I don’t want to spend my life starved of physical contact.” She flinched when he tensed, hadn’t meant it like that. She cursed herself for not thinking about how it would sound to him, a male who had done his best to avoid others. She had the feeling it was being intimate with another that made him lash out, that the demigoddess had done something to him to make him react that way whenever someone touched him. As she tried to think of a better way to put things, she stroked his arms, marvelling that he let her do such a thing. “I meant, I don’t want to fear hurting others all the time. I don’t want to worry every second that if someone touched me, accidentally brushed my skin, that I would kill them.”
He pressed a kiss to her temple. “I will teach you. Together we will master this power, Calindria. You will not have to fear harming those you love.”
“I’ll practice while we go to that building you saw.”
He stiffened. “Why would you want to go there? It is not the route home.”
She stifled a yawn and fought the urge to close her eyes. “Because I think you need to know whether or not it’s real. I think it’s important to you… and that makes it important to me.”
He gathered her a little closer and sighed as he pressed his cheek to hers. “Thank you, little goddess. We will investigate it and then we shall go home. Sleep now. I will watch over you.”
She nodded and closed her eyes, curled against his chest and let sleep take her.
Sure that she would need all the strength she could get in the days ahead.
Escaping this realm wasn’t going to be as easy as he made it sound.
“Calindria?” That softly murmured word caressed her ears, drew her up from a deep peaceful slumber.
She frowned and resisted, snuggled closer to the warm pillow that cushioned her right side. A rich, deep chuckle teased her ears, sending a shiver through her, a wave of warmth that almost succeeded in rousing her from her sleep.
“First you do not trust me near you while you sleep, and now I cannot get you to wake.” He petted her hair, brushing long fingers through it, and she sighed as that warmth grew hotter, soothed every muscle in her body and made her feel peaceful. “Come now. We must move.”
She didn’t want to move. She wanted to stay here in this warm cocoon, safe in the arms of Thanatos. Strange how a god of death, one so brutal and savage, could make her feel that way—as if no one in this world could hurt her while she was here, tucked within the sheltering embrace of his wings.
“I shall just have to move you while you sleep then.”
She gasped as he lifted her, as cold air swirled around her backside and legs, and opened her eyes and glared up at him, her lips flattening as an urge to hit him rushed through her.
“There is my little goddess.” He grinned down at her.
Good gods.
Her eyes widened.
His face fell. “What?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “Just… You are gorgeous when you smile like that.”
He huffed and scowled at her. “Do not tease me.”
“I’m not.” She pulled herself up in his arms by looping hers around his neck, bringing their faces closer together. “You’re gorgeous.”
He still didn’t look as if he believed her, so she kissed him. He was quick to seize control of it, to deepen it and wreak havoc on her body. She would never tire of him kissing her like this, desperately, as if he feared she was an illusion and would disappear at any moment.
When he broke the kiss, he didn’t put her down. He carried her towards the tunnel that led to the canyon and through it, didn’t even release her when they reached the valley. He spread his wings and beat them, lifting them both into the air, and the ground fell away, revealing the winding crevasses that formed the canyon and then endless mountains.
“No protest?” He slid her a look and then went back to staring at the horizon as he flew with her, his great wings beating the air in a rhythmic way that her tired mind found hypnotic.
She could fall asleep to that steady, constant sound.
She shook her head and nestled closer to him, liked it when he tightened his grip on her, his arms flexing against her back and the underside of her