Pure Destiny (PureDark Ones #12) - Aja James Page 0,57

her from escalating popular resentment and political plots.

He was Cambyses’ stand-in stud.

That night, still ignorant of why he’d come to her, she simply didn’t care. By silent agreement, both of them had pretended that he was Cambyses instead. But she’d known within moments, on his scent alone, who was really in her bed.

In her arms. And then, oh gods! Inside her body. Plowing through her tender flesh in time with the thundering beat of her heart…

She’d always known.

She’d told him the only way she knew how, the only way she could while still preserving their unspoken secret:

“I love you, my prince.”

He was the only one she’d ever said those words to. In her heart, Dalair had always been “her prince.” The one she’d bound her soul to the first time she tasted his mouth with her own.

Presently, in the darkness of the helicopter, his grip on her hand became almost unbearably tight. His breathing belabored as her memories and thoughts flooded his mind through their Bond.

Mercilessly, she pressed her advantage.

I love you Dalair, she communicated silently.

I always have. I always will. Cambyses loved you too in his own way.

Do you know who he really is?

He forgives us, you know. For betraying him the way we did. He knows we never meant to hurt him. Just as he knows that I will never love anyone but you.

You are my Destiny.

I choose you.

Infinitesimally, he shook his head.

It could have been an involuntary twitch, but she didn’t think so. Some part of him was still trying to fight the truth, stay in denial.

She wouldn’t let him. It was time they reshaped Destiny together.

He’s a prisoner of our enemy just like you, Dalair. Our wonderful Cam. His real name is Erebu. He chose it himself. Ere.

You know him. You have always known him, deep down.

Just as you have always known me.

Please. You must fight the enemy’s poison. Come back to me. To us.

Break through the hold our enemy has over you. I know you can. I know you’re in there—the ferocious Chief of Immortals. You’re stronger than that she-demon. You’re the strongest, bravest, best male I know.

She tightened her grip on his hand until her fingers turned bloodlessly white.

Your Pure soul is the strongest of all. More than the shell. Stronger than any external force.

Please, Dalair.

We need you. Erebu. Benji. The Dozen. The Balance.

I need you.

I love you.

I choose you.

Choose me too.

Iloveyou Iloveyou Iloveyou…

Endlessly, her declaration resounded between their minds and hearts, growing louder and louder with each iteration. Like a thread from her heart to his, wrapping over and over around them in an intricate, unbreakable tapestry of feeling. Binding him to her with invisible yet invincible force.

Until everything he was became hers.

Mindless soldier. Amped up body. Poisoned veins.

None of it mattered. The wreckage and the man. The tortured, frozen soul. They were all irrefutably hers.

Until suddenly, he angled his profile toward her, his eyes flashing silver.

Sophia gasped.

Could it be? Was he—

“Wake the boy and strap on the utility packs under your seats. Do it now,” he commanded low, finally wrenching his hand away from hers.

“Wh-what?” she stuttered, the sudden withdrawal of his touch rendering her bereft. She could barely make sense of what he was saying.

But then the meaning and urgency in his tone sunk in.

“Why?” she asked, her stomach plummeting with dread.

He punched some buttons and pushed the yoke and throttle forward, increasing their forward momentum so drastically Sophia had to clutch the arms of her seat to brace herself.

“Because I’ve set a collision course with the mountainside up ahead. We have thirty seconds before impact, fifteen seconds to bail over the lake below.”

*** *** *** ***

“Do you know how the Pure and Dark Ones were created?”

Seth and Rain looked up from their own texts to regard Eveline.

The three of them, with Cloud, Valerius, Gabriel, Ishtar, and Tal continued to dig through the Shield’s archives for potential clues as to who or what they were dealing with. Although Tal could not see to read, he could provide additional context for the duration of the Great War.

But more importantly, Ishtar needed him close. After millennia apart, and the difficulties of their bittersweet reunion, they were just now settling into each other in all the ways of Destined Mates. If Ishtar had a choice, Tal would be with her always. Especially when she was reeling from the loss of Erebu and Benjamin.

“Is that a rhetorical question?” Seth asked. “I can only relate Egyptian mythologies to Immortal Kinds. I never knew about the existence