Page 112 of Ruled By Fate

They came together as naturally as a sunrise, as effortlessly as water flowing to the sea. It was as though both of them had been born for this very moment, in different places and in different times, waiting for countless centuries until they could fit themselves together once again.

She ran her palms over his chest. He cupped the small of her back, pulling her deeper into his arms. He moaned softly into her mouth, and his hand gripped a silken fistful of chocolate curls. Their lips mashed together; their tongues tangled, touching and exploring with a desperate, unending passion. She stood on her toes and circled her arms around him. Forgetting how to breathe. Forgetting her own name. There could never be enough of this feeling. There could never be enough of this moment.

They finally broke apart, but they didn’t detach. He merely tightened his grip around her. She rested her cheek on the steady pulse of his chest. They lingered there longer than either of them realized before she peered into his eyes. “I thought it wasn’t permitted—”

He silenced her with another kiss, long and slow and utterly worth the wait. When he pulled back, there wasn’t any caution or fear — nothing but tenderness dancing in his eyes. “Brianna, if I’m to be damned for this, I want to deserve it.”

Their foreheads touched together when a throat cleared suddenly nearby. They whirled to see a man standing behind them, if you could call such a person a man. He was beautiful, bare-chested, and enormously tall, with golden eyes and hair in black braids that hung to his waist. Except for some ancient-looking golden wrist cuffs, he was also completely naked.

His arms were crossed over his chest, and he had a look on his face like they’d just insulted his mother. Brie stared in shocked silence. Cameron immediately turned a noxious shade of green.

“Damned, you say?” The man’s eyes flashed with heavenly light. “You seem well on your way.”

Epilogue

?

The fox watched impassively from the base of the tree outside the parking lot as the demonic, horned woman continued to disintegrate into nothingness. She was of no concern. She’d bounced back from worse. What held its attention was the girl.

She levitated like a human crucifix, blinding light beaming from her eyes, her mouth, and her necklace. The pendant shone on her chest like a pulsar, annihilating whatever darkness it touched. The fox paced to the other side of the trunk to get a better look. A second later, the girl pulled Greed close with ropes of light and said something. The fox watched the Fallen One’s eyes grow wide with terror and heard the echoes of her screams as she disappeared.

Back to the Father, I suppose.

What happened next was unexpected. After passing out, and after that goody two-shoes revived her and nearly cried like a baby, the girl checked on her friends. Then, she brought one of them back from the dead.

Bold move. I wonder if she understands the implications.

But it was what happened directly afterward that made the fox chitter with excitement and nearly give itself away.

He kissed her.

And not a chaste, heavenly kiss, but one that bespoke a deep and passionate love.

Well, I’ll be damned. If a fox could grin, this one would be ear to ear.

He loped off into the forest, eager to share his discovery with his Father.

His eyes sparkled with excitement.

One green. One blue.

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