Page 83 of Tides of Fate

His voice is pure and strong.

He sings each word, looking into his eyes, and Nix cannot look away. He wonders if there is anything Finn can’t do.

“For I can’t help falling in love with you. I mean it, Nix. That first night, you were sunshine in the dark. I knew I would love you forever and do anything I could to keep you with me. Even if it meant I’d lose the job I’d worked for my whole life. You are worth it, and it doesn’t matter if I metyou in this life or the next one—I will love you, always.”

“Finn.” Nix stands on his tip-toes and slides his hands up to Finn’s cheeks so he can press his lips to his mate’s. “I will love you always, too. Will you bond with me now?” He tilts his head so Finn can add his bite near Jamie’s.

It feels right to have his two first loves in the place where his heart and his mind connect.

Finn’s phone plays the song again, as he runs his nose along the side of Nix’s neck, up and over Jamie’s mark—up and up, until he reaches the spot right under his ear, in the exact mirror image of Nix’s on his own throat. “Here?”

“Yes, please.”

He doesn’t need to be asked twice, and his fangs dig in deep.

Finn groans, but it is lost in the color that explodes from every cell of Nix’s being. His neural synapses forge bright blue bonds in new ways, continuing to flow through his cells, merging and flowing until they meet the rest of Nix’s bonds in a kaleidoscopic supernova where it explodes outwards.

Finn just holds him tight as he screams—as it burns through him in waves.

He couldn’t have expected it, but now that it’s complete, it’s a monument to his fated bonds.

There is a flash of white light and the crack of glass, but still, Finn holds them up, making sure he’s safe, even at cost to himself.

When the white light fades, the bright blue is the last to fade away to the back of his mind.

Nix lets go, knowing his alpha will catch him.

“Nix. Holy shit. Open your eyes, baby.” Finn sounds worried, and Nix can’t be sure how long he was out.

He comes to, sitting on the floor of the med-bay in what looks like the aftermath of a tornado. The gurney is bent in half, the mirror is pulverized into dust, and there’s a cut on Finn’s cheek. The overhead lights are flickering and snapping.

“What happened? Tornado?” he slurs.

“Fuck, no.Youhappened. I bit you, and then it was all Leeloo andTheFifth Element. Woosh, light everywhere, and then done. Did you just save the planet?”

Nix laughs, but his mate does not.

“What, no. I did this?” He puts a hand to his neck and touches his bite. He’ll never be able to hide it, and he’s never been happier about it. “Are you okay, too?”

He wipes the blood off Finn’s cheek, noticing that the cut is already healed.

“Fan-fucking-tastic, aside from wondering what the fuck happened. It was magical.” He laughs, suddenly giddy. “You were right, Nix. I can feel you, and it’s so strong.”

He touches his forehead with a finger.

“In there?” He asks. “Not in your chest?”

“Ha. No, like, right in the back of my mind. Steady and happy and…a bit confused.”

His look of relief eases Nix’s stress, and when he turns his mind’s eye inwards, he can see the swirling, entwined rope of light with tendrils going off in several directions and one bright blue one crossing the twenty centimeters to Finn’s head.

Huh.

Curiouser and curiouser.

“You really love that movie, eh?” Nix teases, just to see his mate’s cheeks go pink.

“Yeah, I do. Bruce Willis is an icon.” He boops Nix’s nose and surveys the damage. “We are going to have a hard time explaining this to Riordan. And Jay—he already wrote a check for seventy-five grand,” he says.

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