Page 77 of Mortal Desires

That was impressive. I was proud of Marnie for finally tapping into her powers and my heart hurt having to tell her I wasn’t staying.

How could I?

I had a husband who couldn’t live in this realm. He had a responsibility to the underworld. He was the underworld and the underworld was him. There was no beginning or end, just like he and I.

I just needed to find our dad. My sisters had to be safe before we could go back. Marnie could call for my other sisters and everything would be back to normal.

But we needed to talk.

I kissed my husband’s cheek, and he opened his eyes. “Where are you going?”

“Not far,” I whispered and slipped off the bed.

Tiptoeing downstairs I found Marnie in the kitchen, of course, making pastries for breakfast. She was wearing her black silk robe, her hair a mess in a half pony, and her cheeks red and healthy.

She was happy. Even if she was worried and tortured by our disappearance, she had Grayson by her side. She flourished instead of withering away.

“So your soulmate knows about witches,” I asked after I watched her for a bit without her noticing.

Marnie jumped at my voice and smiled when she looked at me. “And yours is a god.”

“He already knew about supernaturals at least.”

“Coffee?” she offered.

I nodded and took a seat. Marnie gave me a generous cup of coffee with sugar and no milk just like I like it and kept fussing over her pastries.

“I had to tell him. Everything happened too fast I—”

“I’m not blaming you,” I rushed to say. “You needed a support system and I’m glad he was here when we weren’t.”

“Well…” she sighed. “It’s good that he knows because things just got way more complicated and I need him here.”

I nodded while she put the pastries in the oven and turned back to me, blowing away a strand of hair that fell over her eyes.

“I prepared a few things for you.” She grabbed a small leather pouch and slid it over the table to me. “If you need to make a quick exit.”

The pouch smelled strongly like herbs, something that Lucia would prepare but never Marnie. I held it between my fingers. “What is it?”

“Just something to bring you home from anywhere at any time.”

I nodded, the subject of home slapping me in the face before I had the chance to bring it up myself. My face fell, and Marnie sighed.

“You’re not staying, are you?”

I placed the pouch back on the table, licking my lips. “Vicious can’t live in San Francisco.”

“I suppose he can’t,” she agreed. “When I imagined how it would be when our soulmates got here, I never thought…”

“There’s something good about it though.” I tried to cheer her up. “We were all wrong and you were right.”

Marnie laughed. “I wasn’t all that sold on soulmates. I just knew Grayson wasn’t dangerous. But something he said finally clicked for me.”

“What did he say?” I sipped my coffee.

“We keep acting like soulmates are the same thing as husbands when they are not.”

I nodded, remembering the way Vic acted when I admitted the soulmate factor to him.

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