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)
“Eat first.” I interrupt, staring down at his joined hands with Kit. “You’ll probably need both of those for that.”
Kit frowns at her left hand, then jerks it back and folds her hands in her lap like she wasn’t even aware she was touching him.
Bannik looks down at his left hand and squeezes it shut before opening it again. Pressed against his palm is a small piece of orange fur; it glows against his fingertips and then disappears altogether into his skin.
Alex clears his throat. “I didn’t have the devil himself sitting at dinner with a fox on one side and a Dark One on the other on my apocalypse bingo card; just saying.”
“That’s because you’re stupid,” Mason says helpfully.
Timber laughs. “We really try to have a positive morale around here.”
“Cassius made us do a family-wide training once.” Alex snorts. “Worst hour of my life, and I used to kill fairies.” He flinches and turns to his wife. “Too soon, sorry, I’ll just go get the spoon; you can spank me later.”
“I think I just threw up,” Ethan growls. “Keep your activities away from the dining room table.”
“Should throw her on the dining room table and feast—”
Hope groans into her hands while Genesis makes a face and starts drinking her wine.
“Eat,” Cassius says like it’s the last meal any of us might have. “And then, fallen one, we will talk.”
“Try not to fall asleep. It pisses him off,” Alex says helpfully.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
歳月人を待たず
Saigetsu hito o matazu
“Time and tide wait for no man.”
Time flows without regard for humans’ convenience.
~Japanese proverb
Kit
I’ve been sitting around the dinner table, trying to be normal. Trying to shove the past memories away while Horus just sits next to me as if my entire world hasn’t just been revealed to me in the span of hours.
I taste him on my lips.
And then I really taste him.
I see him.
I feel him everywhere.
I also used to follow him everywhere. He would tell me stories of the stars, and I would tell him stories of the night. Why the night, of all things? The parts I feel like I’m supposed to remember get fuzzy whenever I think of the darkness, of being afraid of the moon and sleep.
Speaking of sleep, does that mean I’ll actually be able to without having the same nightmares over and over again? Or will I succumb to the darkness?
What happens next? How does this end when all I keep seeing are images of us laced together with the bitterness of betrayal and loneliness?
Cassius takes a sip of tea. I guess that’s up to you, Kitsune. He doesn’t say it out loud, just stares into his tea like I’m the only one who can hear his thoughts.
My head aches, temples throb, so I try to focus on my inhales and exhales.
“Silly fox,” Horus whispers from across the glade. “To think you can control the very air you breathe when all I have to do is exhale into the sky for you to fall.”
“Exhale. Do it.” I laugh. “And then hunt me. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Hunting you or capturing you?” This arrogant god teases.
I shake my tails and run through the forests. I want this god to catch me. I know that he’s not meant for me; we’re from two very different worlds. He belongs in the past and has no place in my future.
The interesting thing about a certain destiny—you still fight it.
I know the ending before the beginning. He will never be mine, but maybe for just a short few weeks while he’s stuck here, we can be something.
“How long?” I call back in a teasing tone. “How long are you stuck in my realm, god of the skies?”
His strides are long as he follows me through the trees. “A god is never truly stuck; it’s more or less I got lost on the way to my destination.”
“Poor baby.”
“No.” He releases a long sigh. “I’m feeling quite lucky, actually.”
I stumble over a root and go headfirst into the water. I hate the water. It hurts my sensitive ears and makes me panic.
Strong arms grab me from behind and pull me out of the water and against the riverbank. “That desperate to escape me?”
I wiggle in his arms; the urge to shake my fur despite being back in human form is strong. I realize too late that since I’m back in my human form, I’m completely naked and wet against him.
A god shouldn’t be touching me this intimately.
I shouldn’t be liking it as much as I am, either. His fingertips dance along my arm, then touch my shoulder and swirl in circles. “The fur’s pretty, but the skin is pretty too. You’re soft everywhere, aren’t you, fox?”
I sigh against him. Just a few more minutes, and then I’ll pull away, just a few more moments of touching, and I’ll pretend I hated it.