Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 128(@200wpm)___ 102(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 128(@200wpm)___ 102(@250wpm)___ 85(@300wpm)
I know we're all supposed to keep our friends close and our enemies closer, but what if Eros has been doing just that...unintentionally?
"If you have something on your mind, little sister, speak of it."
I wish I can just tell them about the figure I believed I saw, but what if I'm wrong?
"Can I ask you something?" I blurt out. "Do you know anything about...Isabella?"
Anteros' gaze narrows. "Are you speaking of the half-nymph?"
"Yes."
I see him exchanging looks with his brothers, and now I'm not just uneasy. Something is clearly up, and even though I hate myself for being so insecure, I still hear myself ask, "Does she...does she know about Eros and the professor—-"
Erma is already shaking his head before I'm done speaking, and while I don't think he's lying...wouldn't it be possible as well that Eros might've withheld the truth from his brothers?
"Only a handful of people are aware of Eros' human guise," Himeros says gently, "and I can assure you, little sister, Isabella is the last person in this world that our brother would share his secret with."
Chapter Seven
All is silent when I return to Eros' chamber. Its stone walls feel slightly suffocating, and save for the huge bed on which my god rests, there are no other furniture to make the room feel less like a prison. It makes me miss his bedchamber back in the cabin, and a painful little ache squeezes my heart. I used to think of that place as ours. But so many things have changed since then, and although it's clear to me now that I can only love my god—-
What about me, kyrios? Am I also the only one you love?
My gaze drifts back to Eros, and my throat tightens with emotion. Although his fur is still stained with blood, I can see that all of his wounds have completely healed. There isn't a single scar left, and it's as if no battle has ever taken place.
But even so.
Tears sting my eyes because all I can suddenly see is a mindlessly vicious creature ripping a portion of flesh from his chest.
I don't want to cry, but the tears are already falling, and just as I struggle to keep more sobs from crawling out of my throat, Eros starts to stir—-
Kyrios?
He's already out of the bed before I can draw my next breath, and all I can do is cry and stare at what I can only assume is his true form: it's the cruelly beautiful face of the professor, but it also feels like I'm looking at a stranger at the same time.
His silky locks are unruly as ever, but instead of the jet-black shade that I'm used to seeing, his hair right now is white as snow...which, of course, is the exact same shade as his bestial fur.
The sight of him takes my breath away even as it crushes my heart into pieces, and I find myself remembering how my fingers used to itch because I was dying to brush them away. I never imagined I'd be able to do it...and especially not when I fell in love with my god.
But I was wrong, obviously.
My fingers have run through those very locks for so many times now. The only difference is that I used to think I was touching my god, when all along he was playing me for a fool—-
It was never like that, moraki mou.
But the words only make my heart ache more painfully. I used to think that having him hear my thoughts was special. But now it just makes me feel like I'm an idiot as well. There was a time when I'd have shamefully indecent thoughts about the professor, but I never worried about it because he was only mortal like me.
And when I remember such times now—-
Did those thoughts make him laugh at me? Did those thoughts make me seem pathetic—-
"Never."
The walls shudder at the divine strength of his denial.
"You are the most precious thing to me, moraki mou, and I want to spend the rest of my life proving this if you would only let me."
Eyes of gold and blue capture mine, and seeing it is like having the last piece of a puzzle fall into place.
The picture that depicts my god is finally complete, and this—-
This, I think dizzily, is the true face of my god, and I find myself suddenly recalling words from not so long ago.
I have the kind of face that makes girls cry.
That was exactly what he said, and it's true.
"I love you, Halyna."
Endless tears stream down my cheeks.
He loves me, my god says.
And when I think about how this same god nearly killed himself saving me—-
"Damn you." My fist pounds his chest with each word. "I thought you were going to die, damn you." I hit him with as much force as my puny human strength would allow me to, but my god doesn't even flinch. "You were supposed to be i-inv-vincible—-"