Page 28 of Wings of Snow

I wouldlive.

The hot sensation increased, but I tried to buck it off while bearing down on my concentration as fear zinged through me, and that sense of detachment and non-existence grew.Oh gods.

A grunt came from the darkness, then a deep voice called, “Stop fighting me.”

I stilled even though it felt as though flames encircled my form.

A chuckle pierced the blackness. “That’s better.”

I hung, suspended in emptiness as everything I’d once known fell away until nothing but my mind and power remained. If I could have breathed, shallow pants would have lifted my chest.

But I couldn’t.

Because I was nothing and everything. I was born yet deceased. Present yet in the past. A fairy yet an unknown creature.

Mother Below, what’s happening?

“You’re an interesting one, aren’t you?”

A bolt of power slammed into me, and I screamed from the force of it.

“Yes, very interesting indeed,” the male said again. “Yet, someone has tried to stop you. They’ve attempted to coat this lovely strength within you until it’s nothing.”

Someone caressed my arm, the first true sensation that I felt. I latched onto it, even though it screamedother.

“You like that, do you?” That stroke came again, and a shiver of want and need—a craving that commanded me to my toes nearly made me come undone.

Mother Below, that feltincredible.

The male chuckled again. “This...foreign power inside you is quite complex, not something I fully recognize.” Another caress came along the netting containing my affinities, and if I could have rolled my eyes back in my head in rapture, I would have. I wanted that stroking power to keep touching me again and again.

The male chuckled once more. “You fae do love our touch.”

Another caress came along the netting encapsulating my affinities, then a growl. “This isnotof our universe. This should not be within you.” A rumble of power, of angry might, vibrated through me. “What fairy would attempt such a sacrilegious act as to douse the gift I bestowed upon you?”

All I could do was exist before him as I waited,desperatelywaited, for him to touch me again.

“Hmm,” the male sighed as he pried along the netting’s edges. “You fae always do try to override the force I command, but I am a god. You cannot overpowerme.”

That statement hit me like a crashing wave.Blessed Mother. I’m with God Zorifel. He answered Genoova’s call. He actually came.

No wonder I craved the feel of him. It was said that if one encountered a god or goddess, their power was so addictive that you would do anything to feel it and be touched by them.

I tried to bow, to show submission to this supreme being, but the void I was in had no ground. No walls. No substance. There was nothing for me to lean on or grasp or hold onto.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “I bow to you, God Zorifel.”

He didn’t reply, but I could have sworn that an answer came through the darkness, like a smug purr.

“Where am I?” I dared ask as nothing but a sense of his overwhelmingothernesssurrounded me.

“Your fairy body is still in your realm, but your soul has joined me in the galaxies.”

“Truly?” I didn’t question him further, even though I stillfeltas if I had a body, but considering I couldn’t see or hear anything other than his voice, perhaps it was my soul’s way of connecting to what it knew versus a physical body that actually existed in his realm. And instead of speaking, I was actually projecting my questions.

God Zorifel chuckled again, a masterful sound that made me vibrate with longing. “Your power is truly delicious. Why would someone want to suppress that? Fools.” He made a sound like atsk. “You should rule with a power this bold.”

Something brushed against my soul again, like a giant hand, and that blissful shiver came over me anew. Everything in me wanted to absorb the god’s strength. Each time he’d touched me even in the slightest, his absolute might had called to me, begging me to submit, andBlessed Mother, I would give anything to feel that again.

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