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“I lost you once, Callie,” he says, “and those seven years nearly killed me. I don’t intend to lose you again.”
“The whole thing was horribly invasive. I rather enjoyed it.”
“You’ve done it, cherub,” Des says, surveying the frozen fairies. “You’ve become someone to fear.”
“I am mad with fear for you,” he says, his voice pitched low. “It feels like the wheels of fate are pushing you closer and closer to the Thief, and nothing I do can prevent it. That terrifies me.”
“I love you so much. You’ll never really know.” His features sharpen, and the look in his eyes intensifies. “The way fairies love… It’s the same way we live. It’s immortal, violent, irrational, and unbendable. “I understand your words, cherub, because there are aspects of my love for you that are, simply put, unfathomable.”
“I will be with you on your best day, and I will be with you on your worst day.
“And I will be there for them all. I will be there when the last of your mortal friends draws their final breath. I will be there through it all, and I will tease you and infuriate you and lavish you with whatever it is your heart desires because the only thing mine desires is you.”
“How do you even live with such a creature?” Janus asks, his gaze sliding back to me. Despite how shaken he is, he looks halfway interested. I smile, baring my teeth at him. “I try not to piss her off.” I guffaw at that, my skin dimming. “All right,” the Bargainer concedes, “I do try to piss her off, but only because she has especially twisted ideas of revenge.” Janus shakes his head. “You two are a fucked-up pair.”
Never has he looked so breathtaking, never has he looked so fae—like the moon come to life. His silver eyes glitter, his white hair dangling loose between us.
“I love you, Callie, down to every feather and scale. I love your darkness, I love your mind, I love your humor and your most coveted dreams. And I love how you love me—wholly, deeply, passionately. “You’re not normal; you’ll never be normal. I’m so sorry to tell you that. You are so blindingly extraordinary that it physically hurts me sometimes, and I’ll never stop pushing you to believe this.”
“You don’t know who you are?” The Bargainer’s voice drops low. “You’re Callypso Lillis, plain and simple. You were her yesterday, you’ll be her tomorrow. It’s up to you to decide what being you actually means. No one else can do that for you. Not the man who gave you those wings, not the man who’s hunting you. Not your stepfather. Not even me. “But whatever you choose to be, cherub, make it count.”
Des finds a place for it all. On walls, on shelves, tucked away in cupboards, dangling from the ceiling. I believe this is a fairy’s version of peeing on his territory. And my heart is hurting so damned badly. All these things are testaments to our friendship. Because that’s what this has always been. Long before I knew Des was my mate, I knew he was my friend. And even though I wanted him in a distinctly un-friend-like way, that’s all the two of us were for the better part of a year.
close my eyes and relish this. More than the Otherworld, it’s this moment that seems like the dream. Everything that’s been thrown at me was so much easier to accept in a world where cities floated and night reigned eternal. But a man like Des doesn’t belong here in the normal world, and definitely not with a girl like me. I want to cackle for outmaneuvering fate. Because I freaking got him, the bad boy who was always so out of reach.
“Marry me,” he says. Time slows and my breathing stops. Marry me. A second ago I was mad with lust, and now…now… “It’s not enough to be mated to you,” he says, “I want it all, if only you’ll have me.” My hands begin to tremble where they grip him. I can barely hear my thoughts over the pounding of my heart. “Marry me, and I will cherish you forever, cherub.” Marry me. We’re already bound by unbreakable forces. The supernatural world sees us as soul mates, as does the Otherworld. Marriage is for humans.
“It’s captured starlight,” he explains, squeezing my hand. “I figured the Queen of the Night should carry a piece of her kingdom with her.”
Des grins, and the sight of it just slays me. “Cherub, it would frighten you how long I’ve carried that ring around.”
“In all the worlds and all the ages, there has never been another like you, Callie.” He clears his throat, like he’s remembering himself. “Now let’s get married.”
say, “And mountains may rise and fall, and the sun may wither away, and the sea claim the land and swallow the sky. But you will always be mine. And the stars may fall from the heavens, and night may cloak the earth, but until darkness dies, I will always be yours.”
“Cherub, you’re every wish of mine.”
Des’s gaze is steady, but his eyes, his eyes burn like dying stars. He squeezes my hand. “You are my life, cherub.”
“Till darkness dies,” he vows to me.
I love you, I want to say. More than worlds can hold or words can convey. You are everything that has ever mattered to me. Have faith and strength. You’ll be all right.
Essence to essence. Breath for breath. I’ve chipped away my weaknesses. This is what’s beneath. Dead or not, I’m getting my mate back, and so help the gods, I will bring down the universe if I have to. Till darkness dies, Des.
“There are many uncertainties in life, but this one thing holds true: I will always come back to you, cherub.”
