Page 22 of Fire Kissed
“We have to go,”Torben says the moment I step out of the strange house that’s built right into the ground like a bomb shelter. The door slams shut against the muddy earth, and I turn in time to Aric squatting down to use an old skeleton key to lock up his home sweet home.
But I haven’t seen him yet.
I haven’t seen for myself that Latham’s okay.
My lashes flutter, and I can still feel the strange sensual fluttering of his words whispering in my mind.
“Latham,” I say on a soft tone, just loud enough to cause the two men around me to pause what they’re doing. It doesn’t matter though. Because I’m not speaking to them. “Latham?” I call out quietly once more.
Go. Get back to safety, Love.
My eyes flash open then at the sound of his tormentedly soft tone, and I stare up at the warrior god.
“Take me to him,” I command.
“You’re—” His hand shoves down his beard hard as he turns away before turning right back to me with all that pent-up anger he always has. “You’re fucking failing, Princess. You think Hela doesn’t know what goes on in her realms? She does. And if she hasn’t come to kill us yet, it’s only because she’s enjoying this game.”
A game. It’s always a cruel, cruel game for her, isn’t it?
My life isn’t a fucking game.
And neither are theirs.
“Take me to him!”
“He’s in Neverend,” Aric says vacantly. Cryptically.
Torben shakes his head hard.
I know he’s just waiting to roar about all the things we shouldn’t be doing and how we need to get back and la-de-da-da.
“Let’s go,” the annoyed god barks with a dramatic wave of his hands as if he’s lost all grip on his life and everyone in it.
A big smile pulls across my face as I watch him storm off toward whateverNeverendis.
“You’ve trained him nicely, Love,” Aric whispers, bumping his elbow into mine as we follow after the man now muttering to himself about being told what to do by a woman half his size.
And now I’m smiling even harder.
* * *
The night feelscold as we stride out of the eerie city and out into the empty nothingness of this land.
“Do you think you have this effect on all three of us because you’re a love goddess?” Aric asks flippantly.
“She doesn’t have an effect on me,” Torben grunts just as Aric rolls his pretty russet eyes at his friend.
“Right. Whatever you say. I’m sure your cock gets hard for adventures into the slums of Hell all the time. Bet you’re out here in my domain vacationing whenever you get the chance.”
“Shut up, Dragon.” Torben doesn’t even look back at the two of us as we tread behind him.
“Hasn’t even come for a visit since the world went crazy with too much peace and love back in the sixties and he thought it was all going to come to an end.” Aric shakes his head happily as he reminisces but eventually turns back to me. “Do you though? Think that we’re just under a love spell of some kind?”
My mouth opens and closes at that...
“Are you... are you in love with me?” I look up at his sharp features, the shadows painting across his face with an even wilder, dark allure.
His shoulders lift lightly.
