Page 12 of Between Sun and Moon

His hand shot out faster than a viper. Gripping my arm, he pulled me into him—against him, his body making my nightgown wet. “No, Moonbeam,welight walk.”

“What do you meanwe?”And did he just call me Moonbeam?

“I think it’s rather self-explanatory,” he said, his grasp forged from iron itself.

Self-explanatory? Sure, the concept was easy enough to understand, but that didn’t make it any easier to grasp. As it currently stood, I couldn’t shadow walk—light walk, whatever—although, perhaps, in the past I could . . .

I tucked that thought in my back pocket and focused on trying to pull my arm away from him, but no matter how hard I tried, his grip was unbreakable—his strength beyond that of anymeremortal. I blinked, looking at his hand and then at him, feeling like I was seeing, truly seeing him this time—he who wascloaked in divine glory. No wonder my body felt so compelled to be wrapped up against his . . .

Like called to like. Why hadn’t I seen it before?

“You’re a Demi God,” I blurted out.

He laughed at that. “You insult me,goddess.”

Everything in me ground to a sudden, heavy halt. Like a pebble thrown into a lake, down, down, down, I sunk.

“How do you know what I am?”

“Because you and I are one and the same.” He lowered his face, his voice dropping an octave as he spoke softly in my ear. “Just as my body yearns for yours, yours does for mine.”

I trembled at the cadence in his voice, my body going limp—dormant—just like the time that snake bit me in the woods. That same sort of paralysis had struck me again, and as much as I was screaming at myself to move, to do something—anything—I could not stop staring into those beautiful, golden eyes.

“What are you?” I asked breathlessly, even though I already held the answer.

“You know what I am,” he whispered, a breath away from my lips.

And then he kissed me.

Sage

Itook a page out of Von’s book, and I bit him—I bit himhard.

He jerked back, tearing his bottom lip from my clenched teeth, shoving me away from him with his immortal strength. I stumbled backwards, catching myself before I fell, my hand shooting out to a pillar to help stabilize myself.

My expression twisted—I could taste his blood on my tongue, but in place of copper, I tasted thesweetest, richesthoney. It trickled through me, reaching every cell, every nerve ending. Instantly, my body became hot and needy. Lit with the flame of desire.

I smothered that fucker out, cleared my throat, and spat on the ground—wishing I had a shot of bourbon to drown the prince’s taste out. I looked up at him, my chest heaving,adrenaline pounding in my ears like the beat of a thunderous drum.

He casually pressed the back of his hand against his lip, blotting it—blotting the thick, golden liquid that seeped from the gruesome tear in his otherwise perfect lip.

Ichor . . . The blood of the Gods.

No better than an overheated teapot, I sputtered, “You bleed gold.”

“All of the New Gods’ ichor is that color,” he said, his hand flicking to the side, splattering the gray stone with droplets of gold. He raised his head, the wound in his lip completely healed—the evidence of my bite gone.

My brows furrowed. “I don’t.”

“You will.” He smiled seditiously, before he started to walk towards me—still very much naked, the weapon between his legs harder than ever.

I reared back, eyeing the discarded, forgotten sword, the metal blade shimmering upon the ground—it was not far to my right.

“Don’t even think about it,” he warned with a soft growl.

Oh, but I wasn’t just thinking about it.

My feet slammed against the ground, the muscles in my legs launching me towards the sword. I wrapped my hand around the hilt at the same moment his foot fell over the blade—trapping it to the ground.

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