Page 93 of Touch

Love’s shock wears off. She waits until he faces her, then she nods. “Not every moment. Some happened by accident.”

“Meaning, yes.” On a grunt, Andrew sits up. The motion destroys the tent as he hunches forward and scrubs his face in vexation. “You weren’t going to tell me.”

“I had no choice.” Love rises and whispers against his shoulder blade. “I did not expect to grow fond of you, much less to care. It’s not in a deity’s nature.”

“I would say that’s the most ironic thing I’ve ever heard coming from the Goddess of Love. But then, life is twisted that way. Enough important shit rarely makes sense. Otherwise, gods and humans alike would have figured out by now why the fuck we all keep making the same mistakes.”

“Andrew, please understand. I was protecting you.”

“Jesus,” Andrew curses. “You need to stop doing that.”

“There are consequences if I fail to match my targets,” Love pleads. “For myself as well as my targets—”

Turning in the sheets, he clasps her face. “What consequences? What will happen if you don’t match me?”

“You’ll die.”

“I mean, toyou. What will happen to you?” Andrew bares his teeth. “If they touch a single inch—”

“It won’t be so bad,” she hopes, telling him how she’s the first of her kind, too valuable to execute, but not too valuable to torture. “I’ll be punished. I’m not certain how, but The Fate Court is inventive.”

“Technically, so am I. And I’ll destroy them if they come near you.”

Love nuzzles into his grip. “That is not the merciful human I know.”

“This human doesn’t give a fuck who he was before meeting you. I only care about one thing now. I’d sacrifice my soul, freeze this world solid, and commit about six dozen acts of carnage to keep you safe. So apparently, you’ve made me selfish.”

He hisses against her mouth, “I’d rather exist in the darkness with you, than live in the light without you.”

Not a shred of hesitation. Love’s had a bad influence on him. Prior to this mortal, no being has ever devoted themself openly to Love, nor inspired her to do the same for them.

But if Love knows one thing for certain, it is a pure and simple truth. She does not deserve him.

Holly does. The woman would have charmed Andrew, if she hadn’t already bonded with another man. Despite the brute’s faults and vulnerabilities, Griffin has managed to claim her heart. Love has never comprehended this tendency in mortals. Until now, she has never thought to try.

From The Dark Fates to this realm, no soul is perfect. Least of all, Love. After all she has done to manipulate this world, to weave an unnatural tapestry, the guilt is stifling, years of deception suffocating her. For her crimes against humanity, she should be buried alive under this weight.

As if aware of these thoughts, Andrew grips her face harder. “What you’ve done doesn’t make you evil. And your remorse doesn’t make you weak. It only means you have a conscience—a tender heart hidden inside a fierce soul. If no one has ever told you this, then allow me: You are a good person.”

A dry sob squeezes between her lips. “When you say such things, I cannot think how to respond.”

“Listen to me. If you promise that every second we’ve spent together wasn’t bullshit, that you weren’t playing me, and this wasn’t some cheap immortal farewell fuck, I’ll believe it.”

“That’s not how it was. You make pretending impossible.”

Andrew drops his forehead against hers. “There has to be a way out of this.”

Love seals her eyes shut. “There is not.”

She breaks down and wades through the tale, omitting her time limit and Wonder’s claim about how deities become mortals. Yet another lie, which tastes bitter on her tongue. Still, what good would it do to entertain the impossible? Andrew cares for Love, but not to the degree he believes. He’s infatuated, swept away by passion, and cannot possibly love her after all she’s done.

Not authentically. Not enough to reorder fate itself.

In any case, Love is incapable of that same emotion. It is reserved for humans, not immortals. No matter how she longs for this man, her essence as a deity prevents her.

Andrew blanches to learn he’s responsible for the lives of an entire domain of gods and goddesses. Yet he is relentless as ever. “We can research—investigate celestial history and huntfor loopholes. Do your people have records? What have you tried?”

“The Stars are almighty,” Love asserts. “They are never wrong about what is or what shall be.”

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