Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Is she already imagining me dead? Is this all for nothing? I take a step toward her, my arm reaching out. My fingertips touch her skin.
It’s burning hot.
Her eyes flash at me, going bright blue before returning to the gorgeous chocolate color.
“Tell me,” she whispers in my ear as we sit in the forest.
“You’re pretty,” I say quickly, holding her in my lap.
She rolls her eyes. “Not that. I didn’t even finish!”
“So finish faster.” I laugh. “Tell me what you need. What you want.”
“You’re not in your right time, Horus,” she says sadly. “And yet you still visit me, despite knowing the eye of Ra watches, he always watches.”
I look away from her and up to the sky. “He has bigger problems, and it’s easy to skip through time and memories to find you. I’ll always find you, ever since that first time. Wasn’t that my promise when you gave it to me?”
She cuddles against my chest. “The only thing that allows you to travel through, the only thing that gives me hope.”
“The most important thing in your existence, more than your soul. Your life, your meaning.” I nod. “And now…” I part my lips as glowing red flicks of fire ignite on my tongue. “I give it back, just like I return it to you. I’ll return. Ra said it was my destiny to be with you. Give me a day, and I’ll come back and bring you with me. We can get married at the temple of Horus.”
“Wow, thinking highly of yourself?”
“They worship me.” I laugh. “And they’ll worship you the same way, bring you dresses and food and gifts. It’s everything you deserve. Nothing can go wrong at this point. My brother’s been grumpy lately, and we’re just about to join our family with the Greek Gods. An alliance like this has never happened in history. We’ll be all-powerful, which means I can do whatever I want. And what I want… I lean down and press a kiss to her mouth. “…is this sly fox.”
“Dumb bunny.”
“Wrong timeline.” I laugh. “But still cute.”
She scrunches up her nose. “You promise you’ll come back for me?”
“I could never forget you,” I whisper, pressing another kiss to the corner of her mouth. “You’re my Kitsune. I’ll catch you any day; I do like hunting.”
“That is how you found me.”
“You should never have come near me or tried to save me and my wounds.”
“You should never have come out of your space. I had no choice.”
I smile. “You’re mine, you know that, right? My destiny?”
I don’t look like my godlike self. I look more human, with tattoos of my heritage down the side of my arm, my hair’s darker, not light, I’m existing as something other than myself, which is fine because I have to wait for her, and if I was full god, my father would see, and while I’m not afraid of my grandfather, Ra, my father has plans for rulings that alarm me, especially now that he’s going to marry Kyra, the Greek goddess.
We have to align the immortal gods now that the worship has lessened, and I don’t know why it makes me feel leery, but it does. In theory, it makes sense, but when has my father ever respected the Greek deities?
I shake the thought off and turn back toward Kit. “Together forever,” I kiss her right temple. “Now, go hibernate. I’ll be back before you know it.”
She nods. “I’ll dream of you.”
“Please do.” A grin breaks across my face, and my heart fills with even more emotion. “And when you’re afraid of the darkness… look to the sky. I’ll always be there.”
“Good.” She nods. “That’s good.”
I leave her.
“Watch where you’re going!” a customer shouts as I collapse against the table and onto the beer-spilled floor.
Kit drops to her knees and starts rubbing her wet rag over my arms. “Are you okay?”
No. I’m not.
I was hers. She was mine.
And yet here we sit—in a bar.
I’m covered in sticky beer and who knows what else, and she has no idea the past we’ve had, and I have no idea how to fix it.
Well, I do. And despite my stated intentions, I have to admit I’ve been wary about actually following through with it, but now I know.
My future was broken, and so was hers.
In order to fix the future, remember the past.
I’ll go.
I’ll dive down deep into the darkness, allowing it to swallow my sky whole in hopes that, in the end, she feels the warmth of the sun again and that the moon yet again rises to guard us.
I’ll go to the Abyss.
Even if it means my death.
She’s dead on her feet. I can tell she’s tired, exhausted really. It’s not a full moon, but her face lacks color. And still, she pushes on.
I growl and stomp back over to the bar. Tarek’s whistling to himself, then he starts singing to himself.