More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
October 24 - October 30, 2025
“I don’t care if you loathe me, but disrespecting someone who would die for you is lower than low, even for you.”
“You throw his father in his face again or hurt him again, and I won’t need my powers to rip your tongue from your skull.”
“Longing looks between lovers,”
I reacted so quickly earlier, and I know if anyone ever hurt him, family or not, I would rip them to pieces and sleep like a baby afterward.
“No, that makes you a protector.”
“hurting you all would hurt him, and I don’t want to hurt him.”
Samkiel, as always, looked for me.
I would have ripped Vincent’s tongue from his head for how he spoke to Samkiel and not thought twice about it. Samkiel is kind, sweet, and very caring. He is good and doesn’t deserve to be treated like that. Not by me, not by family, not by anyone.”
“I know you kept those pictures from the festival, and I burned them. So I asked Neverra to go back to the festival booth and get another copy. They keep them on file for years. She got another copy and had them pressed into this pendant.”
“There, now it shall never come off.”
“Well, unless I am decapitated, I suppose.” I smacked him on the chest. “Samkiel! Oh my gods, why would you say that?”
“It’s perfect,”
“I’m sorry I left,” I said. His thumb stilled against my cheek. “I promise to stay if things get bad. I won’t leave you ever again.”
“Pinky promise? A dark-haired beauty told me long ago that it is practically the law in her world.” I grinned and grasped his finger with mine. “Pinky promise.”
“And he chooses me,” he snapped. “He has, and you know you have had years and years to tell me, to speak up, or to say something. You didn’t.”
“You knew I was waiting for you. I waited for you to even notice me like that, and when you didn’t make a move, I respected your decision and what you could give me. I accepted you didn’t want me. Now I’m with someone who wants to be with me. He isn’t afraid to tell me he loves me or that he wants a future with me. He fights for me.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He dropped his gaze from mine. “It’s too late. I am happy, and I am going to marry him. You had every opportunity over the centuries we’ve known each other, and I will not break someone’s heart because you finally decided to speak up. It’s not fair.”
“You’re so beautiful.” Heat danced across my skin in anticipation as he placed a kiss to the middle of my spine. “And all mine.”
“You’re so beautiful, Dianna.”
“I need you,” I whispered, looking at him over my shoulder. And I did. I always did. It was a truth I denied for far too long.
“Take me,” he demanded, his control slipping. “I am only ever yours to have.”
“Take all of me,”
“Good fucking girl.”
This was what I needed, what I wanted. To be completely owned by Samkiel, belonging to no other.
“Choke me,”
“I am the only one that gets to touch you. Fuck you. Say it.” “Yes, you,” I cried. “Only you.”
“Beg me for it.” “Please,”
His mouth, that fucking mouth.
“Please make me come, baby. Samkiel, please.”
my body feeling as if it would fly apart. That was okay. I knew he would put me back together.
I’d never felt so needed, so cared for, so protected.
“Promise you’ll come back to me.”
“As if you could ever be rid of me.”
“There is no force in this world or the next strong enough to keep me from you. Do you understand?”
“But if you don’t come back, I’ll have to destroy the world or do something drastic, and who is going to clean up that mess?”
“She is beautiful. Is she yours?”
“Yes, I am afraid. She left so easily before. Even if I say the words, what’s stopping her from leaving me again? Or what if she does not feel the same? So yes, I am afraid. I fear not monsters or realms or anything really, but that, her rejection, she terrifies me.”
“I just didn’t see. I thought he meant her. This is how the world ends. But it wasn’t her. It was never her.” The Higher One looked at me curiously. “Who? Your amata?” My heart stopped. “My what?”
“You truly didn’t know? It explains why you two have been so ravenous in your lovemaking and probably fighting. It’s that mark trying to form and seal itself, bind your souls by any means necessary. Why do you think her fire doesn’t burn you? Your lightning, your power, are they not the same? Thunder is only heat expanded. Nature always makes you in pairs, sometimes more. I mean, you are the creation to her ruination. It’s synchronicity.”
The words shattered my very soul. I had one. It was Dianna. It was always Dianna. Every thought, every feeling I had for her since the day I met her, why she touched every part of me, why I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Everything fell into place as if I had found a key to a puzzle, and everything finally made sense. It was deeper than love in mortal terms. Dianna was part of my soul.
My last thought was of him. It was always him.
Yours truly, Samkiel
“What Samkiel and I have is different. It’s messy and painful at times, but it’s real. He would never hurt me, no matter what I said or did. He would never hurt the people I love or use them against me. Samkiel’s kind, he’s good, and he cares. He cares about me and accepts every part of me—the good, the bad, and the ugly. He has seen it all and stayed. You broke me completely, Kaden. Every chance you got, you broke me. Samkiel healed me.” I didn’t cower beneath his angry stare. “That’s. Love.”
She was okay. She had to be because I could not live if she was not.
Regardless of how you feel, I love you for it, every single part, and so does he.”
Samkiel looked at me as I spoke with so much admiration my heart clenched all over again.
“That I love him.”
“Because something else happened, too. I knew I would do anything to make sure he never looked like that again. I never again wanted to see that kind of fear in his eyes. Never alone.”
And for a second, I thought I could have Samkiel.
you had every right to be with Samkiel. To be happy. That is all I have ever wanted for you.”
