Page 101 of Fated In Forever
A crash of splintering wood was followed by footstepsheavy enough to shake the bed, and suddenly the air was choked with sulfur and shadows that made every nerve in my barely-functioning body sing.
Malachi.
Even with my eyes closed, even trapped in the empty space between worlds, I knew he was here. How his massiveness filled the room, the way the air bent around him, the familiar grumble-purr that was definitely more of a grumble right now and less of a purr.
He loomed large over me, like the roof over a house, or tall trees in a forest, and his touch was impossibly gentle when his claw dragged over the top of my hand. He emanated power, and fear, and a kind of fierce resolve I’d never sensed from him before.
You weren't supposed to come back,I thought, the words taking shape slowly, as if I’d forgotten how to speak.
I sent you away to keep you safe. How could I stay away when you were not?
But the portal was sealed. The Book…
Did you really believe anything would ever keep me away from you, Vicious?A wickedly dark chuckle rumbled deep inside me.I told you. I will never leave you. Not really. There is no magic, no distance, no scenario where we will ever truly be separated.
I wanted to argue, but the magnitude of his presence was already battering away the miserable coldness that had been devouring me, and I found myself clinging to his familiar strength.
Besides, I missed you,he admitted, the thought barely a whisper.
I know, I missed you, too.
His thumb brushed across my knuckles, rougher than ever before.I’ll have to open the bond between us. All the way.No more barriers, no holding back—just us, the way we were meant to be.
Malachi…some nebulous sense of warning niggled at the edges of my thoughts, but I couldn’t form an argument from my murky thoughts.Is that dangerous?
Nothing is more dangerous than seeing you like this.His voice was firm, brooking no argument.I won't lose you, Vicious, and this will fix your body, by fixing your magic.
Always fixing something, aren’t you?
Before I could protest further, I felt a seismic shift—the bond between us blazing to life like a star being born. The connection that had been raw and bleeding suddenly fused back together, links snapping back into place, strengthening, soldered together with love and an iron will. But this time, Malachi didn't just restore what I'd lost.
He gave me everything.
Magic poured into me through the bond, ancient and wonderful and wild. His life force followed, and like being struck by lightning from the inside out, every cell in my body suddenly flooded with power that had been sleeping for centuries.
My back arched off the bed as my body convulsed, muscles that had been still for days suddenly seizing with violent life. Energy crackled through my veins like liquid fire, and my heart hammered against my ribs as it remembered how to beat with purpose.
The gray space where I'd been floating shattered like glass, and I crashed back into my body with enough force to make me gasp. My eyes flew open, and the first thing I saw was Malachi's face above mine—andholy shit he was terrifying.
Ten feet of pure demon lord, with burning amber eyes and a curved crown of horns, shadows writhing around himlike living smoke. He was magnificent and deadly and completely, utterly mine.
“Wow,” I whispered, my voice raw from disuse.
His expression—fierce and desperate and relieved all at once—was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.I think I’ve grown larger.
You’ve definitely grown…I raked him up and down, my heart racing faster.Yeah, larger is one way to put it.Then I spotted all the blood coating his body. Are you alright?
I…had to coax the portal to open. I might have used my fists.
Of course you did.
The door burst open, Riordan and Blake rushing in, cloaked in an aura of white flames and deathly shadows. They took one look at the massive demon crouched beside my bed and stopped.
Malachi's head snapped toward them and the sound that emerged from his throat—a growl that erupted from the very depths of the Underworld itself, sent the windows rattling and the paintings on the walls crashing to the floor.
His lips pulled back to reveal fangs that could tear through steel, and his yellow eyes burned with predatory threat.
Mine,that growl said.Stay the fuck back.
