Page 87 of Gambling with Time

As he dropped his jeans, their eyes followed. Then he shifted, his skin rippling into the silvery black scales. He huffed and leaned down far enough for Bellamy and Lex to boost me onto his back. As soon as I was settled, he took flight.

He circled the tree, searching for the right angle to get me close enough to reach the apple. His wing span was too large. The only actual way of me reaching it would be to stand on his back as he hovered just below the branch.

“Go low. I’ll stand,” I instructed him. He puffed out a breath of smoke that I took to say, no, that’s too dangerous. “It is the only way. Rai, it is either that or I climb the tree.”

He instantly lowered. Flapping his wings just hard enough to keep himself aloft. I slowly put my legs under me and straightened out. Holding my breath, I stretched up on my tippy-toes to try to reach the fruit.

“A little higher.”

He bumped up a foot, and my fingers curled around the apple, easily plucking it from the tree.

“Got it.”

I slid back down to my ass, holding onto the apple as he took us back to the ground.

Greta tilted her head as I found my feet on the ground. “You are sure you want to live forever?”

She clasped her hands behind her back as she glanced from me to the Golden Apple.

“Yes.”

“There is no undoing this. Your family will grow old and die, while you stay as you are.”

“But I have two families. The one I was born into, and this one right here. I want to stay with them, and forever isn’t long enough.”

With those final words, I lifted the fruit to my lips and took a bite. The flesh was crisp and fresh, a flavor that was similar to an apple, yet not the same at all coated my tongue. And magic, pure and bright flowed through me, changing me. I could feel it all the way down to my soul as euphoria spread to the tips of my fingers and down to my toes.

“Welcome to forever,” Violet said. “I hope you don’t regret it too much.”

CHAPTER 48

Bellamy

Sometimes I still want to pinch myself at how everything turned out. The last five months of finding our place in Tartus and our quest to get the apple, it was complete. Everything as it should be and nothing like I imagined when I ran to the mortal world seeking an end to everything only to find the beginning. And I wouldn’t change a moment.

Samantha, Lex, Alastor, and Raiden, the four of them were the people that mattered to me. I finally knew why my brother left the Horde, because I would have too. Love was a powerful thing and worth more than everything else. Who knew a demon could love so hard. Maybe I loved so hard because I was a demon.

Whatever it was, they were all mine.

I watched as Alastor attempted to show Lex how to cook. It was probably a lost cause but amusing all the same.

“Don’t burn it,” I snarked. My gaze dropped to the grilled cheese in the pan. It already smelled like it might be getting a bit dark.

Lex shoved the spatula beneath the bread, and it crumpled like a sheet of paper being crushed by a heavy hand. Cheese leaked out of it to sizzle on the pan.

“Better luck next time,” Raiden replied. We shared a look before bursting into laughter.

Lex grumbled as he tossed the sandwich into the trash. Samantha and Ty arrived in the midst of the whole situation, and the look on her brother's face as he took in the scene made Raiden and I laugh harder.

“Don’t mind those two,” Lex said as he plopped another sandwich into the hot pan. “They are jerks.”

“They just want to starve today,” Alastor added with a pointed look at us both.

Samantha circled the kitchen island and gave Lex and Alastor each a kiss in greeting after placing the bag of groceries she had brought back onto the counter. It was enough for the week we planned in the mortal world. A vacation from all the semi-ruling; if I knew that was possible, maybe things would have turned out differently.

Not that we had taken over for my father yet. He had announced to the Horde that Samantha would deal out any punishment of demons that fell out of line and caused issues in the mortal world. It seemed to keep them in line much the same way as the threat of the monster under a bed kept a child in their bed at night.

Tyler propped his elbows on the counter and looked between us. “The key to a good grilled cheese is the temperature of the pan. If you have that right, then once it is cooked on one side, it flips really easy,” he said. “You two need to be nicer.” He wagged his finger between Rai and me.

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