Page 58 of The Chosen Son

I jerked my head back to look at Cameron, still as motionless as he’d been before. “What are you talking about? He’s dead!”

“Don’t be silly. It takes more than a tiny fall to kill an immortal.” He rolled his eyes.

Phobos made a choking sound behind me, and my breath caught. “What did you say?”

“What, you didn’t know? Amateurs.” He chuckled, glancing at his watch. “He’s your mate, so of course he’s immortal. You must’ve marked him at some point. Look, are we done here? I have somewhere else to be.”

“No, we’re not done!” I shouted, turning and dropping to Cameron’s side.

This time when I reached for his hand, I felt for a pulse at his wrist. A faint flutter. Terrified to hope, I put my fingers to his neck, and sureenough, there it was, a low, steady beat. And beneath my touch, I felt the outline of the bite mark I’d given him. A mating mark.

My mate…

Cameron took a wheezing breath, then his eyes flew open as he coughed violently. I helped him sit up and moved in behind him so he could lean back against me. “Cam, are you okay?”

“I-I guess?” He looked around at the three of us. “What happened?”

Phobos and I looked at each other, unsure how to explain. Loki sighed and said, “These idiots got into a fight and destroyed city hall, you kinda died, but you’re immortal now, so you’re fine.”

“Okay, well, that was really simplified, but… yeah,” I agreed reluctantly.

Cameron was quiet for a moment, but then he laughed. “Well, that makes perfect sense.” And he wasn’t even being sarcastic about it.

“How does any of the make sense?” I asked.

“My prophecy,” Cameron said, frowning, his gaze focused on some distant point in the past. “Born in darkness, live in light, his full potential will be his plight. Through fleeting death and numbing pain, and one more the gods will gain…”He blinked and looked up at me, gripping my forearm as his face lit up. “The gods… I’d never been able to figure out what that part meant, but that was just because I hadn’t met you yet. The part about my full potential and my plight, that was my illness, and I just escaped death. And now I’ve been claimed by the gods! My prophecy never had anything to do with fighting Nefarious at all!”

His excitement dimmed, his smile shifting into something softer, filled with hope. “Does that mean I’ll have a longer future with you? That our child will too?”

His question made my heart constrict. He wasn’t asking if he would live forever; instead, he only wanted more time with me, with our family…

I shrugged casually, even as my eyes burned with tears. “I don’t see why not.”

He reached up and cupped the back of my neck, pulling me down for a kiss. “I love you, Deimos.”

“I love you too,” I admitted at last, and as the last of my barrier fell, I finally felt that mating link snap into place, strumming like a plucked guitar string.

Loki clapped once, interrupting our moment of bliss. “Great, wonderful. Love, happiness, and all that bullshit. Now, would you all kindly get the fuck off my property?” He made a shooing motion with his hand, a sneer on his face. “And I expect you to pay for any damages.”

His indignant reply made my blood boil. This guy was so fucking annoying!

“Of course we will,” Phobos said, ever the hero, interrupting me before I could say something stupid, now that we’d all somehow managed to walk away from this alive. “Thank you for your patience.” Why didn’t he just go ahead and lick his boots, already.

Loki sniffed and turned to leave. “If you have any other complaints, bring it up with Apate. Deceptive little witch. She’s the one who’s been meddling with the naïve humans and their so-called ‘Chosen Ones,’” he said, using air quotes.

“Wait, what?” Cameron called after him, but he was already walking away.

Apate, the goddess who had gifted me the ability to take powers, was also the one to give Cameron his? Huh. After everything we’d been through, it had never been fate dictating our actions and movingus across the board. It was simply a mischievous and very possibly evil goddess playing puppetmaster, but I couldn’t help feeling grateful for her pulling our strings. With Cameron in my arms and my future in his womb, how we got here didn’t seem to matter anymore.

I would have to send that woman a gift basket.

Chapter 23

Cameron

Life is good. Life.Is. Good.

I’d been repeating this mantra to myself for the past seven months, but I was still scared to believe it. I’d grown up waiting for the other shoe to drop, and even after saving the world, there always seemed to be something awful waiting in the wings.

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