Between Wrath and Mercy (The Divine Between, #1)

by Jess Wisecup

Don’t marry him, Em. I wondered how things might have been different if I had listened to him then—when he might have been able to help me. I fell asleep, remembering green eyes flecked with gold.

“Try not to worry. I’ll keep her safe.” As he passed me to get his hat off the coat rack, Faxon put his hand on the small of my back and leaned in, kissing me on the cheek. “Goodbye, my love.” When he turned to walk out the door, all I could do was stare. He rarely showed affection, probably because I never returned it. I watched him pull on his cloak and leave the house, glancing over his shoulder at me with a strange look on his face. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but the interaction left me feeling uncomfortable.

This caught my eye and I immediately knew he was up to no good.

“Lady Emmeline, stand up. You’ve never once knelt before me—why start now?”

“We are going to find her. And then I’m going to kill your husband.”

The voice belonged to the Bloody Prince, but his soft expression belonged to Rainier. It belonged to Rain. My Rain.

“No, that’s the thing Em. I—I didn’t hear you screaming. I know this sounds crazy, and I know it’s impossible, but I’ve re-lived it for years—awake and in my dreams. I could hear your heartbeat. I followed it to find you.” “That’s impossible,” I whispered. “I know it is. But I found you, didn’t I?” I nodded. He did. And now, I’d found him.

“You just came back to me, and we’ve barely had a chance to talk. You can’t die yet.”

“It has been, is, and will always be you. And fuck, if that hasn’t complicated my life enough already.”

“Kingdoms and years and utter devastation.” “What does that even mean?” I pushed him back to look at his face. “It means I’ll wait.”

“Friendship?” He laughed, dark and bitter. “Your skin tastes like spring, and your sighs are a gods damn song. I’m not your fucking friend.”

“I love you, Emmeline. I have loved you from the start, and I will love you until we are both just a whisper on the wind. It’s your eyes I see when I close mine, your heart I want to hold, and I’d set this whole damn world on fire if you wanted to watch it burn.”

My jaw dropped, and my heart stopped as he slammed down on both of his knees in front of me, taking one of my hands in his. “Marry me, you beautiful, venomous fool.”

“I love you doesn’t feel like enough.” He murmured against my hair,

squeezing me tightly. “It doesn’t,” I agreed. “But I love you too. Until we are just whispers on the wind.”

As for why I cover myself? I don’t know. Maybe it’s because you originally fell for a different version of me.” His gaze narrowed, and I gave him an apologetic smile. “A version that didn’t jiggle or have stretch marks.” He finished washing and slid down in the water next to me. “The parts of you that jiggle are some of my favorite parts, though.” He slid a hand down my side and under my ass, cupping me as he pulled me back into his lap. “You’ve seen my body, all of my scars, and I don’t believe you love me any less because of them. Do you?”

This reminds me of how my fiance reacts when I try to cover myself when I feel ashamed. He makes me feel so loved. Flaws and all. Rain is my favorite!

“You have held my heart in your hands since the moment I met you, Emmeline. Every beat and every skip you have possessed. Every thought and every dream, every secret and every fear has belonged to you. You ignited a flame in me which has burned and sputtered and raged. Ours is a fire that will never go out. Ours is a fire that will swallow us whole, and I’d rather burn with you than live in the dark.”