Page 100 of Immortal Throne

He nodded. “Rule the Underworld with me, Sloane. It’s your right, and I want you there beside me.”

“You’ve really changed your tune since we first met,” I said. “You were hell-bent on hating me and seeing your vendetta through. What happened?”

He dropped the arm holding the crown to his side. “Youhappened. You got in my mind and wormed your way into my heart.”

He sounded pained.

“Ah, so I’m like a tapeworm.”

“The sexiest tapeworm I’ve ever seen in my life.” He didn’t laugh at my joke. He waited, expression flashing between pained and serious.

“We’re never going to work together,” I told him. “You have to know that. Even if you want to share the throne, which I highly doubt, we wouldn’t be good together. You’d want to kill me more times than not.”

“Oh, every single day, I’m sure.”

I balked. “You’re not supposed to agree with me.”

Ryker took another step toward me, until he stood so close his minty breath mingled with mine. I wanted to close my eyes and revel in him and what were surely lies. Except a large part of me desperately wanted to believe he wasn’t lying. That he actually felt the same way for me as I felt for him and that all of this would work out.

Just fantasies, all around.

I needed something to do with my hands, so I gently took the crown from him, turning it over and over.

“You want to share this with me? Are you serious?”

“Deadly.” His hands wrapped around mine to tighten my hold on the crown. “You belong in Hell, wearing this. And you belong with me. I’m not going to let you go again, Sloane. I meant it when I said you were mine.”

“Oh, sure. You’re going to physically haul me back to Hell and force my ass on that throne?”

I liked the imagery of it.

“If I have to.” Ryker nodded. “I’m not leaving here without you. You don’t belong in this cage, although I love the way you kick the shit out of everyone who tries to come up against you.”

“And Chupey?”

“I wouldn’t think of leaving him behind. Trust me.”

“What about Zi’rel? She hates me.”

“She hated the heartache you caused me. She’ll come around.”

Ryker lifted the crown, and my hands along with it, to the top of my head. He pried my fingers loose so that the crown perched, exactly where it was meant to be. Magic zinged through my blood, bonding with the crown and opening an awareness inside me. For a brief moment, I saw a face, my face but different. A man smiled at me, one that I recognized from the portrait in the castle’s foyer, before it disappeared all together.

My father.

I gasped and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to chase the image down to see his face one more time, but he was gone.

“Come on,” Ryker said. “We’ve wasted enough time.”

“You really gave up your vendetta for me?”

“You’re worth it.”

He made it sound so simple.

I couldn’t take it anymore and wrapped my arms around his neck, rising on tiptoe to place my lips on his. At once, everything clicked into place. Ryker, the throne, everything.

“You’re sure you aren’t making this happen?” I murmured against his lips.

Groaning, his arms banded around my waist to yank me closer. “Promise.”

I lost myself in him. In his scent, his kisses, and the touch of his fingers skimming along my spine.

And I knew there was no place I’d rather be.

Well, except ruling Hell.

But we’d get to that soon enough.

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