golden Heart: it’s meant to be.”
But it was more than that. Nyrah may have given up her life as a priestess and followed Cody to Earth because she saw he had a Heart of Gold, but her love for him only grew the more she got to know him.
Watching him, spending time with him; all of it confirmed he was her perfect match.
He wasn’t just a handsome man with a Golden Heart.
He was kind, and sweet, and funny. And he was letting her and Yana stay in his home, even though he really didn’t have to.
It was simply who he was. And she wanted him to be hers.
“You know what you have to do,” Temica said. “You need to get rid of the woman who stands in the way of all your happiness.”
Nyrah swallowed nervously and shook her head against the pillow. “No. No, I can’t. Cody forbade it.”
“He will never be yours, as long as she is around. As long as she is…alive.”
“But Cody–”
“Is your Heartmate,” Temica finished, her voice quiet but intense. “He is meant to be yours. Your husband and lover and father of your children. He is the only man you will ever have any of that with. Do you want that life? Or do you want to go back to your life as a priestess?”
Nyrah sniffled as tears ran down her cheeks. “I want Cody Hampshire.”
“But he’s been claimed by Morgan Callahan, leaving you on your own. You don’t want to be alone. Forever. Do you?”
“I don’t want that,” Nyrah agreed. “I don’t want to be alone.”
“But you will be. Yana isn’t like you. She’s not a Heartseer. She isn’t limited to finding love with someone with a Golden Heart. She is a beautiful, intelligent young woman. She will find a man to love her. She will leave you. She will forget about you.”
A sob escaped Nyrah. “She wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t. Yana would n-never leave me. I love her. She loves m-me. P-platonically.”
“She wouldn’t leave you if you made Cody yours and he made love to both of you, married both of you. But otherwise…”
“B-but…”
“When I first found you in that tavern you were wild. Feral. Ready to slit that barmaid’s throat if you found out she had shared a bed with your Heartmate. What happened to that girl? The one who was ready to fight tooth and nail for what was rightfully hers?”
Nyrah didn’t answer. She had let Yana talk her out of hurting Morgan, and Cody did the same.
They said it was wrong. But what could be more wrong than denying someone their one true love?
The only man who could ever truly love her would never, ever love her unless she did something about it.
She pushed herself up to sit and Temica smiled at her.
“There she is. Now go make this right. Get rid of Morgan Callahan and make Cody yours.”
The front door opened, the creaking hinges making Nyrah jump. She looked over her shoulder to the hallway, turning away from Temica. Were they back from their walk already? How long had she been sleeping?
“Go.” Temica gently pushed her. Nyrah got to her feet and walked to the bedroom door. When she turned back around, Temica and Henry were already dissipating into a cloud of pink sparkles.
“Cody?” called a voice: Morgan Callahan. “Cody, are you here?”
A tremor ran through Nyrah’s body. This was it. Temica was right. She needed to take care of the Morgan Callahan problem, or Cody would never be hers. She reached up to her pink gemstone necklace and tore it off.
Morgan
The cottage was dark and silent, but Morgan had seen Cody’s car parked in the drive.
Not that that necessarily meant he was home, since he had barely been using it lately.
The front door was unlocked, but that also wasn’t that unusual in Cornerstone.
Few people locked their doors in this quaint and quiet town.
Doug had texted her, letting her know Gracie was doing okay and that she could have the night off, after all. She came over to Cody’s straight from work, hoping to surprise him with the good news.
Morgan let herself in, stepping into the dark kitchen. She shivered as a tingle ran down her spine, and she had the overwhelming feeling that she was being watched. She flicked on the kitchen light, illuminating the space—and Nyrah.
The brunette girl was there, silently standing, watching.
She was wearing a white tank top and little sleep shorts, but…
she wasn’t quite right. Morgan’s breath quickened as she looked the girl over.
It was unsettling enough that she had just been standing there in the dark, waiting, but she seemed to be wearing red iridescent fairy wings.
And had fluffy brown cat ears on her head.
And a furry striped tail that was swishing back and forth behind her legs.
Morgan’s first thought was that it was all an elaborate costume…
but why? And as one second slowly stretched into the next, she began to wonder if the wings, the tail, the ears…
could they be real? They looked so real.
And then Morgan noticed the claws. Black, hooked claws were slowly elongating from each of Nyrah’s fingers and their tips looked razor sharp. And the fangs. Pointy, white teeth, poking out of the girl’s mouth. And the crimson eyes.
“Nyrah…why are you–”
Before Morgan could finish her sentence, Nyrah let out a feral scream and pounced toward Morgan, throwing herself across the kitchen.
Morgan jumped out of her reach in the nick time, tumbling to the ground.
She hurriedly crawled under the kitchen table, positioning herself on the opposite side.
Not that it mattered. With a flutter of her wings and a burst of red light, Nyrah flew across the table, claws reaching for Morgan’s neck.
Morgan screamed and ducked, rolling back under the table and scrambling out on the other side.
She grabbed one of the wooden chairs. Nyrah moved to lunge across the table again, but Morgan threw the chair at the petite girl with every ounce of strength she had.
The chair smacked into Nyrah’s side, knocking her down.
Nyrah might have wings and fangs and claws, but Morgan was at least a few inches taller and had years of experience working in a grocery store, stocking shelves with heavy items. She wasn’t exactly a weakling, even if this was the first throwdown she’d ever found herself in.
“What are you doing?” Morgan shouted, as Nyrah shoved the chair away and leapt back to her feet. “What the fuck is wrong with you? What are you?”
“I am Cody Hampshire’s Heartmate!” Nyrah shouted. “He is mine! He should be mine! Forever!”
Morgan certainly didn’t like the sound of that. She didn’t like any part of what had been happening lately, with Cody letting two girls stay at his place. But she trusted Cody. He was hers. She made that clear the night he fucked her for the entire house to hear. For Nyrah to hear.