Eldritch (The Eating Woods, #2)

by Keri Lake

“Clearly, you have no idea how irresistible you are if you imagine I can lie next to you even one night without the longing to touch you.” He rolled onto his back and tucked his bent arm beneath his head again. “How can I convince you that the only thing that could possibly force me away from you is death? And even then, I’d find a way to get back to you.”

“It isn’t staying to protect you that’s going to kill me. It’s staying away from you.”

She was his mate. His destiny. The more time he spent with her, the stronger the pull in his blood, like gravity shifting the tides. An unbreakable thread tied to his chest. And the fiercer his need to protect her.

“To be fair, your chivalry, however dark and morbid and brimming with lunacy it may have been, warmed my heart. No one has ever offered to destroy the world for me.” “I’m nothing if not fiendishly and soullessly chivalrous.”

“Yours is not derived from the sun or moon. It lives in the heart of Aethyria. It is the molten blackness that pumps through the veins of our world. Few gods take physical form, but this one lives within you.” Zevander puzzled his words. “Who?” “Deimos. The god of sablefyre and destruction.”

“I

will

never be worthy of your light, the purity of your heart, but I’m too selfish to spare you from this darkness I carry. Godsblood, I would follow you to the ...

“You’re a fate I never dared to dream, moon witch. The stars I was never meant to grasp.

But seeing how this gluttonous world devours the unclaimed, I’m calling you mine.”

“My concern is that I won’t be able to stay away from you now, moon witch. I crave every part of you—body, mind and breath. You consume me, and gods help you, there is no escape. You’re in my blood.” He cradled my cheek, brows pulled tight. “Mercy be damned, I’ll tear the world asunder to feed this relentless ache carved by your hands.”

“I love you, Zevander. What you’ve done, what you’ve suffered. It doesn’t change how I feel. None of this changes how I feel about you. That’s the beauty of unconditional love. It requires nothing in return.” I reached out to bridge the space between us and ground him, but he backed away, like a single touch would turn him to stone.

“You are my first and only love.”

loved you before I even knew your name.”

“I love you. I fucking love you.” Again, his lips crashed into mine,

would call you the soft glow of moonlight in a pitch-black world. A prayer I never spoke aloud, but somehow the gods answered anyway. The strike of lightning I dare to behold without flinching.” His brow flickered as he ran his thumb over my bottom lip. “The reason I breathe.”

“You are delicate and fragile. But beautiful.” “You’re forgetting roses have thorns.”