Page 129 of Courting War
As she worked, his skin darkened back to its tawny olive color and warmed, and with one last knot of the strings she was done.
Silence and frozen time mingled together. It felt like Theo was in a stadium filled with 20,000 people who collectively took a breath and held it.
The tension was palpable.
Theo’s heart pounded in her ears like a symphony. Every muscle in her body, every bone and every tissue hardened and went rigid.
What if it didn’t work?
Chapter Forty-Five
KELLYN
God of Peace
BALLROOM, CITY OF THE GODS
Kellyn sucked in a deep breath and jerked up far too quickly, disoriented.
A crack sounded as his forehead met something hard yet soft.
“Ouch,” Theo’s beautiful soprano whispered, happy tears streaming down her face. She clutched his cheeks and placed a kiss on the offending rock-solid forehead.
Kellyn blinked up at her. “You’re bleeding.”
“It doesn’t matter.” She smiled brightly as a summer’s day. “You’re alive.”
“And you’re a god.” His finger swiped away the silver blood.
Her smile faltered. “Yes.” She gulped. “I hope that’s okay.” But before he could respond, she lightly punched him in the arm. “You’re a fool. Why did you have to say you loved me?”
“They were torturing you.”
“Let me be tortured then.”
“I could never.” His tone was severe and laced with an unbreakable love. “Never.”
She punched him again, silver tears racing down her face. “Ifthere is ever a choice between my torture or losing your life again, you will let me suffer. If the choice is to kill me, you will do it. You understand?”
“I—”
“If you don’t kill me, I will raise you from the dead and kill you myself.”
There was nothing he could say to that. He wanted to be a good partner. He wanted to love and respect her, but how could he betray her? Or kill her? Or watch her be tortured.
He couldn’t.
It wasn’t an option.
So instead of answering, he used her favorite tactic and kissed her to change the subject.
The kiss was soft as floating feathers and bunny fur. It was sweet and filled with a thousand promises of more to come.
“That’s cheating.” She sucked in a heated breath, her fingers stroking his hair, and because she couldn’t bear to remain silent any longer, she said, “I love you, Kellyn Ellis.”
“I love you, too, Theodra, Goddess of War.”
Her mouth met his again, and they reveled in each other—in their love and their happiness.
